Turnovers scuttle Falcons home opener against New Lex

LANCASTER — The Fairfield Union Falcons did their impression of a Russian bread line. They spent the night giving away the football.

The Falcons were guilty of four fumbles and all of them were recovered by New Lexington as the Panthers posted a 33-14 season opening win on Friday.

“You can’t give the ball away four times and expect to win,” said Fairfield Union head coach Andy Clark. “They only outgained us by 20 yards, so a lot of good things happened tonight as well.

“But fumbles have been a problem for some reason. Guys are fumbling this year who didn’t last year. But fumbles are fixable. Those little things are big against a good team. That was the difference between winning and losing.”

New Lexington’s Tanner Toth picked up a fumble and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown and a 8-0 lead.

The Falcons fumbled on their next possession and the Panthers recovered deep in Fairfield Union territory.

Colton Massie ran 15 yards for the score with three minutes left in the quarter and the Panthers led 15-0.

The Falcons scored at the start of the second quarter as quarterback Dean Clark found Boston McKoyes open for a 28-yard scoring strike and it was 15-7.

Fairfield Union looked to have turned the momentum in their favor when Clark came up with an interception.

But the fumble-itis returned as the Panthers recovered and went on a four-minute drive capped by a pass from Lane Ratliff to Toth as time expired and it was 21-7 at the break.

New Lexington went on an 18-minute drive that culminated on a 14-yard pass from Ratliff to Eli Dixon and it was 27-7.

The Falcons weren’t about to quit as they came right back with their own scoring drive as Clark hit Kohen Arnett on a 30-yard touchdown pass to make it 27-14.

But any hopes of a comeback died in the fourth quarter when the Panthers recovered yet another fumble and Ratliff ran 9 yards for the score with five minutes to play.

The Falcons had 276 total yards as Clark hit 7 of 11 passes for 182 yards and two touchdowns. Arnett had three catches for 99 yards and a score.

Despite the passing game success, Coach Clark wasn’t pleased with the running game which produced only 94 yards.

“We’ve got to run the ball to win. At the end of the day, that’s what wins games,” said Clark. “I can’t think of too many games that I’ve ever seen since I’ve been a coach that we rushed for less than 100 yards and won. That has to get better.”

New Lexington 15  6  6  6 = 33

Fairfield Union        0  7  0  7 = 14

First Quarter

NL — Tanner Toth 31 fumble return (Lane Ratliff run) ,

NL — Colton Mathias 14 run (Eli Dixon kick).

Second Quarter

FU — Boston McKoyes 28 pass from Dean Clark (kick good).

NL — Tanner Toth 1 pass from Lane Ratliff (kick blocked), 0:00.

Third Quarter

NL — Eli Dixon 14 pass from Lane Ratliff (kick blocked).

Fourth Quarter

FU — Kohen Arnett 31 pass from Dean Clark (kick good).

NL — Lane Ratliff 9 run (pass failed).

            NL      FU

First downs   13     12

Rushing-yards 30-110 36-94

Passing yards 186     182

Total yards 296     276

Cmp-Att-Int 20-27-1 7-11-0

Fumbles 0-0      4-4

Penalties-yards 7-60     5-21.5

Punts-average 1-44.0 1-42.0

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Fairfield Union Statistics

RUSHING—Lane Burkhardt 8-30, Boston McKoyes 9-26, Camden Maynard 7-19, Dean Clark 12-19.

PASSING—Dean Clark 7-11-0 182 2-TD.

RECEIVING—Boston McKoyes 1-28 TD, Camden Maynard 3-55, Kohen Arnett 3-99 TD.