Fairfield Union wins in trenches, tops Circleville to pick up MSL win

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CIRCLEVILLE — Andy Clark told his Fairfield Union team that in order to beat Circleville on Friday night, Oct. 2, they had to win the battle of the line of scrimmage.

It’s safe to say his team listened to him.

The Falcons combined to run for 276 yards and held the ball for more than 31 minutes of game play to grind out a much-needed 28-7 victory over the Circleville Tigers in Mid-State League action.

“We all said before the game that this was going to be won in the trenches,” Falcons’ senior Dean Clark said, “and our guys did a great job tonight moving the ball up and down the field and I have a lot of respect for the way we handled it.”

It was the definition of a team victory for the Falcons (5-2, 2-1), as all three phases made key plays. Offensively, the linemen paved the way for five different ball carriers to average more than four yards per carry, which helped run time off the clock and kept the ball out of Circleville’s hands. On defense, the unit held the Tigers under 150 total yards, forced four punts and intercepted a pass.

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And special teams also came through as the unit blocked a punt right before halftime and then began the second half with a 53-yard kickoff return that helped set up a touchdown drive to give the team a cushion.

“We wanted to establish the line of scrimmage as ours on both sides of the ball, because that was going to be the key to the game,” Andy Clark said, “stopping them defensively and successfully moving the ball on offense. (Circleville) has some explosive players, so it’s how you help your defense out by keeping the ball on offense and use the clock right.

“Great effort, physicality, guts. You name it, we did it. Execution wise, there’s always work to be done, but super proud of the kids and their effort.”

Fairfield Union’s first possession of the game began on its own 16 yard line and the offense went to work. The Falcons ran 15 plays and moved the ball 84 yards — and picked up three fourth down conversions along the way — and then capped it with a six-yard touchdown run by Lane Burkhardt. A bad snap on the extra point attempt left the Falcons with a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter.

Circleville (4-3, 1-2) responded with its only scoring drive of the game. The Tigers converted on a third down and 13 with a 41-yard pass from Jace Captain to Uriah Woodworth to move them into the red zone. A few plays later Ray Ezell rushed into the end zone for a five-yard score that gave the Tigers a 7-6 lead with 9:49 left in the first half.

The Falcons then made an adjustment on offense and went exclusively to the bunch formation with Clark under center, no receivers out wide and ran the ball on each play for the rest of the half. It worked, as the Falcons put together a 12-play, 65-yard drive that ate up six minutes on the clock, finished off with a 4-yard touchdown run by Boston McKoyes. A successful two-point conversion put the Falcons on top 14-7 with three minutes left in the half.

“We like to expand and contract, but we felt like it gave us an advantage, or at least was a little bit of a shakeup,” Clark said of the offense sticking with the ground game, “and we felt like what we were seeing and reading (of Circleville’s defense) it was favorable. We stayed with it, the kids love that formation, they love running when we can do it that way. If it’s not broken, I’m not just going to try to fix it, let’s keep going. We go in every week with adjustments, you have to. Our league’s too good with good coaches, you have to be ready to swing at the curveball occasionally.”

Right before halftime, the Falcons had a chance for a two-score lead into the break after special teams blocked a Tiger punt and Cam Maynard recovered at the Tigers’ 34 with 49 seconds left on the clock. Fairfield Union stuck with the ground game and got down to a second-and-goal at the two with just six seconds left, but Boston McKoyes was tripped up on a run play just shy of the goal line as time expired.

“I’ll take the blame for the one (before half),” Clark said of the sequence. “I called plays with my heart and not with my head there, but you know, I’m not going to apologize for believing in the kids, but they responded and came back in the second half and took it down and scored and did a good job.”

Kohen Arnett’s 53-yard kick return to begin the third quarter was a big boost for the Falcons, setting them up again in Tiger territory. Seven plays later, it was Colton Borah’s turn to find the end zone as the junior took a handoff wide and was able to find a gap and run it in for a 12-yard touchdown and a 21-7 Falcons lead.

Early in the fourth quarter it was the defense’s turn for a big play. Captain attempted to throw a pass to a receiver down the sideline, but put a little too much air under the pass. It allowed Dean Clark to get in better position and make a play on the ball, out-jumping and out-muscling the receiver to come up with an interception.

“I saw they were running, I think it was a corner route,” Clark said of his play “so I had to flip my hips and I turned around and went up for the ball and I ended up getting it over the (receiver’s head) and kind of had it (tucked) in one arm. And they (referees) blew the whistle dead and I came up with it. We’ll take that.”

The offense responded with another long drive to ice the game, taking nearly seven minutes off the clock by the time Burkhardt burst into the end zone from the one for his second touchdown of the game. It gave the Falcons their 28-7 lead with fewer than four minutes remaining in the game.

Burkhardt was the leading rusher for the Falcons, with 94 yards on 19 carries to go with his two scores, while McKoyes finished with 52 yards on 12 carries and Maynard followed with 42 yards — all in the second half as he helped wear out the Circleville defense.

“I’m just really proud of our guys the way we held up, this is a really tough team,” Dean Clark said. “Circleville is a really good team, and we were just resilient the whole game and hard-nosed football is what we were about.”

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Fairfield Union wins in trenches, tops Circleville to pick up MSL win