There won’t be any playoff spots or championship trophies hanging in the balance of tonight’s game at Cougar Stadium.
But this game is still a big one.
Tonight is senior night. It’s an evening to honor the work, sweat and dedication of Canyon’s departing players. It’s a chance to send Canyon’s seniors — who will be wearing the Cougar red and white one final time — off in style.
“We’re calling it a one-game season,” Canyon coach Les Davis said. “We’re saying: ‘Let’s go for it with all we’ve got, and don’t leave anything behind.’”
Canyon (3-6, 2-4) will host Boerne Champion at 7:30 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s shootout in the Boerne Hill Country.
Both teams combined for 1,013 yards of offense, and Champion twice rallied from late deficits in the barn-burner. The Chargers made a two-point conversion in overtime to seal the 43-42 victory and hand Canyon its fifth straight loss.
There aren’t too many players on either roster who were around to see the game, but Davis remembers it well.
“As a coach, you remember any time you go to overtime and any time you play on the road,” Davis said. “It was a hard loss, but we’re definitely prepared for this game. It’s time for us go to out on top.”
Much like Canyon, Champion (5-4, 2-4) has several new, young faces heading into this year’s edition of the game. But Davis said the Chargers are just as dangerous on offense.
“When I look at them on film from just a pure offensive standpoint, I wonder why they aren’t undefeated,” he said. “I don’t know why they struggled in the early games, but in the last two weeks, they’ve played extremely well.”
Champion has scored a total of 101 points in its last two games, rolling past Seguin and San Marcos.
The Charges are led by quarterback Taylor Davis, who has 12 touchdowns and is just shy of the 1,500 yards passing mark. The senior has also piled up 490 yards and four touchdowns rushing.
“They throw the ball quite a bit, but they run it very effectively,” Davis said. “They spread the field out and they throw it quite a bit. It makes it really tough to defend, and you’ve got to cover it all.”
Which begs the question — can we expect to see 85 points on the board again this year?
“The defensive coaches would certainly hope not,” Davis said. “But Boerne is an explosive football team.”
In its first year running a new, pass-heavy spread offense, Canyon has excelled at moving the ball on offense but has struggled to score. The Cougars piled up over 360 yards of offense but scored only once in last week’s 20-7 loss to Clemens.
Like anything in its first year, Davis said, the new offense has had a bit of a learning curve.
“We’ve gone through that, and we just keep trying to get a little bit better every week,” he said. “We just haven’t put as many points on the board as we’ve hoped to.”
The new offense has some definite advantages, however, which explains why so many programs around the country are adopting spread-based attacks.
“It’s fun for the kids,” Davis said. “When we’re spreading the ball around a lot, it’s not like we’re throwing it to one guy. It’s exciting, and when you start doing things really well, there are chances for big plays.”
Canyon will be hoping to produce plenty of those tonight as it aims to snap its four-game losing streak and end the season on high note.
“We’ve talked to the kids this week about how it’s not necessarily our last game, but it’s last opportunity to play together as this team,” Davis said. “We’ll never get to do this again with this exact same group of people.”
