The Fayette Falcons handily won the Class 1 District 5 championship at home Friday night with a 46-6 pounding of the Sweet Springs Greyhounds. The Falcons, now 11-1 overall, faced their toughest opponent of the district tournament in the second week, finishing with a 52-42 win over Harrisburg. Fayette easily defeated Slater 62-24 in the quarterfinals.

The last time Fayette won the district championship was in 2018 when the Falcons earned a lopsided victory over Sweet Springs, 44-6.

Now Fayette moves on to face perennial powerhouse and longtime Lewis & Clark Conference rival Marceline at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The winner of that game will take on either Hayti or Monroe City on Saturday, November 27.

“It’s nice to be district champs,” said Fayette head coach Mike Thompson. “Right now the guys are pretty happy, but I think they’ve got the right attitude that it’ll be over tomorrow and it will be time to get back to work. I told them they could be district champs for a day, but coach (Andy) Bentley told me, ‘No, they get to be district champs their whole life.’” 

The defense showed up early in Friday’s contest, forcing fumbles on both of the Greyhounds’ first two possessions. The Falcons recovered both fumbles and turned them into touchdowns to take an early 16-0 lead. The Falcons would never look back.

Freshman Kaleb Friebe started the game with an opening kickoff that sailed to the Sweet Springs one-yard line. In the ensuing drive, Sweet Springs took the ball as far as the 25-yard line then ran a quarterback option around the left end. Sweet Springs senior quarterback Zapher Lea chose to run and was met by Fayette’s Chase Allen-Jackman. The 6’2”, 182-pound defensive end wrapped up the ball carrier while knocking the ball loose then spotted the ball on the ground two yards away. Allen-Jackman then broke free of the Sweet Springs player, scrambled to his feet, and fell on the ball. Senior linebacker Logan Wiswall then fell on top of Allen-Jackman to help secure the recovery.

Just a few plays later, senior running back Garren Vroman carried the ball over for a touchdown from 20 yards out. He then added the two-point conversion to give Fayette an 8-0 lead with 10:28 left in the first half.

Sweet Springs took the next kickoff and drove into Fayette territory until junior DJ Moore and freshman Micah Estes combined on a hit to force another fumble. Estes came up with the ball to put the Falcons offense back in business. After gaining a first-down on the ground, the Falcons faced a first-and-10 from their own 39-yard line when junior quarterback Ben Wells dropped back to pass and spotted senior wide receiver Dalton Collins streaking down the right sideline. Wells fired the ball and found Collins around the Sweet Springs 35-yard line. Collins leaped high in the air as did the Sweet Springs defender. The long reach of the 6’2” Collins was too much for the Greyhound defender as the receiver was able to make a fantastic and raced into the end zone for the 61-yard score. DJ Moore then rumbled across for the two-point conversion to give Fayette a 16-0 lead with 1:15 left in the first quarter.

Halfway through the second quarter on fourth-and-one from midfield, Wells broke through the Sweet Springs line and sprinted 51 yards for what looked to be another score for the Falcons. After a short celebration, though, the realization dawned upon the team of a yellow penalty flag on the ground near the original line of scrimmage where an offensive lineman had been called for holding. That brought the ball back and wiped the points from the board.

Moments later, Allen-Jackman moved the ball closer with a run around the left end that took Fayette to the Sweet Springs 28-yard line. From there, Wells would hit Allen-Jackman with a pass that the receiver would carry in for the 28-yard touchdown reception. On the two-point conversion, DJ Moore would carry the ball across the line to give Fayette a 24-0 lead with 7:49 left in the half. Fayette would take that lead into the locker room at halftime.

As the third quarter began, it did not take long for the Falcons to fall back into their old, but good habits as Vroman pushed the ball over from the two-yard line at the 10:59 mark. Moore again got the two-point conversion to take the Falcon lead to 32-0.

Six minutes later, Vroman scored his third touchdown of the night on a 39-yard run. Moore then proved the old adage “the more things change, the more they remain the same,” when, this time, he hauled in a pass from Wells for the two-point conversion giving Fayette a lead of 40-0.

