After a disappointing season opener at Carrollton the week before, the Fayette Falcons dropped to 0-2 on the season with a 48-13 loss to Class 2 Father Tolton to open their home campaign on Friday.

But after two losses so far on the young season, second-year Fayette coach Kole Hinton hasn’t begun to panic.

“I’m proud of them,” Hinton said about his team after Friday’s game.

“Father Tolton’s a really good Class 2 team. That’s always a difficult task for a school our size. The points don’t necessarily show it, but defensively, we played really well, and we were there to make a lot of plays. I thought that we were really good at flying around, really good at gang tackling. We got turnovers. We did well on defense.”

Fayette forced three Tolton turnovers, all in the first half. One turned into points when Carter Vroman scored Fayette’s first touchdown on a pick six in the second quarter. The junior snatched the ball out of the air and sprinted the short yardage down the left sideline for the score.

Less than three minutes before, Fayette forced a turnover as a Tolton runner was about to score just 10 yards from the goal line. The ball was punched out from his grip, bounced forward into the end zone, was snatched up by Fayette junior Caleb Craig, and returned 10 yards.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, that only delayed an eventual Trailblazers’ touchdown. Thirty-two seconds later, Tolton defensive tackle Logan Sleeth tipped a pass from Falcon quarterback Ledgyr Conrow, then caught the ball in the air before running into the end zone.

“It’s hard when he’s a shorter quarterback, and they’ve got two towering dudes at the end,” Hinton said. “It’s hard to see to throw the ball when dudes are in your face.”

The first turnover of the night came when sophomore Brodi Tucker intercepted a pass from Tolton quarterback Dominik Abadi and returned it to the Trailblazers’ 29-yard line. But Fayette lost 10 yards on the following two plays before going three-and-out with an incomplete pass, forcing a punt.

Another defensive bright spot was a blocked point-after-attempt by Fayette’s Jacob Wood. The senior had three such blocks a year ago and hasn’t slowed down.

While Fayette’s defense gave a strong showing, Hinton said his offense sputtered, often getting in its own way.

“Similar to last week, just not executing enough,” he said. “We’ve got everything blocked up; we just turn the wrong way because we’re in our own heads. But the penalties came way down, which is good. We still had a few, but we didn’t have nearly as many as last week.”

Fayette finished the night with 130 yards on offense, compared to 413 for Fr. Tolton. That included 27 passing yards and 103 yards on the ground.

Fayette’s sophomore quarterback, Ledgyr Conrow, in his first full season as a starter, completed four of 11 passes with two interceptions. Half of those completions went to senior wide receiver Kaleb Friebe for 13 yards. Sophomore wideout Colton Cross hauled in one pass for nine yards. Senior running back Micah Estes made one grab out of the backfield for five yards.

Once again, Fayette’s running game led the offense. Vroman picked up 51 yards on 12 carries, followed by Estes with 42 yards on eight rushes. Junior fullback Jaron Cross had five touches for 17 yards and scored Fayette’s only offensive touchdown on a one-yard burst across the goal line with less than three minutes left in the game.

Tolton’s offense, meanwhile, dominated from the start. The Trailblazers scored seven touchdowns on 247 yards passing and 166 rushing yards. Even with three first-half turnovers, Tolton quickly put the game out of reach, leading 42-7 at halftime.

Tolton is a talented, disciplined, well-coached football team, and showed every bit of it on Friday. Yet, Hinton could not stop showering praise on his defense.

“I think our linebackers were flying around. I think they feel a lot more free when we install our scheme,” he said. “I think we’ve done a really good job of paying attention, buying in, trusting the scheme. When we do that, we’re there to make plays.”

Vroman led the defense with seven tackles and two assists, with two tackles for loss and a pick-six. Wood finished with four tackles and three assists, with one tackle for loss. Brodi Tucker made three solo tackles and three assists, with an interception.

“Carter Vroman’s sideline to sideline, chasing folks down, and a had a pick six,” Hinton said. “Brodi Tucker had a lot of great hits, a lot of great fills. Micah was in the way for a few of them and does his job. Even if he doesn’t pick it, he’s at least in the vicinity. But our secondary has got to get better. That’s the only part that I see that’s failing our defense at this point. We’ve got to get better in the backfield. But the front seven are doing their jobs.”

Fayette hopes to pick up its first win of the season against a familiar opponent next week. The Falcons face former Lewis & Clark rival Salisbury on the road.

Salisbury returned to the gridiron this fall under new leadership. Former Harrisburg assistant coach Zech Bowman was named the new head coach and thus far has led his team to a 2-0 start. The Panthers are also ranked No. 10 in this week’s Class 1 state poll. They took down Cole Camp 30-15 in the season opener at home and edged Mark Twain 10-6 last week on the road.

Hinton and the Falcons saw some of what Salisbury has to offer during the preseason jamboree hosted by Central Methodist University on August 23.

Hinton said he looks forward to facing competition more Fayette’s size on Friday. “They’re a good team. And [with us] being 0-2, you can’t take anybody lightly. It’s going to be a good test for us.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday at Salisbury High School.

The week after, Fayette returns home to host another former Lewis & Clark opponent. Westran has also begun the season 0-2, having fallen 62-0 to South Shelby last week.

Fayette opens Central State 8 action at Linn on September 27.