Chaffee football looks to match 2022 win total

Chaffee (1-2) travels to Malden (0-3) on Friday, Sept. 15, looking to even its record and match last season's win total.

The Red Devils learned last week that when the conventional fails, the unsuspecting is required to succeed. Such was the case for senior Levi McKinne, who scored his first touchdown of the season on a fake punt in a 24-14 loss against Kelly.

"We came up with it in practice and it's always just to get the momentum going our way," said McKinnie, who is not only the running back and defensive end but also the punter. "We thought it was a good opportunity to run that play and it worked out in our favor."

The Red Devils were on the 50-yard line when it called to punt. If it was a punt, McKinnie would have likely sent it towards the endzone for a touchback. So the 30 yards between the 20 and 50-yard line was worth the risk, especially since it worked.

"My team blocked right, I got on the outside and ran it from there," McKinnie said.

A win against Malden would put the Red Devils at 2-2 and match last year's win total. After three weeks, and soon to be four, it is clear that this is a much different Chaffee team compared to last year or even years past.

"Last year, I feel like there was a lot of pointing fingers," McKinnie said. "If there was a mistake made, it's pointing fingers back and forth. This year, we own up to our mistakes and we all work together a lot better. We just become like a family."

The Green Wave entered the contest 0-3 while being outscored 158-50. Malden holds a 6-2 advantage over Chaffee since 2010.

"It's gonna be a good game," McKinnie said. "It doesn't matter that they haven't won a game. We're still gonna come out and we're gonna play like the score is 0-0 the whole game and play our hardest."