The Bert Church Chargers used a dual running attack last week to move up a spot to No. 9 in the Alberta Tier 2 High School Football rankings.
Brandon Fuchs and Karl Louder each had three touchdowns as the Chargers (2W-1L) beat the Chestermere Cowboys (0W-3L) 42-0 in Rocky View Sports Association football action at Genesis Place field in Airdrie, Sept. 24.
“They’re both pretty shifty runners, which, obviously as a coach, is nice to see,” said Chargers’ head coach Andy Kirk. “Both of them ran really well and when they get to the open field, they’re both really quick.”
“We couldn’t stop them,” said Cowboys’ head coach Stephen Wiens. “We had some guys at new positions, but I thought we adjusted well at times.”
Fuchs, who had more than 100 all-purpose yards, capped a 72-yard Charger drive with a 40-yard touchdown to open the scoring six minutes into the first quarter. Louder put Bert Church up 14-0, on the final play of the quarter, with a one-yard touchdown run.
“Our offence had a really good first quarter,” Kirk said. “We weren’t overly happy with our defence in the first two series, but after that they very much imposed their will on the team.”
The Chargers added a third touchdown before the half when quarterback Tim Wallace found Fuchs alone in the endzone with 8:40 left.
Fuchs caught another Wallace touchdown pass midway through the third quarter, before Louder made it 35-0 Bert Church on a three-yard touchdown run with 3:46 left. He would add another 35-yard touchdown run two minutes into the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
Kirk played many of the Chargers’ backups late in the game and was able to work on specific areas of his offence with big games against Springbank, Bow Valley and the Airdrie Bowl against George McDougall, coming up in the next three weeks.
“Some of them got significant minutes compared to what they’ve had this year, so from that perspective it does nothing but help us as a team and give them experience. It doesn’t matter what team were playing right now, or what defence we face, we are working specifically on our offence,” he said.
“Chestermere has a young team, and small numbers, so a part of that game becomes a fatigue factor on their part event though we were pretty solid.”
“This is the youngest team we’ve had in years,” Wiens said. “It’s tough, but I think our guys played really well in terms of their dedication. It was a tough game for us, but give Bert Church credit because they knocked us around.”
In other RVSA action, the Bow Valley Bobcats (2W-0L) beat the Springbank Phoenix (2W-1L) 25-1 and the Cochrane Cobras (2W-0L) beat the George McDougall Mustangs 63-7 (see story on page 20).
This week will see Bert Church will host Springbank at Genesis Place on Oct. 2 at 3 p.m; George Mac and Bow Valley will play a home-and-home Sept. 28, at 5 p.m. in Cochrane, and at 12 p.m. in Airdrie on Oct. 2; and Cochrane will visit Chestermere, Oct. 1 at 5 p.m.
