Under the home lights of Thomas S. Davis Field on Friday night, the Fayette Falcons shook off, even if just for a short time, the pain of what had been an emotional two weeks for the team to defeat the Westran Hornets 44-23.

The Lewis & Clark tilt came the evening of the same day that two Falcons, junior DJ and sophomore Brandon Moore laid their father, David, to rest after a tragic accident that occurred on September 10. The entire team attended the service that morning.

“The reality of all this, is it was a difficult day, “said Fayette coach Mike Thompson. “I was really proud of the way they responded. I thought they were great today. They were so supportive of DJ, Brandon, and their family. Then they came out here and were all able to focus, including DJ and Brandon. They were able to just go play for a few hours and enjoy it.”

Senior Garren Vroman again paced the Falcons scoring four touchdowns. Two of those scores came on the receiving end of passes from junior quarterback Ben Wells. The remaining two were rushing touchdowns. Vroman hauled in two passes on the night, for 49 yards and scored on both. He carried the ball 15 times for 174 yards, an average of 11.6 yards per carry. That brings Vroman’s season rushing yardage to 795 yards on 79 carries for 10.06 yards per carry. Vroman is only 205 yards from the 1000-yard mark on the season, which is the benchmark against which running backs are measured.

Completing 71% of his 14 passing attempts, Wells connected for three touchdowns and 165 yards. He also rushed eight times for 48 yards.

“I need to be a little bit better on the run,” said Wells. “I scrambled a bunch tonight. I need to work on my reads and gaining more chemistry with my receivers.”

While amassing 165 yards passing and three touchdowns, working to improve will only help the Falcon signal-caller as the season progresses.

Senior Dalton Collins finished his night with 82 yards on four receptions. He also had a touchdown while leading the team in receiving yardage.

DJ Moore carried the ball 10 times for 35 yards and a touchdown. Three times he crossed the goal line on two-point conversion attempts.

Junior Chase Allen-Jackman hauled in three passes for 30 yards and a two-point conversion.

Senior Logan Wiswall garnered four yards on one reception.

Defensively, senior Chris Brown led Fayette with 12 solo tackles, seven of which were for Westran losses.  Brown is leading the team in tackles for the 2021 season with 36.

DJ Moore finished with six tackles while senior Tyler Bartholomew contributed to be a force from the safety position as he recorded five tackles.

Seniors Avery Powell and Cale Hudson, along with junior Allen-Jackson each recorded four tackles with three of Allen-Jackman’s being for loss.

Sophomore Brandon Moore, and freshman Micah Estes both contributed three solo tackles with Estes assisting on nine others. 

SeniorsLogan Wiswall and Dalton Collins, along with junior Malakai Graves each added two tackles while Collins intercepted a pass and returned it for nine yards. He also forced a fumble which was recovered by Wiswall.

Wells along with junior Zane Franz and freshman Jacob Wood also recorded solo tackles.

Special teams also scored high for the night as Vroman returned two kickoffs for 41 yards to bring his all-purpose yards total to 264 on the night.

Wells had one kickoff return for 23 yards and Collins had one for 22.

“I was just really proud of what they were mentally and what they are becoming,” said coach Thompson. “Not just as players on the field but as people in general.”  

With the win, Fayette moves to 4-1 on the season and 2-1 in conference play. The win should merit some recognition for Fayette in the Missouri Media Football Poll as well as that top-ten, after week four had two teams with one loss and one team with two losses in the 8-10 slots. That poll normally comes out late Monday or early Tuesday. If it does reach the Advertiser prior to press time, the week five poll will be featured on page 8.

Fayette will travel to Paris Friday night to take on the Coyotes at 7 p.m. in advance of the highly anticipated showdown between the Falcons and the Harrisburg Bulldogs in Fayette’s Homecoming game on October 8.