The football game a lot of people have been waiting for is set for this Friday when Boerne Champion visits Smithson Valley. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Ranger Field.
Friday’s contest will feature two undefeated teams ranked in the top 5 in the state at the 5A-DI level. Smithson Valley (7-0, 6-0) sits at No. 1 and the Chargers (7-0, 5-0) are No. 5. One of the teams will suffer their first loss of the season on Friday. Champion coach Blane Ellis has been asked about the game throughout the year but wouldn’t talk about it too much because they were mainly focused on the game at hand. The Rangers are the next team up on the schedule, and Ellis said everybody’s excited about the opportunity to play against the Rangers.
“There’s a lot of excitement around it. It’s going to be a fun night,” he said. “We know it’s a big game, it’s been circled on everyone’s calendar. We’ve taken them one at a time and now it’s here. It’s important that we block out the outside noise and focus on what we do.”
Smithson Valley graduates good players every year, but coach Larry Hill always finds a way to reload, and Ellis said the Rangers bring back a good nucleus except on the line.
“They’ve got a lot of their skill players back, but they’ve replaced a lot on their O line and D line,” he said.
Both teams have been offensive juggernauts and have been racking up points in bunches. Smithson Valley is coming off an 89-3 win at Lockhart and beat Cedar Creek, 84-7. They’ve also recorded wins of 79-14 over Manor and 77-3 against Kyle Lehman.
Champion hasn’t scored that many points, but they’re close. They’ve hit 60 three different times and the fewest points Champion has scored in a game has been 55.
Ellis said the offense has been explosive but noted that their defense has only given up 63 total points in seven games.
“A lot of people talk about our offense but defensively we’re getting after it and we’re playing suffocating defense,” he said. “I can’t speak enough about our defense.”
This will be the fifth straight meeting between the Highway 46 rivals and the last four have been one-sided in favor of the Rangers. Smithson Valley won last year, 41-14, won in 2024 by a score of 42-10, won in 2023 by a score of 56-14 and again in 2022 by the score of 49-0.
Champion is looking to reverse that trend on Friday against a team that has won the last two state titles and played in three straight championship games. Ellis said the Rangers are as good as it gets but is eager to see how his team matches up this year.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to mix it up with them,” he said. “We know what kind of opponent they are and who they are, but we know our guys are excited about it.”
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