They’re back in the playoffs after some late game drama.

The football team qualified for the playoffs with a win over county rival, the North Bullitt Eagles.

Bullitt East had arguably their best win of the year on Friday. They had just came off two rough losses, losing the lead in the fourth quarter against Bullitt Central and fell 27-17, and then falling to South Oldham at home 49-7. The team didn’t lose focus and put it all together for their rivalry game against the Eagles.

The senior class celebrated their annual senior night prior to the game. Seniors DJ Chappell, Joey Martin, Ty Hawkins, Lane Bradley, Jansen Thompson, Matt Brown, Jay Rucker, Chandler Paul, Kevin Clark and Gage Mckinley had one last go around to put on for the home crowd and go out the right way. The Chargers came from behind and won 43-36 in overtime.

Bullitt East was down in the dumps in the first half of the North Bullitt game. They found themselves running into the locker room down 23-0.. There were fumbles, missed tackles, miscommunication and missed opportunities. Nothing was going their way. In the locker room at the half, Head Coach Mark Sander told his team not to panic and forget about the first half, it was over and done with and there were two quarters left to play.

The Chargers scored on their opening drive of the second half to cut the lead to 23-7, but North Bullitt drove right down the field to answer the first Bullitt East score. A few possessions later, Bullitt East trailed 30-7. DJ Chappell ran it in to go down 30-14, but the defense couldn’t stop the North offense, and the Eagles scored. They missed the extra point, though, as that miss proved to be costly as they only went up 36-14. The Chargers hit on all cylinders in the fourth quarter and stormed back to go down 36-28. With a minute left in the game, junior running back Max Gauthier took the pitch up the sidelines and ran it in for the score. The Chargers had no choice but to go for a 2-point conversion and Gauthier took it himself to tie the game up.

North wasn’t able to get anything in the last minute, resulting in the game moving into overtime. Bullitt East had the first possession in overtime and they took full advantage as they scored with ease. Bullitt East got a sack on third down, to force the Eagles into a 4th and 14 and they had to get in the end zone. They completed the pass in the endzone, but it was ruled as an illegal forward pass so the touchdown didn’t stand and the penalty resulted in a loss of down and the game was over. The Chargers came all the way back from 23 down to win 43-36.

The students who stuck around after all the consistent rain in the second half stormed the field and there was a big celebration in the end zone with all the players. “Having the students storm the field was an amazing feeling. Not just the end of the game, but them hanging around until the end because we were down by so much and they just stayed through was just a good feeling,” said Gauthier.

The Chargers have already qualified for the playoffs, but they will look to finish the season strong. They don’t have any more home games on the schedule as they play Oldham County and Christian Academy of Louisville (CAL) on the road.