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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Cornerstone Christian Chargers enter the 2024 season with high expectations, but that’s all because of the continuity from last year’s championship-winning team.

Just two seasons into playing 8-man football, the Chargers delivered their first state championship, and now, all but two players from that team are preparing to make another go at glory.

Last season’s junior playmakers are now seniors, which not only establishes a strong foundation of leaders but allows both sides of the ball to take a step forward, building off what they learned last year to make the offense and defense deeper and more dynamic.

It starts at the quarterback spot with Zeke Adams who had a phenomenal junior season as a starter with 2,167 rushing yards and 1,683 passing yards. He’ll be the driving force for the offense once again as coach James Lee hopes to further open up the playbook for him.

He will also be surrounded by a solid group of skill players including last season’s leading receivers Noah Schober, Keaton Keef and Seth Dillard and newcomer Mason Howen and a trio of running backs to complement Adams in the run game in Cohen Hewitt, Drake Dunning and Jackson Moore.

Expect another high-flying attack with a dynamic ground game aided by a veteran offensive line and the ever-present deep ball threat in the air.

Those same players will play a key role on the opposite side of the ball as Zeke Adams, Malachi Adams and Landon Alexander will lead the way in the pass rush while Schober is back after a four-interception campaign, tied with Zeke Adams for the team high.

The one unanswered question for the Chargers is on special teams after senior kicker and punter Jackson Waugh graduated, but with their tendency to go for two after touchdowns, that void may only come into focus on kickoffs and punts.

If Cornerstone wants to repeat as state champions, it will need to navigate a newly expanded division with more teams vying for the crown.

Coosa Valley and Lakeside both moved to the 8-man classification over the offseason, expanding the number of region games from five to seven and making the race for the playoffs even more competitive.

However, home games against reigning runners-up Springwood as well as Southern Prep should give the Chargers a boost in the race for the top seed, which they’ll hope to have wrapped up ahead of a Week 9 road trip to perennial wild card Evangel-Montgomery.

 

Prediction: 9-1. Opponents had an incredibly hard time stopping this Cornerstone side last season, and with the same cast back, it’s hard not to predict similar results. Success is far from a given in a competitive region that saw one-possession games against Springwood and Southern Prep last season, as well as a non-region test against ACSC runners-up Lighthouse Home School.

However, continuity across the board in their starting lineups bolstered by depth from increased numbers should both help the Chargers build off of last season’s success rather than start over.

And if last season was just the starting point, look out. We’re talking about an offense that was one of the top-scoring units in the state at 50.7 points per game paired with a defense that allowed 21.1 points per game, a great showing in the 8-man format.

With dynamic athletes on both sides of the ball, they should match up well against whoever they face. They’ll also get more chances to build their 8-man chemistry as they will play an exclusively 8-man schedule without having to worry about any 11-man curveballs.

At the end of the day, this team has the talent and chemistry to challenge with the best of the AISA for the state championship. While titles are never a given, I like this group that went undefeated in 8-man play last year to make another run at glory.