Late fumble call stuns Fairfield Union in playoff loss to Heath

LANCASTER — What a gut punch for the Fairfield Union football team. What looked like a go-ahead touchdown with just over two minutes remaining against visiting Heath instead left the Falcons stunned.

Trailing by one, the Falcons forced a fumble to set up shop at the Bulldogs’ 11-yard line with 3:22 remaining. Fairfield Union gained six yards on two running plays, setting a third-and-four at the 5-yard line. On the next play, Fairfield Union quarterback Dean Clark ran over the right side, fought through a couple of tackles and as he was going down, he reached the ball over the goal line. It looked as if his knee was down at the 1, and when he stretched the ball over the goal line, the ground caused the ball to come loose. When the ball hit the ground in the end zone, it bounced in the air, and a Heath player jumped on the ball and recovered it. The referees deemed it a fumble.

Just like that, what looked like a touchdown for the Falcons wasn’t, and the Bulldogs picked up a first down and ran out the clock to pull off a heart-stopping 22-21 Division IV, Region 15 playoff win on Friday, Oct. 30.

Fairfield Union coach Andy Clark was obviously disappointed, especially with the call, but he took the high road.

“They made the call, and there’s not really anything I can say,” Clark said. “We have to make sure we don’t put ourselves in that situation to begin with. We could have done a better job in the second half, and we could have executed better, and I take the blame for that. We should have done a better job of mixing things up, but give (Heath) credit, they did a nice job in the second half, but yes, it’s tough when it comes down to one play like that, and it doesn’t go your way. Our guy was making an effort play, and it is what it is.”

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It will be a call that will be talked about for a long time by the Falcon faithful, but the Bulldogs deserve some credit for the way they fought back and overcame a 15-0 halftime deficit.

“We kept fighting, and we talk about it all the time,” Heath coach Tim Ward said. “I have been coaching 22 years, and there have been a lot of teams we’ve had to coach effort with, and these aren’t one of those teams. These guys play as hard as they possibly can on every snap of every play, regardless of the situation. A couple of plays went our way in the second half. It’s about time we finished. We are never out of game.”

It was a frantic finish in the fourth quarter. With the Falcons leading 15-10, the Bulldogs were able to take the lead when they forced an interception and returned deep into Fairfield Union territory. Two plays later, Tristyn Jones scored on a 21-yard touchdown run to give the Bulldogs a 16-15 lead with 10:59 remaining.

However, Fairfield Union (8-3) responded. Clark evaded a hard Heath rush, stepped up in the pocket and found Camden Maynard all alone, and he turned it into a 72-yard touchdown pass to give the Falcons a 21-16 advantage with just over 9 minutes left.

Heath (8-3)was not deterred and the Bulldogs, behind the passing of junior quarterback Ethan Grise, drove right down the field, and he capped the 68-yard drive off with a 5-yard touchdown run with 6:08 remaining to give the Bulldogs a one-point lead and to set the stage at the end.

Fairfield Union dominated the time of possession in the first half, running 41 offensive plays to just 16 for the Bulldogs.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Falcons got on the board when Lane Burkhardt capped off a 13-play, 81-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. He also ran in the 2-point conversion to give Fairfield Union an 8-0 lead with 7:39 left in the first half.

The Falcons took a 15-0 halftime lead when Clark found Kohen Arnett with a 10-yard touchdown pass with no time left on the clock.

Heath turned the tables in the second half, scoring on its opening drive of the third quarter when Cam Stevens threw a halfback pass to Joe Ward for a 3-yard touchdown. Cam Montgomery booted a 41-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 15-10 with 1:33 left in the third quarter.

The Falcons finished with 314 total yards but were held to just 98 in the second half. Burkhardt finished with 128 yards on 26 carries, and Clark carried the ball 19 times for 87 yards, and he completed five passes for 99 more yards.

Jones led the Bulldogs with 92 yards rushing on 18 carries, and Grise added 37 yards rushing. He completed 10 of 18 passes for 157 yards, and all of his completions and yards came in the second half.

Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @twil2323.

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Late fumble call stuns Fairfield Union in playoff loss to Heath