Written by JEREMIAH ARTACHO
Chapel Hill High School (4-6, 3-2) hosted its Senior Night ceremonies prior to the 7:00 p.m. kickoff. The nearby rival East Chapel Hill (3-7, 1-4), approximately five miles away from the Tigers’ campus, entered Culton-Peerman Stadium. First-year head coach Ryan Horton, who previously served as the school’s offensive coordinator, ended the regular season on a high note, winning by a score of 48-8. However, the hopes of an extended season in the playoffs is up in the air. Chapel Hill High School will have to wait and see if they will be placed in the 4A NCHSAA football bracket.
“I don’t know whether we’ll make the playoffs,” Horton said about his team’s postseason hopes. “We were like the first-four out last time I checked, so we’ll see where everything falls after tonight. The playoffs is always the goal and winning in the playoffs is the goal — if we didn’t reach that we got to go back to the drawing board and get better. We’ll coach the guys that are returning — winning will always be the goal.”
HighSchoolOT projects the Tigers to be one of the first five teams out of the 4A playoffs, once the official bracket is released. The NCHSAA will publish the seedings of all the included teams on November 10 — five days before the first round goes underway.
“It’s a little bittersweet, I’m glad we got the W,” Horton said following the win. “We got 20 plus seniors that I’ve seen as a freshman or even coming up from the middle school — I’ve seen them since then. I have seen them grow into young men, they’ll be missed but they have left the program in a good place.”
All throughout the season, Horton talked about high expectations for his team. Chapel Hill High School finished third in the 4A DC 6 Conference behind Jordan High School and Hillside High School, with Jordan winning the conference on Friday night.
“It’s definitely about being competitive,” Horton said about his biggest takeaway of the season. “It’s about being ready when you do have injuries. I’m thinking mostly about the relationships with these kids that we’ve built, knowing that we’re pouring into them everyday and they’re going to be better young men forward. That’s kind of the main thing. Wins and losses is one thing but knowing that we got some young men in the program is the main thing really.”
Appropriately on Senior Night, the Tigers scored its first (during the first quarter) and last (during the fourth quarter) touchdown of the game on a pass from senior quarterback Jonah Berman to senior wide receiver Tyler Oliaro.
“Obviously, Senior Night, last game — it hurts but what a way to go out,” Berman said after the game. “The last throw I’ll ever throw is to my best friend for a touchdown — it’s about as cool as it gets.”
“To be honest, the biggest thing I took away is not to take anything for granted,” the quarterback said when talking about missing games during the first half of the season. “That might be the basic answer but — you break your wrist for five weeks, six weeks — you miss the little things. I missed running sprints, I missed running the ball. Some little things you never liked to do when you get it all the time but when you miss it really bad because you can’t do it, it sucks.”
Berman’s best friend and go-to target, Oliaro, had an individual ceiling to reach in the touchdown department — tying a bow on his senior season with a two-touchdown performance.
“My goal was 10 touchdowns on the season, I said that back in June,” Oliaro said. “So I got two more and made it 10. It’s just memories that I’m gonna remember forever.”
“Make the most out of every opportunity I get and to always cherish what I have,” Oliaro added while reflecting on the season.
Senior running back Tyler Jackson ran for two touchdowns, one during the first quarter and another during the second quarter — his second being a 43-yard carry, breaking tackles and speeding pass defenders.
“It’s the last ride, I had to try my hardest,” Jackson said. “It’s the last one with my guys so I had to do what I had to do.”
“We went through so many setbacks as a team and us coming together and getting the job done is wonderful,” Jackson said about his team.
Normally, the center on a football team does not score touchdowns, however, Horton had other plans in mind. Senior center Jason Montero pushed his way into the end zone from East’s 1-yard line after lining up in the backfield during the second quarter with 1:25 remaining on the clock.
“Man, it was great.” Montero said about scoring the touchdown. “I appreciate the coaches for letting it happen and it really just made my career. I really enjoyed it.”
Horton’s defense was able to add points on the scoreboard during the first quarter, senior strong safety Nicholas Spremberg picked up a fumble on East Chapel Hill’s backward pass in its own end zone.
“That’s just a case of watching a lot of football,” Spremberg said. “Saw the ball go backwards — backwards pass, ball is live, picked it up, scored.
“It’s definitely kind of sad because it’s the last game, unfortunately we didn’t get to playoffs,” Spremberg said about winning the final regular season game. “But glad to beat East, especially on a special night like this.”
East Chapel Hill’s offense was only able to erase its zero on the scoresheet during the fourth quarter with a pass from senior quarterback Jackson Weinstein at Chapel Hill’s 30-yard line. Junior wide receiver Jake Canaday caught the ball and ran in it for the score. Stroud chose the two-point conversion route afterward — freshman quarterback Leo George tossed the football to junior wide receiver Mason Maciejewski for the completion.
Chapel Hill senior running back Josh Roberson faced the challenge of playing out of position for most of the year. Roberson held the position in place of Berman and junior quarterback Sam Zimmerman’s injuries that were suffered in the beginning of the season.
“It wasn’t the easiest,” Roberson said. “Just gotta keep trying and I just had to work hard — learn a new position. It wasn’t the easiest — I would do anything to help the team.”
Roberson finished the contest with a touchdown from inside East Chapel Hill’s 5-yard line during the first quarter.
“It feels great, [but] the season ended too early,” Roberson said about ending the year with a win. “Hopefully we got a playoff game next week, we just got to see tomorrow if we’re or not. I hope we [are] — I don’t wanna end the season early with these guys. Earlier in the season, it wasn’t the best but at the end of the year we got better and [our] quarterbacks came back and started to improve. I just hope we get one more game and one more shot at it.”
Chapel Hill High School did not capture its first win of the season until Week 4 while on the road against Carrboro High School. The Tigers then lost its next two games against defending state champions Weddington High School and Jordan High School before a two-game win streak over Riverside High School and Northern High School.
A bump in the road came when facing Hillside High School last week, falling 42-13 at home, before concluding the year with a victory against head coach Larry Stroud and the Wildcats.
“I’ve learned in terms of…injuries at vital positions, trying to be as prepared as possible for that,” Horton said reflecting on his first year as head coach.
The night ended with a team handshake line, cupcakes, families taking pictures of their player, kids running around, conversations, smiles and laughter. It was a regular season filled with highs and lows, injuries and a new kind of journey for Horton — but Chapel Hill High School marked another victory to its home record to conclude the 2024 season.
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