Whenever the 2022 Boerne Champion football season comes to an end, the Chargers may look back on Thursday’s loss to Buda Hays as the one that got away.
Champion kept nipping at the heels of the Hawks in Thursday’s district contest at BISD Stadium, but the Hays school found a way to pull out the 34-29 win.
The Chargers drop to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in district with five games left. They are off this Friday and resume 12-5A DI action on Oct. 7 when the Chargers visit Seguin.
Champion coach Keith Kaiser said Thursday’s game was a case of missed opportunities.
“It’s a lot of would’ve, could’ve, should’ve,” he said about Thursday’s game where a play or two in Champion’s direction might have changed the outcome. “That’s what this district is, it’s a dogfight.”
Thursday was the only time this season when the Chargers never held a lead in a game. Hays went up 14-0, 21-7 and 28-14, but Champion kept fighting back each time.
Late in the first period, Jordan Ballin hit Griffin Jones on a short pass for Champion’s first score. Later, Cole Riha ran one in during the second period to make it 21-14 after the Crew Pulliam kick.
With time running down in the first half, the Chargers appeared to score a touchdown to potentially tie it, but the points were wiped out by a penalty to take the game into halftime.
Once the third quarter started, Hays scored on its very first play on a long run by Kyree Patyon and pulled ahead 28-14, but Ballin helped the Chargers answer on its very next drive with a short TD run and the score was 28-21.
The Chargers tried an onside kick and recovered but couldn’t score. On Champion’s next drive they got the ball to the Hawks’ 1-yard line but fumbled and missed out on another scoring opportunity.
Kaiser said he thought running back Colin Ryan’s knee hit the ground before the ball came out and the play should have been blown dead there but it wasn’t. A replay seemed to show that it wasn’t a fumble.
“I thought on the initial hit he went down and then he stood up and they blew it dead when he went down,” Kaiser said. “It’s frustrating, I hope they were right because it changes the game, it’s a huge call.”
The Hawks had to start the drive at their own 1-yard line after the fumble recovery and were forced to punt seven plays later, but the snap went over the punter’s head and into the end zone for a safety and two points for the Chargers to make it 28-23 with 9:16 left in the game.
Later in the period, Hays went on a clock-chewing drive that ate 4:44 off the clock before they punched it in for the 34-23 lead. The Hawks went for two points and didn’t convert, leaving the lead at 11.
Champion only had 1:03 to work with and managed to squeeze out a touchdown when Kannon Brooks caught a 23-yard TD pass from Ballin.
The Chargers went for two, but the play was stopped by Hays, leaving the score at 34-29 with only 26 ticks on the clock.
From there, Champion tried an onside kick, but the Hawks recovered and killed the remaining time.
Champion still has five district games left but at 0-2, they have little margin for error the rest of the way.
“We don’t have the death sentence, but we have to do something now,” Kaiser said. “We have our work cut out for us.”
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