Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Perfect Storm Capsizes Cards’ Homecoming
FARMINGTON —A perfect storm was nowhere in the forecast, yet quickly materialized in the first half of Farmington’s Homecoming football game, a 41-14, loss against visiting Greenbrier Friday.
The Cardinals were dual victims of their own drive-killing penalties and fumbles on offense; and a ferocious hurricane-force Greenbrier attack led by senior quarterback Carter Burcham ( 6-2, 185), who completed his first 20 passes, leading the Panthers to a 33-0 halftime lead. Burcham’s individual offensive output, including 66 yards rushing, accounted for 417 yards of total offense. Farmington (2-4, 1-3 5A-West) had 292 yards of total offense as a team.
The halftime score could have been worse — except Greenbrier and Burcham, who seeingly could do no wrong for the first 23 minutes of the contest, finally looked human. Seeking a 35-point margin necessary to activate a running clock, the Panthers crossed into Farmington territory in the last minute of the second quarter. Burcham threw incomplete on first and-10 from the Cardinal 44 to end his streak of consecutive completions at 20. Second down in the series featured a confrontation of players wearing opposite numbered jerseys. Farmington’s No. 21 Skyler Montez popped Greenbrier No. 21 Cody Walker causing him to drop a pass. The Cardinals got pressure on Burcham forcing him to throw high and incomplete on third down. A false start penalty backed Greenbrier up to the Farmington 49 on fourth down. Farmington sophomore linebacker Jacob Freeman rushed from the edge causing Burcham to throw before he wanted to and his 24th pass of the first half hit the turf.
Farmington took over on downs at their own 49 with 16 seconds left in the half. Trey Waggle’s pass intended for Montez was incomplete leaving 11 seconds to work with. Farmington tried to catch the Panthers by surprise with Waggle tossing a short screen pass to Javan Jowers. The junior tailback reversed field, giving Farmington fans, who had very little to cheer about in the first half, some excitement as he worked his way upfield. The Panthers at last pulled him down 33 yards later at their 18 and time expired to end the first half with Farmington facing a 33-0 deficit.
Three plays into the third quarter, Farmington tailback Caleb Williams ( 14 rushes, 98 yards) broke a 38-yard touchdown run to get the goose egg off the scoreboard. The kick failed and Greenbrier ( 5-1, 3- 0) took advantage by driving for a touchdown on Burcham’s 7-yard run, followed by a 2- point conversion with Burcham (24 of 33 for 351 passing yards) throwing to Alex Massey to extend the Panther lead to 41-6 and initiate the sportsmanship rule with a running clock. Waggle (8 of 15, 149 passing yards) connected with tight end Jacob Grey (3 receptions, 95 yards) for an 80-yard touchdown late in the third. Williams ran in a 2-point conversion to cap the scoring for Farmington.
The first half was all Burcham, who had 274 passing yards with touchdown throws of 9 yards to Alex Massey and 28 yards to Grant Brown in the second quarter. He also had a touchdown run of 11 yards. The passing set up a pair of short touchdown runs by Spencer Sutterfield. Farmington blocked two of the extra- point kicks, briefly frustrating the Panthers, who didn’t get to start the second half with a running clock.