Falcons use ground game to smother Apaches

VALLEJO — Without first string quarterback Keith Williams Jr., Fairfield High decided to rely heavily on its ground game in Friday night’s tilt against Vallejo High.

Very heavily.

The Falcons amassed 377 yards and four rushing touchdowns in a 42-0 thrashing of the host Apaches at Corbus Field to earn their first victory of the season.

“We ran hard,” Fairfield coach Jack Canavesio said. “We started to improve on both sides of the ball, offense and defense, and we got a zero on it.”

Jordon Harris led the charge with 159 yards and TD scores of 22, 59 and 47 yards.

Cedric Taylor took the bulk of the Falcons’ carries, rushing 18 times for 93 yards.

Damarie Richardson was the other Falcons player to reach the end zone using his feet, dashing 45 yards across the middle for Fairfield’s penultimate tally.

The aftermath of both of Richardson’s carries was significant, although the first did not add points to the scoreboard.

With less than a minute to go in the third quarter, Richardson’s 24-yard sprint carried the Falcons across midfield. After the play had stopped, shoving turned into a fight near the Fairfield sideline which resulted in a partial clearing of both benches and coaches from both sides jumping in to stop the altercation.

The fight disrupted the game for several minutes as the referees worked to sort it out, ultimately ejecting a player from each side from the contest.

Canavesio said he was unclear what started the scuffle as neither ejected player was involved in the tackle.

To show how heavily Fairfield (1-3) relied on the run, one should look no further than the five attempted passes, one of which was a fake punt on 4th-and-8 with just more than a minute remaining in the first half. David Gustafson took the snap and hit Giovani Torres on a route across the middle before he cut toward the Fairfield sideline on his way to pay dirt.

The rushing game and the offense didn’t do it alone, however.

A key turning point came with less than a minute to go in the first quarter after Vallejo chewed more than six minutes from the clock on a 12-play drive. After a personal foul penalty on the Falcons set up first-and-goal, Fairfield stifled every Apaches attempt to reach the end zone, including a fourth-and-inches stall when Anthony Budil met a wall trying to burst through the line.

Vallejo (1-3) tried everything to get its passing game working, using three different quarterbacks. Each QB was intercepted, with the highlight being Mark Tupai’s grab in the second quarter which he turned into a 17-yard touchdown return.

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Posted by Nick DeCicco on Sep 23 2011.

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