It took Fayette almost an entire half to find the endzone, but once it was located the Falcons made four return trips in the second half of a 32-0 homecoming win over Paris.

The Falcons' first two drives took the ball inside the Paris 10-yard line, but both came up short on fourth down.

Fayette had great field position as the first half wound down, after Dillan Lembke tackled the ballcarrier for a loss of 13 yards on second down and a shanked punt gave the Falcons the ball just 16 yards from the end zone.

On fourth-and-7 from the 13-yard line, Zach Henderson found himself wide open in the end zone and Ben Wells delivered the ball for the first points of the game.

“He kept playing inside leverage on me,” Henderson said. “So I just told coach Thompson, ‘let me run outside and throw it up,’ and it worked every time.”

Tyler Bartholomew’s extra point put Fayette up 7-0 with 1:20 left in the first half.  

“I think there was kind of a weight lifted off of us by scoring right there,”coach Mike Thompson said. “Everybody seemed to relax a little bit.”

Bartholomew picked off a pass to end the Coyotes’ final drive of the half.

After working for 20 minutes to score in the first half, the first points of the second half came on the first play from scrimmage. Wells threw a short pass to Garren Vroman, who went 73 yards for the score.

“There was a linebacker and a ref in my way,” Vroman said. “I reached out, the ball ended up in my hands. I just made a move to make a guy miss and I turned on the jets from there.”

Vroman finished with 267 total yards and two touchdowns on just 14 touches.

Cody Hilgedick’s 45-yard interception return set up the Falcons’ third touchdown, a four-yard rush from Kaden Polson just four minutes and 29 seconds into the second half.

After a three-and-out, Vroman’s 53-yard reception and 20-yard rush led to a 10-yard rushing touchdown for Henderson, putting Fayette ahead 26-0 in the third quarter after Aiden Richardson’s PAT.

A short punt and a few penalties put Paris in position to score some points in the fourth quarter, with first-and-10 at the Fayette 12-yard line.

Aaron Barber and Lembke stopped the quarterback sneak for no gain on third-and-2. Josh Henderson and Lembke stopped the fourth-down play a yard short to maintain the shutout.

“We gave them so many penalty yards there,” Thompson said about the drive.

“I told the guys, whether you like the calls, whether you agree with them, whether they’re right, it really doesn’t matter. You just have to keep playing.

“There have been plenty of times that we would have allowed a score right there. I liked our energy and I liked our attitude to just go ahead and keep playing even through the adversity that was presented, because we haven’t always been good at that.”

Preserving the shutout meant a lot to the players as well.

“It was pretty big,” Henderson said. “We were getting yelled at to stay low and we tried. It was pretty sweet.”

Henderson was crowned homecoming king at halftime, and could sense a good second half coming when he rejoined the team.  

“When I came back in the locker room, the energy was so positive and everybody was communicating and I think that’s what really brought us through,” he said. “We had the momentum going into halftime and we just tore them apart when it came.”

Wells completed five of 16 passes for 159 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

Fayette rushed for 337 yards behind the line of Henderson, Chris Brown, Zane Rice, Kyler Heath, and Haden Kelly.

DJ Moore carried four times for 46 yards, and Chase Allen had eight carries for 102 yards. Allen and Josh Henderson each had a sack.

Lembke led the Falcon defense with 13 tackles. Aaron Barber had six tackles. Hilgedick, Polson, Hunter Bordoni and Robert Saunders each had five.

“We were really getting down the line, as hard as we can,” Lembke said. “Our defensive line, we were just running straight down, seeing where the quarterback or running back were going, and just getting to it.”

Vroman’s 25-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter provided an exclamation point for the homecoming victory.

“We just came out more fired up than we were in the beginning,” Vroman said about the second half. “That’s what we have to do to keep this thing going. We’ve just got to stay fired up, and keep the energy up.”