With 52.2 seconds left in the third quarter, Sweet Springs garnered its only touchdown of the game as senior running back Cole Lovercamp scored from three yards out.

Fayette would answer back with 8:15 left in the game as for the fourth time in the game, Vroman would break free for another touchdown. This time it was on a 34-yard run. The two-point conversion, for the first time on the night, would not be successful. That touchdown would make the score 46-6 in favor of Fayette.

Neither team would score again, and the game would end on that note.

At that point, the celebration would begin as Fayette had staked its claim on the Class 1 District 5 title.

Wells was superb on a windy night, completing nine of his 14 passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns. He also completed a pass for a two-point conversion. In his one rushing attempt, he ran for a 51-yard score that was called back on a penalty. Wells has completed over half of the 187 passes he has attempted this season with 1,056 yards on 87 completions, 21 of which have been for touchdowns. “We came in expecting to want to throw the ball more,” said Thompson. “We can’t throw the ball four times a game and expect to continue to win. We just need to get our guys more involved so we can keep advancing.”

Garren Vroman continued his assault on the record books as he, again, scored four touchdowns. On the year, Vroman has scored 42 touchdowns to average 3.5 touchdowns per game. The running back rumbled for 259 yards on 22 carries Friday night to take his season total to 2,708 yards for the season. He averages 225.66 yards per game. “He’s obviously a good player,” said Thompson. “Teams try to do a lot of different things to go against some of the things we’re doing. Our guys up front were able to adjust to get him some seams. They made it a little difficult at times but our guys opened some things up and Garren did what Garren did.”

Chase Allen-Jackman carried four times for 23 yards while fullback DJ Moore rushed seven times Friday night for 17 yards.

Senior Dalton Collins led Fayette Friday night in receiving yards as he hauled in three catches for 69 yards and a touchdown. Allen-Jackman proved to be very efficient as he caught one pass on the night, for 28 yards and a touchdown, while Vroman caught four passes for 19 yards. DJ Moore capped off the receiving with one catch for three yards.

Defensively, Fayette may have pulled off its best game of the year as DJ Moore led the team with seven tackles. Allen-Jackson, Estes, and senior Tyler Bartholomew each drug down six Greyhounds. Allen-Jackman and Estes recovered a fumble. Allen-Jackman also recorded a sack.

Seniors Avery Powell and Chris Brown each recorded four tackles while junior Malakai Graves and senior Cale Hudson each recorded three tackles and Graves recorded a sack. Wiswall stopped two Sweet Springs runners. Collins, junior Haden Kelly, and freshmen Corbin Tucker and Friebe each notched a tackle apiece.

“We worked hard all year and battled adversity all year and came through,” said senior Garren Vroman. “It feels good that it’s all paid off, but we’ve got a lot more to come.”

With the District championship comes new opportunities. Next is the opportunity to play in the state quarterfinals. In that quarterfinal game, the Falcons (11-1) will go up against a familiar foe, the Tigers of Marceline (10-1). The Tigers have defeated Fayette in the last four meetings the two teams have had. One has to go back to September of 2018 to find Fayette in the win column against Marceline.

This season both teams have suffered only one loss. The Tigers fell in week three on the road against Quincy Notre Dame in Quincy, Illinois. That following week, Fayette would fall to Marceline 37-0. Since then, Marceline has won the rest of its games by an average score of 20.8 points but was only able to defeat its last opponent, Highland, by six.

Fayette has also been on a roll with an eight-game winning streak since the loss to Marceline. During that streak, Fayette has outscored its opponents by an average of 29.1 points per win.  

The quarterfinal game will be contested on Saturday at Marceline’s Chester Ray Stadium at 1 p.m. 

“That’s going to be a very good game,” said Vroman. “We’ve been wanting to play Marceline again but we knew we had to get through here to have a chance to play them again. We’re very excited for it.”

I’m really proud of my team,” said junior left tackle Haden Kelly. “Everybody contributed really well. We’re a different team than we were whenever we played them before. I think they might be, too So I think it will be a great game.”

Tickets must be purchased online through the Missouri State High Schools Activities Association at www.mshsa.org/CMSPages/Tickets.aspx .  Tickets are required for anyone six years of age or older. No passes will be honored.