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Falcons soar over Wildcats

Vroman scores five touchdowns, Wells makes touchdown passes lead Fayette offense

Kevin Oeth, Sports Editor
Posted 9/15/21

The Fayette Falcons handily defeated Slater on the road Friday for their third straight win of the season. Senior Garren Vroman scored five touchdowns on the night to lead the Falcons to a 56-26 win.

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Falcons soar over Wildcats

Vroman scores five touchdowns, Wells makes touchdown passes lead Fayette offense

Posted

The Fayette Falcons handily defeated Slater on the road Friday for their third straight win of the season. Senior Garren Vroman scored five touchdowns on the night to lead the Falcons to a 56-26 win.

The game did not, however, get off to such a pretty start for the boys from Fayette. But that did not last long. On the first offensive snap, the ball got past senior quarterback Ben Wells. Wells ran back 10 yards to retrieve it, then turned and fired the ball downfield and into the waiting arms of Vroman at the Slater 30-yard line. Vroman took the ball down to around the five before being drug to the ground.

After losing four yards on the ensuing three plays, Wells dropped back on fourth-and-nine and found senior Dalton Collins in the corner of the end zone for the first touchdown of the night. After the two-point conversion, Fayette led 8-0.

Later in the first quarter, facing a third-and-11, from his own 35-yard-line, Wells dropped back again and found Collins, this time streaking down the left sideline for a 65-yard touchdown connection. Another conversion gave Fayette a 16-point lead.

Still in the first quarter, Fayette drove to the Slater six-yard line and gave the ball to Vroman where he punched it across the goal line for his first touchdown of the evening giving Fayette a 22-0 lead. 

Slater fought back with a touchdown of its own before Fayette gave the ball again to Vroman for an 18-yard touchdown run. He broke three tackles along the way to give the Falcons a 30-6 lead.

Once again Slater punched back, to make the score 30-12 in the second quarter.

Fayette retaliated by giving the ball to the ever-reliable Vroman. He simply outran everyone and crossed the goal line for his third touchdown.

Vroman then grabbed a 33-yard swing pass from Wells to take the Falcons down to the 11-yard line. Coming up short on that play, Vroman was not to be denied on the next as he hauled in another pass from Wells for the score to give Fayette the 42-12 lead.

In the third quarter, Slater had taken the ball to the Fayette 33-yard line with a fresh set of down when the Slater quarterback turned and pitched out to the running back sweeping to the left. The pitch was a little high and the back juggled the ball before dropping it. The ball had barely touched the ground when junior defensive lineman Malakai Graves pounced on it to return the ball to the Falcon offense at the 43-yard line.

On the ensuing drive, the Falcons faced second down with 21 yards to go for the first down when Wells hit Vroman on another swing pass. Utilizing a key block by senior Cale Hudson, Vroman took off down the right sideline for a 69-yard score.

Hudson got in on the scoring later in the quarter when at the 2:17 mark he ran the ball for a touchdown.

Slater tacked on a couple of late touchdowns, but the damage was done, making the final score 56-26.

On a night the spotlight was shining squarely on Garren Vroman, the young man deflected that glare right back onto his blockers. “All the rushing touchdowns? That’s the offensive line. They got me an open field and I did what I had to do to get in the end zone. The same with the receiving, they had to go block somebody and I went and made the play,” said Vroman.

“Our guys were dealing with a lot tonight, coming off an emotional win last week and then the situation with (junior) DJ and (sophomore) Brandon’s (Moore), dad, it can affect kids,” said coach Thompson. Fayette was without the services of the Moore brothers as their father was severely injured after he was struck by a car Friday morning in Fayette (see story on Front Page).

Vroman finished the night with 195 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries. He also scored two touchdowns and garnered 166 yards on four receptions.

Wells for 53 yards on five carries. In addition, he threw four touchdown passes on eight completions in 14 attempts for 243 yards.

Junior Carmelo Hockaday gained 20 yards on five rushing attempts while senior Avery Powell drove for 21 yards on three attempts.

Hudson scored a touchdown and added 30 yards to the team total on two carries. 

Freshman Micah Estes carried the ball two times for six yards.

Collins made the most of his three receptions, gaining 77 yards and scoring two touchdowns. 

Powell and Estes led the Falcons with seven tackles apiece. Three of Powell’s were for a loss. 

Seniors Tyler Bartholomew and Dalton Collins each had four solo tackles. Bartholomew had two interceptions and Collins picked off another.

Senior Chris Brown added three tackles to go along with the two apiece posted by seniors Hudson, and Logan Wiswall, Graves, and freshmen Jacob Wood and Kaleb Friebe.

Juniors Hockaday and Haden Kelly each had one tackle as did freshman Corbin Tucker.

Fayette’s record now stands at 3-0 on the season while Slater drops to 0-3. Fayette’s road swing will come to an end Friday night as the Falcons head to Marceline to take on the team that ended their season last year in a 55-20 rout that will be remembered by the coaching staff and players from that season. Marceline is 2-1 after suffering a loss at the hands of Quincy Notre Dame in Illinois, 49-7.

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