The student section got on their feet and began to chant. The cheerleaders formed a tunnel and back-flipped at the sound of each varsity starter’s name. Basketball season had begun.The final score was 64-25, Chantilly. Both teams ended with 8 fouls each and Savage scored the most points of the game with 22 leading the Chargers to their first victory.
Starters; seniors Matt Howerton and Adam Fridy, and juniors Devin Ballam, John Manning, and Kethan Savage began the home game against the Madison Warkhawks on Dec. 2 at 7:30.
The Warhawks are a young team comprised of eight juniors, one sophomore, and one freshman. The team is led by just two seniors.
Senior Matt DeWitt in suffering from a broken ankle and junior Jake Wiegand tore his ACL; both were not able to participate in Wednesday’s game.
Manning won the opening tip off, followed by a foul by Madison. Manning took the foul shot. Savage then took the ball back up the court and dunked the ball, for Chantilly’s first points.
By the end of the first quarter, Chantilly was up 16-7. There was a shift in spirits during the second quarter when Chantilly rounded up 14 more points leaving the score at the half 30-7.
During each quarter, starters were taken out while senior Frank Hiemstra, juniors Trey Huelskamp, Drekkar Sanders and Jamie Danehower and sophomores Aaron Rodenas and Brady Caslavka were put in. With a strong lead, Chantilly was able to take starters out and give other team members more playing time.
The score kept increasing as Danehower scored a three-pointer, Caslavka scored six, and Hiemstra with two points.
There was no stopping Chantilly on Wednesday. As each quarter came and went, crowd spirits increased and the team never lost adrenaline.