Fairfield Trojans are ‘Jekyll and Hyde’

FAIRFIELD -- It was the proverbial tale of two halves for the Fairfield High School football team Friday in a 44-20 non-district loss to Oskaloosa.

The Trojans lost the first half 27-0, but won the second half 20-17. The Trojans had just 32 yards in the first half and 25 of those were on two receptions by Maxwell Weaton. The Trojans finished with 226 total yards, with 142 of those on the ground.

'Well that was another Jekyll and Hyde day for us,” Fairfield coach Nate Weaton said. 'We had a good talk at halftime and made some necessary adjustments. The guys came out and did exactly what we wanted them to do in the second half. We got momentum. We kept things going.”

The Trojans were determined to get back in the game, recovering an onside kick to start the second half. Although they turned it over on downs, Landon Kooiker intercepted a pass at the 5-yard line, returned it to the 24 and Carter Ferrel capped a 7-play drive with a rushing touchdown to get on the board. The key play was a 20-yard completion to Drew Martin.

'One of these times we are going to put it all together,” Coach Weaton said. 'We made mental mistakes. We believe in these kids. We believe in what we are doing. They believe in each other.”

Although it was 41-7 at the end of the third, a 10-play 83-yard drive ended with a Leone Gichure TD. The key play was a 66-yard screen to Gichure on first-and-30.

'If we do our job on the run game, it'll set us up for those big gains,” Weaton said. 'Situational football is what we are trying to preach to these kids.”

An onside kick was recovered and a Payton Cline TD made the score 41-20.

There were numerous penalties on both teams with offsetting personal fouls called at least twice.

'They wanted to battle like we wanted to battle,” Oskaloosa coach Jake Jenkins said. 'I don't blame them or us, it was just the competitive spirit. It was a physical game and physical both ways. I think they will get some wins if they stay together and keep fighting.”

Oskaloosa had lost by 50 points to Washington the previous week.

”We are getting to the line and communicating and that is helping us fix the little things,” Jenkins said.

Little things make a big difference in a football game.

'We have to be successful at the real little things before we can go away and do some of the other things,” Weaton said. 'To open things up, you have to do the little things. That's when you are able to open up the playbook and do some of the other things. That's football in a nutshell.”

Fairfield falls to 0-3 and plays at Grinnell Friday.

'Out of all the negatives, we see a lot of positives,” Weaton said. 'We saw the fight come back into them in the second half. We saw them never give up.”