KERRY BARBOZA Sports Editor
Before this year’s football season started, Texas Football magazine had the Boerne Champion football team finishing sixth in its district and out of the playoff mix.
The Chargers may have surprised a few people since they’ve already clinched a postseason berth, but one of the people they didn’t surprise was their head coach Blane Ellis.
Before the season started, Ellis did an interview on Boerne radio with this reporter and when asked if he had any predictions for this year, he basically said that Champion would clinch a playoff spot Well, the Chargers have made the playoffs after defeating Kyle Lehman last Friday, 35-23. They’ll host MacArthur Friday at BISD and are still trying to determine seeding going into the postseason.
“We knew we had a good group and felt like we were way better than a sixth-place team,” Ellis said. “We had a good start to district and that was a big key for us.” At this point, Champion is either going to be the third or fourth place team in the district. First and second place are out of the question and not even a win against Mac guarantees third place for the Chargers.
Their final place in the district depends heavily on what happens in the Wagner – New Braunfels Canyon game as well.
If Wagner beats the Cougars, then the Chargers are third, but if NB Canyon wins, that drops Champion to fourth in the district based on point differential since Wagner, Champion and Canyon would all be 5-2 if the Chargers win.
So at least for this week, Champion is rooting for Wagner to win to give the Chargers third place. Smithson Valley has first place wrapped up at 6-0 heading into Friday.
Last week’s win for the Chargers snapped a two-game losing streak to Smithson Valley and Wagner.
The Chargers were up 21-0 against the Lobos last Friday and took a 35-7 lead into halftime. Jordan Ballin tossed two TD passes to Campbell Deberry, Kaleb Krause also caught a TD pass and Cole Riha added two rushing touchdowns. They didn’t score in the second half.
Champion faces a MacArthur team that is struggling and enters Friday’s contest in Boerne with a record of 1-8 with their lone win coming in non-district against S.A. Marshall, 28-21. The Brahmas are 0-6 in district.
Ellis said none of that matters to them and noted that it won’t affect how his team prepares this week.
“We’ll treat them like anybody else and the focus is going to be on us, we have to be better at finishing drives and making sure we bring a lot of energy,” he said. “Every game matters.”
The earlier part of this week started with bad weather but it’s supposed to be clear by Friday. However, the Chargers are getting prepared for playoff football and Ellis said he knows weather can be an issue during November and December football.
“We embrace it where we can but we have to be smart with it,” he said.
Comment
Comments