Photos by Chapin sports
By Thomas Grant Jr.
The “second season” for Chapin football starting Friday night in The Swamp.
The Eagles face River Bluff in the Region 4-5A opener for both teams.
“Nothing good, nothing bad really matters what we’ve done the last six weeks,” Eagles’ head coach Corey Helms said. “Everybody’s is kind of 0-0 right now. So, it’s kind of a new season.”
River Bluff (5-1) enters the game riding a 4-game winning streak, Chapin (4-2) had a similar streak snapped last Friday in the 28-24 loss at Gilbert.
The Eagles jumped out to a 10-0 lead before the Indians rallied for the first of five lead changes. Chapin had a final drive instead of Gilbert territory, but were stopped as time expired on fourth down.
Helms called the loss a “good wakeup call” and his team has responded with a positive attitude at practice.
“Our kids are resilient,” he said. “We had a lot of opportunities to win. We’ve just got to learn how to close things out and finish games. We started off in the first quarter really good, then we kind of took our foot off the gas and those situations is when we needed to pick it up even more.”
Helms was pleased with the play of his “Charlies”. Running back Charlie Howell had 127 rushing yards and two touchdowns and safety Charlie Todd who had six tackles on defense and contributed on special teams.
Linebacker Parker Collins led the team with 14 tackles.
With 4-time defending Class 5A champion Dutch Fork the following week at home, the team understands the importance of starting off region play with a win.
“Obviously, the region is extremely tough,” Helms said. “Each week is a one-game season how we look at it. Every week is extremely important. We’re going to try to get it right each week and obviously, that’s starts with River Bluff who’s playing really good football right now.”
