Boerne Champion’s Blake Smith sneaked his free kick into the top-left corner of the goal to give the Chargers a 1-0 overtime win over Temple on Saturday afternoon at Woodson Field in the third-place game of the Wildcat Kickoff Classic. The loss was the Wildcats’ first of the season.

Nine minutes into overtime, Smith lined up for a free kick from about 25 yards away after a foul on Temple (3-1). With the wind at his back, Smith launched a shot toward the far-left corner of the net.

“It looked like it was served just right,” Temple coach Matt Corley said. “The arc of the ball was between the defenders and the goalkeeper. That’s exactly what happened - it landed right in front of our goalkeeper and behind our defenders, where you’re supposed to put the ball.

“It’s hard for the defenders to do anything when the ball goes over their head and it’s hard for the goalkeeper to read that ball when he’s got 10 bodies running at him.”

The goal spoiled an afternoon during which Temple spent much of the game on the defensive, yet fended off Champion’s aggressive forwards. The Wildcats got enough stops from goalkeeper Brandon Stegmeyer and defenders Brandon Dutton, Tyler Gibson, Joseph Pickett and Garrett Walsingham to keep the Chargers off the board.

While the Chargers certainly had their chances, the Wildcats’ opportunities were few and far between.

“For the most part our defenders did good; we just didn’t have an attack today,” Corley said. “It’s hard to win a game when you have one of the wheels working and the other isn’t.”

Temple had chances to score first in overtime, but the Wildcats weren’t able to put Coleton Watts’ crosses into the back of the net.

“We had a couple of very good chances in the beginning of overtime to get that ball across and we just didn’t capitalize on it,” Corley said.

Watts also had several of Temple’s best scoring chances in regulation. In the 52nd minute, Watts’ header in front of the goal sailed just high, and a shot from nearly 25 yards out in the 61st minute was bobbled by Champion’s goalkeeper before being contained.

Although Corley believes his team learned that it has a chance to be successful against good competition after winning three of four in its season-opening tournament, he pointed to the way his team warmed up Saturday as just an important of a lesson.

“I think we played exactly the way we warmed up,” he said.

NOTE: Waco Midway defeated Brenham’s “A” team 1-0 in the championship game.

rschneider@temple-telegram.com