Trojans fall in Grinnell

GRINNELL - Early turnovers proved costly for the Fairfield football team on Friday night. The Trojans turned the ball over three times in a 58-20 loss to Grinnell.

The Trojans fumbled away their first offensive play. That led to a Grinnell touchdown, the onl yscore of the first quarter. After 12 minutes, Fairfield trailed 7-0.

The next Grinnell takeaway was early in the second quarter. That was a 43-yard pick-six by Kyle Dillon. The two-point conversion made it 15-0 early in the period for Grinnell.

Fairfield struck back off the arm of Carter Ferrell. The Trojan quarterback found Drew Martin on a 19-yard touchdown pass just over one minute later to cut the Tiger lead to 15-7.

Unfortunately for Fairfield, Grinnell scored the last 15 points of the half, stretching the lead to 30-7. Fairfield's defense forced a fumble through the end zone on what could have been another Tiger score in the final 40 seconds, but they still trailed 30-7 at the break.

Leone Gichure broke loose on the first play of the second half. He scampered for an 80-yard score, making it a game again at 30-14.

Grinnell scored the next 21 points of the game, putting it out of reach late in the third period. Landon Kooiker caught a touchdown pass in the final five minutes, but the Tigers marched back down and tacked on another score of their own.

'We continued to improve this week,” said Fairfield head coach Nate Weaton. 'We saw improvement from Week 3 in establishing our run game effectively, which gives us confidence heading in to district play. We have got to find a way to stop beating ourselves. Gaining and holding tha tmental edge is our highest priority right now.”

Ferrel finished the game 12-22 for 159 yards in the loss. Kooiker led the receiving core with 39 yards on three catches. Gichure finished the day with 170 yards on the ground.

The Trojans fell to 0-4 with the loss. They'll look for their first win this week in Mt. Pleasant at the Panthers' homecoming game.