It’s not often a team can score eight touchdowns in a game, yet have to recover an onside kick in the final minute of play to hang on for a win.
But that’s precisely what the Champion Chargers did Friday, scoring touchdowns on their first seven possessions, putting up 57 points on the night — but needing Brogan Dempsey to recover an onside kick with 33 seconds left after the Seguin Matadors cut a 22-point Charger fourth-quarter lead to seven.
Champion escaped Seguin Friday with a 57-50 win to move to 3-2, 1-1 in 5A-1 District 13 play.
Champion quarterback Julian Navarrete, injured in last week’s loss to Smithson Valley, came out and took snaps the entire game. He directed drive after drive after drive to keep the Chargers in front the entire night.
But the Chargers relied on their ground game to get it done, rather than have to rely on a Navarrete aerial assault. Zachary Garcia and Caleb Farias each had two first-half touchdowns, sandwiched around a Navarrete-to-Dempsey TD pass to put Champion ahead at half, 35-21.
After Garcia opened the scoring with a 1-yard run, the Champion defense stopped Seguin and its 6- foot- 7 quarterback, University of Pittsburgh commit Corey Dailey on fourth down. Three plays later, Farias broke a 30-yarder for the quick 14-0 lead.
From there, the defenses seemingly disappeared from the field. The two teams scored on the next eight possessions.
With Champion up 42-28 and Seguin driving, Owen Kuhl intercepted a Dailey pass near midfield, setting up Garcia’s third TD run of the night, from 13 yards out. After missing the extra point, Champion led, 48-28 with 3:40 left in the third quarter.
But Seguin never gave up. The Matadors, also 3-2 and 1-1 in district, scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns, but also turned the ball over on downs following a 23-yard Carter Thompson field goal had given Champion a 51-35 lead.
Champion converted that turnover into points, going up by 22 points, 57-35, on a Dempsey-to-Zachary Lopez TD pass with 4:34 left in the game.
But Seguin pressed on — and might have had some fans recalling last year’s 73-66 Matadors win when Seguin overcame a late 15-point lead for the win over the Chargers.
Dailey engineered a crafty TD drive, scoring on a 1-yard run before a Champion turnover on downs, the lone Charger possession on the night that did not result in points.
Dailey then hit Aylan Avila with a TD pass from 5 yards out, making this shootout a one-score affair, at 57-50, with 33 seconds left.
Dailey came out to try the onside kick, but blasted the ball right at Dempsey, who secured the rock for the win.
The Chargers get a much-deserved weekend off before hosting the New Braunfels Unicorns Oct. 10 in a 7 p.m. kick-off at Boerne ISD Stadium.
Comment
Comments