Trojans battle, but fall, to ranked foe

VAN HORNE — The Fairfield football team traveled straight north to take on No. 10 Benton in a Class 3A non-district clash on Friday night, and the Trojans gave the Bobcats everything they could handle until the final minutes.

Benton’s defense stumped the Trojans in the second half, allowing the Bobcats to turn what was a two-point halftime advantage into a 29-12 victory.

Fairfield found itself down 7-0 late in the first quarter, when the Trojan offense finally found the end zone via the legs of Ethan Bisgard. Bisgard scampered 17-yards to the house for a Fairfield score. The two-point conversion failed and it was 7-6 after one period of play.

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Down 14-6 with just over four minutes left in the half, Bisgard did it again, this time rushing for 10 yards right up the middle of the field to find pay dirt for the second time in as many quarters. Once again, the conversion failed, but Fairfield was within two, trailing 14-12 against the state-ranked Bobcats.

Fairfield’s defense stopped Benton from adding on in the first half, and the Trojans trailed by just two points going into the third period.

The Bobcat lead was still at just two points until under two minutes left in the third quarter, when Benton would run in its third score of the game, and go up two scores, at 21-12.

This time, the Fairfield offense couldn’t answer back. The Trojans were held on their end of the field, and after punting the ball back to Benton, the Fairfield defense gave up a fourth rushing touchdown, as the Bobcats were able to put the game away.

Bisgard ran for 57 yards and two scores to lead a balanced Trojan offense. Zandrik Allison split carries with Bisgard, and rushed for 41 yards.

Voss Richardson threw the ball for 92 yards and ran for 43. His favorite target was Bisgard, who caught three passes for 33 yards, but Blake Burnett had the biggest catch of the game, a 34-yard gain on his only reception.

Bisgard had a big day on defense as well, coming up with a team-leading 11.5 tackles, 10 of which were solo. Fairfield was unable to force any turnovers.

Fairfield (0-1) will now prepare to take on Centerville this Friday night in the home opener. The Big Reds are coming off a 56-21 win over Knoxville last week.