Fayette held Westran to under 200 yards of offense, but the Falcons were unable to recover from early mistakes in a 28-12 loss on Friday.

Westran finished the day 0-13 on third down and 1-7 on fourth down. The Hornets scored two offensive touchdowns on drives of 14 and 25 yards. Westran’s longest drive of the game was 37 yards.

The Falcons had an onside kick recovery and two interceptions, but the Fayette offense was unable to take advantage.

“We’re really kind of in a funk on the offensive side,” coach Mike Thompson said.

“I think we have some issues. Some with confidence, some with mental mistakes - things that we can control. We’re making mistakes that are putting us in difficult positions, behind the sticks. Then also were having some issues just performing.”

The Hornets scored the first points of the game on a 45-yard interception return and a blocked punt recovered in the endzone.

Ben Wells found Dillan Lembke wide open for a 65-yard score that put the Falcons down just 14-6 at the half.

Lembke also led Fayette with six solo tackles, and did a good job covering Westran athlete Sean Mendez, according to Thompson.

“He did a great job of picking that guy up on crossing routes and staying with him. That kid is an athlete and he’s fast and Dillan did a great job of picking him up.

“Even when he caught it, Dillan did a great job of making tackles. He’s playing pretty well. For a guy who’s never played inside linebacker before, he’s doing a really nice job and he’ll continue to get better the more snaps he gets.”

The first six minutes of the second half were a roller coaster for both teams.

Fayette recovered an onside kick, but on third-and-25 threw an interception that was returned to their own 20.

Then, on a pass tipped by Kaden Polson, Cody Hilgedick got his second interception of the game at the 5-yard line to keep the Hornets out of the endzone.   

“He made a couple nice plays tonight,” Thompson said about Hilgedick, who moved from corner to safety mid-season.

“There were a couple times when the secondary got beat over the top a little bit, but we made them at least make a difficult throw and they didn’t complete them. I think overall (Hilgedick) has done a really nice job of stepping in and performing the way we needed him to perform.”

But three plays later, a Fayette pass landed in Westran hands again, returned to the 14-yard line. The only third or fourth down conversion of the day for Westran went for a five-yard touchdown.  

On the ensuing drive, Fayette came up with some big plays in critical moments, but missed opportunities as well. Zach Henderson had a 19-yard carry on third-and-15. DJ Moore had a 13-yard rush, and Wells found Garren Vroman for 16-yards on a fourth down.  

But the Falcons also had a false start penalty at the Westran 31-yard line. A wide open Henderson was overthrown. On third down, Wells put the ball on a receiver’s hands in the endzone, but he was unable to make the catch.

“What we have is a lot of guys that are making really good plays, but we’re not doing it together as a team consistently,” Thompson said.

“If we can consistently work as a team and have the team make great plays consistently, we’re going to be fine, but right now we have a lot of inconsistency in our play on both sides of the football, although more on offense than on defense.”

After three quarters, Fayette had outgained Westran 203-103 and still trailed 21-6.

Avery Powell led the Fayette defense with eight tackles and a sack. Chase Allen had four tackles and caused problems in the Westran backfield.

“I thought Chase played really well,” Thompson said. “They held him all night. They didn’t call it very much, but they held him a lot because they absolutely could not block him from either side, he was eating them up.”

A 46-yard catch and run by Vroman set up a two-yard rushing score for Moore with 8:28 left, but the 2-point try failed, giving Westran a two-score advantage at 21-12.

Moore gained 60 hard-fought yards on 15 carries. Vroman had four receptions for 110 yards.

The Falcons had four incomplete passes on their next possession and Westran took advantage of the short field to score the dagger.

“We finally started putting some things together and started to develop a little confidence…  I thought we were kind of getting in a rhythm for a little bit for the first time in a few weeks really. We just put ourselves in such bad situations before we got things going.”