Chargers Leave Racers in the Rearview Mirror

Heading into Friday night's showdown with the Racers, the key to beating this Newcastle team was clear, stop Casey Thompson.

Thompson, as most high school fans know is a 4-star quarterback who is committed to play at the University of Texas. Known as a dual threat QB, Thompson possesses both run and pass skills. Newcastle, however, has had trouble putting talent around him, and he has carried the Racers this season.

The Chargers were confident that if they could shut Thompson down, they would have no problem remaining undefeated friday night.

While the headlines were focused on how the Charger defense would defend Thompson and the Racers, the Hall's offense flew in under the radar. Pitting one of the top offenses – Heritage Hall's – against arguably the worst defense in Class 4A ultimately wrecked the Racers.

The Charger offense got out of the gates early and dominated the game. Zane Wade started the scoring Friday night with a 44-yard touchdown catch on a blown coverage by the Racer defense. Billy Ross, Jr., continued to display his uncanny ability to elude defenders as he scored from 22-yards out on the next drive.

Casey Thompson was not going down without a fight, though, as he connected with his brother Cade Thompson on fourth down to cut the deficit to 7.

The Chargers used this touchdown as fuel, leaving the Racers in the dust from that point forward. Heritage Hall ended the quarter with a Blake Adams completion to Chandler Shapard for six and, after the extra point, held a 21-7 lead.

Coach Bogert's squad continued to pull away from Newcastle in the second quarter. Adams connected with Shapard again to stretch the lead to 28-7. Billy Ross Jr. pushed the ball over the plain again, and Phillip Smitherman got on the board with a touchdown connection from Adams.

The Charger defense was extremely clutch as well. Thompson couldn't find any open lanes to run in, finishing with -25 rushing yards on the night. The future Longhorn also finished with his lowest number of pass yards on the season, 100, on just 9 of 24 passing.

As halftime fell upon the game, the Hall was already running away with it, leading 42-7.

The Hall never looked back and continued to dominate the Racers in every phase of the game. The only scores of the second half came from Ross and Morgan Dinwiddie, as they reached pay dirt from 27 and 9 yards respectively.

The defense continued to frustrate Thompson, with an amazing 14 sacks on the night. Seth Meacham plugged up the middle of the field, while ends Jaden McDaniel and Carson Orton contained Thompson. McDaniel found himself in the Racer backfield all night, which made it extremely tough for Thompson to create any magic. The junior racked up 12 tackles and 3 sacks. Linebacker Grayson Wilson also recorded 3 sacks on the night.

With Thompson running for his life most of the night, the Charger secondary sustained coverage on the Racer receivers, including a first half Blake Adams interception return for 26 yards.

Tremendous team defense, paired with another offensive explosion, propelled the Chargers to a convincing 56-7 victory over Newcastle.

Adams showed great precision in the pocket Friday night, finishing 13 of 17 for 152 yards and 4 touchdowns. Ross turned in the type of outing fans have come to expect from him every week, carrying the ball 11 times for 109 yards and 3 touchdowns. Dinwiddie also ran the ball effectively, finishing with 9 carries for 69 yards and a score.

Heritage Hall silenced the Casey Thompson hype, including a bold prediction from the Racers quarterback himself who had boasted about 500 yards and 7 touchdowns earlier that morning on Fox 25. With the big road win, the Chargers continue on the path toward another undefeated regular season when they square off against the Cache Bulldogs in Week 9.

Article by Rives Mitchell '19
Photos by Jake Steelman '19

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