The Boerne Champion football team needs two things to happen on Friday, and if they both happen, the Chargers will be a playoff team.
Champion must beat Wagner and also need New Braunfels to defeat Seguin. If those two things occur, Champion will earn a postseason berth in 2025.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday at BISD Stadium when the Chargers host the Thunderbirds.
Last Friday’s victory by the Chargers over Victoria East, coupled with Wagner’s loss to Seguin inched Champion that much closer to a playoff spot.
“We’ve put ourselves in a position that we felt like we would be in at this point, but we still have to earn a spot,” Chargers coach Blane Ellis said. “We still have to win one at a time, that’s been our mentality, it’s playoffs every week for us.”
If the Chargers win Friday, they’ll be 4-2 in district and will have tiebreakers against Seguin and Wagner since they would have beaten them both.
Champion is 5-3 overall (3-2 in district) with two games left in the regular season and has already matched last year’s win total. The Chargers are looking for their first playoff spot since 2023 when they faced College Station in the opening round.
Champion is coming off a 48-14 win over Victoria East last Friday at home. It was their first win at BISD Stadium this year, and Ellis said it was a great allaround performance.
“I was very proud of our guys, offensively, defensively and special teams,” he said. “It was a tremendous night.”
Champion starting QB Julian Navarette has missed a few games with an ankle injury and was warming up before Friday’s game with Victoria East but was a last-minute scratch. Ellis said they don’t want to rush him back before he’s ready but hope he’s ready for Wagner.
“We’re being cautious and taking it a day at a time, we don’t want to force anything,” he said. “We want to make sure his health is good and we’re taking it real slow and making sure we’re being smart about everything.”
Ryder Flugence started in his place, and the freshman had a solid game and went 13 for 17 through the air for 158 yards and threw three touchdowns.
Champion did a lot of damage with its ground game and gashed the Titans defense for 286 rushing yards. Zach Garcia ran nine times for 86 yards and found the end zone twice, Brogan Dempsey rushed twice for 52 yards on two totes and scored, while Caleb Farias led the ground game with 119 yards on seven carries and a touchdown.
Zach Lopez, Mason Clayton and Owen Thornton all caught touchdown passes for the Chargers, even though only one player had more than two catches in the game after Cason Riha snagged 3 passes for 32 yards. Six other players had receptions in the game, but none had more than two.
The Champion defense held Victoria East to seven points through the first three quarters before giving up a late touchdown in the final stanza with less than two minutes remaining in the game as they dominated the line of scrimmage.
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