The Fayette Falcons wasted no time in staking their claim to the title of No.1 team in the district with a 66-24 win over the Father Tolton Trailblazers in the final game of the regular season at home Friday. Leading into the game, Fayette, with a 7-1 record, sat atop the Missouri State High Activities Association’s Class 1, District 5 standings, and Father Tolton was ranked second in the district.

With the victory, Fayette moves up a spot in the state rankings to No. 8 in Class 1.

Fayette jumped out to an early lead with 9:58 seconds left in the first quarter as senior Garren Vroman took the ball 87-yards for a touchdown on the Falcons’ second play from scrimmage giving Fayette an 8-0 lead after the two-point conversion.

“This one started off just the way you draw it up,” said Fayette coach Mike Thompson. “We won the toss, we deferred, then we forced a punt on the first series. We didn’t know if we would get them to punt because they like to go for it on fourth down. But we forced that punt then on the second play from scrimmage, Garren goes to the house. You just cannot draw it up better than that.” 

Just three minutes and 13 seconds later, Vroman struck again with a 38-yard run to give the Falcons a first and goal. From there Fayette once again put the ball in Vroman’s hands and he charged across with his second touchdown of the night. After the failed two-point conversion, Fayette led 14-0.

After the teams switched ends to start the second quarter, Vroman bolted across the goal line on a two-yard run to make the score 20-0. Those two yards put Vroman just two yards shy of breaking the Fayette single-season rushing record of 1,774 yards set by Isaiah Estes in 2018. Early in the next Fayette drive, Vroman would break that record. He would then go on to record 286 rushing yards on the night to set the standard at 1,894 yards.

Fayette, however, did not simply rest on Vroman’s laurels. Later in the quarter, junior DJ Moore would turn a 13-yard run into six more points for the Falcons, making the score 26-0.

Vroman was not done at that point either. With 8:04 remaining in the half, he would punch the ball over one more time on a five-yard run to add another six points, making the score 32-0.

Father Tolton would finally counterpunch with seven-and-a-half minutes remaining on a 59-yard run that would bring the score to 32-8.

As if that were not enough scoring for on half, the Falcons answered back when junior quarterback Ben Wells found Moore for a 37-yard touchdown pass giving Fayette a 38-8 lead going into the locker room.

When the teams came out for the second half it only took 11 ticks of the clock before the Falcons would add more points to the board. Senior Dalton Collins took the second-half kickoff 58-yards to make the score 44-8.

Surprisingly, the next score did not come until DJ Moore posted another touchdown at the 1:13 mark with a three-yard run. Fayette’s lead increased to 52-8 with a two-point conversion on a pass from Wells to senior Logan Wiswall. Then, 54 seconds into the final stanza, senior Cale Hudson scored on a 29-yard run making the score 58-8.

With a 50-point lead, the Falcons were content to run the clock out and allow several underclassmen to acquire valuable playing time. During those remaining minutes, the Trailblazers, however, were able to garner a 35-yard touchdown run to bring the score to 58-16.

With 59.2 seconds left in the game, Father Tolton broke off another run, this one of the 91-yard variety, to make the score 58-24.

After successfully regaining possession with an onside kick, the Trailblazers began another drive that would soon be stopped in dramatic fashion. As Tolton quarterback Jonah Lybeck-Brown attempted a pass over the middle, Chase Allen-Jackman seemingly appeared out of nowhere, leaping into the path of the pass to pull it down and run it into the Tolton end zone for the touchdown with 41.5 seconds to go. Allen-Jackman added the two-point conversion to make the final score 66-24.

“Chase was playing a run-stopping defensive end,” said Thompson. “He got the look and jumped it. It was good preparation on his part, understanding and going in and making a play. Our defense does that as a whole, and it’s really exciting.”

Vroman led all rushers with his 286 yards on 22 carries. He averaged 13-yards per carry, raising his season average from 11.32 yards per carry to 11.54. He also scored four rushing touchdowns. Moore added 67 yards on eight carries with one touchdown. Cale Hudson rushed three times for 33 yards and a touchdown, while classmate Avery Powell carried for 32-yards on three touches. Allen-Jackman ran twice for eight yards, while Wells also gained eight yards on three carries.

Quarterback Ben Wells was 4-for-8 in the passing department for 84-yards and a touchdown. “We didn’t throw it as much as I anticipated, really,” said Thompson. “We came in thinking we could run at them effectively, but when it was getting away, we thought ‘well, let’s just get the running clock and get out of here.’ Then when we started subbing in and they started scoring, we opened it up a little bit.”

Wells and Allen-Jackman connected for 48 yards on two passes, while senior Dalton Collins caught one pass for a 33-yard touchdown. Senior Logan Wiswall had one reception for three yards.

Defensively, freshman Micah Estes and Powell were in on seven tackles with Powell recovering two fumbles and Estes recovering another. Wells had six tackles and forced a fumble, while Hudson had five tackles.

Allen-Jackman and seniors Chris Brown and Tyler Bartholomew each had three tackles. Allen-Jackman had an interception and a forced fumble, and Brown recovered a fumble.

Seniors Vroman, Collins, and Wiswall, along with juniors Moore, Malakai Graves, sophomore Brandon Moore, freshmen Bryce Callahan, and Kaleb Friebe each registered one tackle.

On Friday, the No. 1 seeded Falcons will host the 0-8 Slater Wildcats (seeded 8) at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinal round of the district playoffs. The winner of that game will go on to play the winner of the Harrisburg (4) and Father Tolton (5) game that same night.