Chargers enter bye week at 6-0, will resume play on Oct. 16

Boerne Champion is off this week and won’t play again until Oct. 16 when they host Seguin as they continue district play.

The Chargers are coming off a 56-0 win at Lockhart last Friday but started game planning for the Matadors the very next day. Chargers coach Blane Ellis said they will even take a little peak at Smithson Valley for their big district showdown on Oct. 23.

“We turned around on Saturday and worked and got a game plan ready for Seguin,” he said. “We even looked at Smithson Valley, but all while being mindful of the present.”

Champion has scored 56, 61, 59, 55, 62 and 60 in their six wins, while the defense shutout its second opponent this year. The Austin Anderson game, a 61-32 victory by the Chargers, was the only one in which the starters stayed on the field for all four quarters.

There have been some games like last Friday where the starters were on the field in the third quarter, but in at least three contests, the starters were on the sideline by halftime.

To make up for it, Ellis said they’ve pushed hard in practice to make up the difference when starters didn’t get a full workload during a game.

“We’ve given ourselves some liberty in practice to be more physical. We want to keep that edge,” he said. “It’s a fine balance; we’re still bumping and griding quite a bit. You want to take care of guys during the week, but we’ve adjusted to what we’re seeing and trying to keep that edge.”

This week will be different because BISD is on fall break. The players had last weekend off and will not practice on Monday and Friday of this week and then get this coming weekend off as well.

In Champion’s win at Lockhart, the Chargers rushed for 402 yards and were led by Caleb Farias, who finished with 235 yards rushing on 24 carries and tallied five touchdowns. The senior had 85 yards by the end of the first quarter as Champion kept it on the ground because of the Lockhart defensive alignment.

“We always look to run the football first and establish a good run game,” Ellis said. “They kept a soft shell on us and had two safeties deep and tried to keep everything capped and in front of them, so we took advantage of that.”

Champion’s defense came up with its second shutout of the season and didn’t give up much to the Lions.

“We gave up 48 rushing yards on 49 carries,” Ellis said. “That was pretty dominant play by the defense.”