The Boerne Champion football team is coming off its best win of the year after they beat Wagner last Thursday in 13-5A DI action.
Champion faces another tough test this Thursday when they host district-leading and undefeated Pieper at 7 p.m.
Chargers coach Blane Ellis said they’re hoping for another strong performance to close out the regular season and hope to use these last two games as building blocks for next season.
“We’re all in on Pieper,” said Ellis, who agreed that it was his team’s best performance of the season last week vs. the Thunderbirds, a team they eliminated from the playoff picture with their 31-26 win.
“We finally put it all together, we understood how to win the game. It was our best team win,” Ellis said. “We’re a young team and we’ve made some mistakes and, in the past, we let those mistakes define us, but that wasn’t the case (vs. Wagner). We kept our composure the entire game and we grew up quite a bit.”
The Chargers were trailing four times in the game but never gave up. They were down 7-0, 10-7, 17-14 and 20-17 but bounced back every time and eventually won.
It helped that Julian Navarrete tossed three touchdown passes to Brogan Dempsey. Zachary Garcia finished the game with a 41-yard touchdown run to seal the win.
Pieper is one of the better teams in the greater San Antonio area and enters the contest at 9-0. The Warriors already have the district title wrapped up but Ellis doesn’t expect them to rest up any starters since they’re chasing a perfect regular season, something he’s familiar with.
Back in 2014, Champion went 10-0 in the regular season when Ellis was the defensive coordinator, so he understands why the Warriors will likely play their starters.
“They’re playing for something pretty special, a chance to go 10-0. As much success as we’ve had here it’s only happened one time for us,” he said. “Those don’t come very often for some players and coaches and they have the opportunity to go do it.”
The Chargers started the year at 3-0 through non-district. They dropped their first three district games to Smithson Valley, Seguin and New Braunfels – all playoff teams – before bouncing back against MacArthur.
A loss at Victoria East hurt Champion’s chances for the postseason, but the Chargers turned in last week’s performance at Wagner, a team they had never beaten before. Now they’re hoping to close out 2024 with another strong performance.
“If you look at Wagner, it’s the first time we’ve ever beat them at all three levels (F/ JV/V), which is big for our program,” Ellis said. “Our approach will be the same as it has been for the last couple of weeks, focus on the moment and build for the future.”
The coach said this week is important for the seniors since it’s the last time most of them will suit up.
“There’s a lot of lasts for our seniors this week,” he said.
NOTES: Pieper opened the regular season against a BISD team – Boerne High on Aug. 29 – and now close the regular season by playing the other BISD school –Boerne Champion on Nov. 7 to bookend their regular season.
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