Chargers enter bye week with 5-0 mark

Chargers enter bye week with 5-0 mark

KERRY BARBOZA Sports Editor

Boerne Champion is entering its bye week or off week with a perfect 5-0 record and even though Chargers coach Blane Ellis likes how the team is playing, Ellis said the staff and the team welcome the break.

“It’s coming at a good time, this is a chance for us to get healthy,” he said. “We’ve had the flu or something going around and we’re dinged like everybody else, so this is a chance to get healthy and recharged.”

Champion is off this week and won’t play again until Oct. 6 when they host Seguin for homecoming.

Home games have been an adventure for the Chargers this year. They are 2-0 at BISD Stadium but have had to rally in both games to win.

Against Eagle Pass, Champion was trailing 19-7 at the half and then outscored the Eagles in the second half 20-7 for the 27-26 win.

Against New Braunfels Canyon, Champion was down 31-14 in the second half and scored the final 20 points of the contest to beat the Cougars. They clinched a 34-31 victory with a Nathan Bell 33-yard field goal with no time on the clock.

“It’s not by design, but we’ve talked a lot to our kids about those two home wins,” Ellis said. “We’re not out of anything at any point of the game and did what we needed to do to have the opportunity to win. Plus, having our fans behind us is huge.”

The Chargers are 5-0 for the first time since 2014 and Ellis said those in the program felt like it was possible to be in this situation.

“We knew that we had the ability to have success in non-district and in district, with who we had back and who teams were losing,” he said.

While Ellis is glad to be 2-0 in 12-5A DI, he admits Champion still has the toughest part of their schedule ahead with Seguin, Wagner and Smithson Valley coming up in consecutive weeks.

Champion, Smithson Valley and Seguin are all 2-0 in league play, while Wagner is 1-1 with a loss to Smithson Valley, 21-7.

All the teams in the district are off this week but Ellis said he hopes to be close to full strength when they hit this tough stretch.

“We have normal bumps and bruises, but we hope to be full force and hoping to get players back by Seguin and Smithson Valley,” he said.

After last Friday’s 40-21 win over Buda Hays, the Chargers won’t play again until Oct. 6, and Ellis said they are going to get back to the basics and work on getting everybody back.

“We want to get healthy and really focus on the fundamentals and get back to the basics,” he said. “This is a good chance to take a step back from some of those things and a good chance to focus on what’s coming up.

Offensively, we want to try to eliminate the boneheaded plays, the holding, false starts, things like that.

“Defensively, we’ve tackled well and want to continue with that. We’ve got a lot of ground and pound teams the next few weeks,” Ellis said.