Fairfield foiled in double-overtime

FAIRFIELD - The stars were seemingly alligning for a Trojan win in Fairfield's homecoming game on Friday night, but Ft. Madison spoiled the party with a comeback win, knocking off the Trojans 23-16 in double overtime.

'It's hard to describe the emotion,” said head coach Nate Weaton. 'You want the kids to dig deep, and you want the kids to be able to dig deep and come up against adversity. On the other side of that, we had a lot of opportunities in that football game. If we take advantage and we do what we're supposed to do, we don't put ourselves in that situation.”

The Trojans led 16-8 in the final 30 seconds, but Ft. Madison tied the game with just 21 ticks left to force overtime. After both teams were shut out in the first overtime frame, the Bloodhounds scored in double overtime and then held off a fourth-down quarterback sneak, leaving Fairfield one-yard away from what could've been a game-tying score.

Fairfield scored the only 13 points of the first half. Quarterback Carter Ferrel punched in a first-quarter touchdown drive with a one-yard TD run, set up by a long pass to Leone Gichure. In the second quarter, Gichure punched one in from two yards out, and it was 13-0 after the missed extra point.

In a defensive struggle, Ft. Madison was having the most trouble moving the ball until a breakout play on a screen pass to Diego Lozano in the third quarter set up the first Bloodhound score. Will Larson ran in a one-yard touchdown and then threw a two-point conversion to Brock Califf to cut the Fairfield lead to 13-8.

The Trojans got a huge boost from their kicking game with 8:14 remaining. Landen Shafer stepped up and boomed a 40-yard field goal to stretch the lead to 16-8.

The Hounds stayed quiet on offense until their final drive of regulation. Ft. Madison got the ball in the middle of the field with less than a minute remaining and no timeouts, but set up the game-winning drive on a wild catch and run by Califf that took the ball all the way to the one-yard line.

That all set up a one-yard touchdown run by Larson with 21 seconds left, and a two-point pass to Parker Denning to tie the game.

A Trojan fumble on the ensuing kickoff allowed the Bloodhounds to take a shot at the end zone, but Ferrel made a leaping interception to send the game into overtime.

In the first overtime, Fairfield failed to run on a fourth-and-goal quarterback run by Ferrel, giving Ft. Madison the chance to win. The Bloodhounds, however committed a false start on the one-yard line and then missed an 18-yard field goal attempt.

In the second overtime, Larson took a third down run into the end zone to give the Hounds a 23-16 lead after the PAT. Fairfield tried a quarterback sneak from the two-yard line, but the Ft. Madison defense held on and the Hounds defeated the Trojans for the first time since the year 2000.

'You've got to let it sting overnight (but) the sun is going to come up again tomorrow,” said Coach Weating. 'That's how you have to look at it. You've gotta learn how to get past it quick, but you've got to learn to really self-reflect and understand what you need to do to learn from your mistakes.”

Gichure ran for 96 yards and a touchdown to lead the offense. He also caught two passes for 32 yards. Landon Kooiker had one catch for 25 yards.

Ferrel finished the night 4-18 with 76 yards passing and two interceptions. He ran the ball for 14 yards and a touchdown.

The Fairfield defense was led by Drew Martin, who was in the Ft. Madison backfield all night. He finished with eight tackles, 2.5 sacks and an interception.

Fairfield is now 0-5 overall and 0-2 in the district. They'll face Keokuk on the road next week before hosting two currently ranked teams, Washington and Solon, in their last two games of the year.