Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Mounties Claim Win At New Stadium
FARMINGTON — Farmington suffered a double dose of disappointment, losing its first 7A West Conference game as well as the first junior high game at the new Cardinal Stadium.
The junior Cardinals dropped the Monday, Aug. 26, game by a 28-14 score to Rogers, unable to capitalize on early opportunities and giving up big plays. The junior Cardinals were stopped on fourth-and-goal, inches from a touchdown that would have given them a lead in the first quarter.
“I always tell the boys, ‘Hey, the little things are important.’ Little things, little things, that was one of those little things,” said Farmington junior high coach Cody Napier. “Then we miss some tackles. We take a bad pursuit angle that resulted in them getting some big touchdowns. We played for the most part of the game with them right there, tough and tough; and like three plays kind of determined the outcome of that game swinging to the other way.”
Farmington dominated field position throughout the first quarter after kicking off to start the game. Sam Wells kicked the ball into the end zone resulting in a touchback. A holding penalty pushed Rogers back to the 10 and Jordan Walker’s pressure on the quarterback caused an incomplete pass. Traylen Moser nearly blocked the punt which traveled only 17 yards setting up the junior Cardinals in prime position with first and 10 at the Mounties’ 27.
That would be their best field position of the game. Landyn Faught had a pair of nice gains for 8 yards to the 14 and another of 7 yards inside the Mountie 5-yard line, but couldn’t score.
“We went down there, we were on the one-yard line, it’s fourth down and we were inches away from scoring; and there were several things that in this game kind of changed the outcome of the game,” Napier said.
Farmington twice committed offsides infractions allowing Rogers to move the ball out of the shadow of its own goal line. Rogers used a hard snap count to convert fourthand-three from its own 8, then replicated the ruse on fourthand-two at the 21.
“I told the boys everything is important especially those little things. That’s something we’re going to get better at as a team. We’re going to correct those things for sure,” Napier said.
Rogers scored on its third drive, marching 41 yards in six plays set up by a 29-yard run on fourth-and-1 from the junior Cardinal 32. The Mounties got a second touchdown after recovering a fumble. Farmington center Hunter Marshall prevented a defensive touchdown by running down the returner, but Rogers scored on the next play and converted a 2-point try to take a 14-0 lead with 1:28 left in the first half.
Will Hellard broke an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown on the ensuing kickoff. He bounced off a hit near midfield, and turned on the jets outrunning Rogers’ coverage team up the left hash.
“We came out and we kicked the ball off and we got the ball back and we kind of had a couple of goofs up on our blocks. I told the boys, ‘Hey, we got to get there and we got to do our jobs every individual job,’ and that next one I got on the boys, said, ‘Hey, we do this right, we’re going to score.’ And that’s exactly what they did. They got in there, they got their blocks, and hooked it up and we took one to the house,” Napier said. “That’s exactly what we were looking for right there.”
Rogers led 14-6 at halftime and expanded its lead to 28-6 at the end of the third quarter by scoring on a pair of wide receiver screens that turned into long plays.
Farmington played both Cameron Vanzant and Wells at quarterback and alternated them at wide receiver.
“Both of those guys (are) very athletic, both capable and we kind of wanted to see what both of them can do,” Napier said. “They’ve got some things to learn and experience things. We had some goofs on both sides of them, but for the most part, they stepped in there and we definitely got better tonight with that experience.”
Farmington fashioned a 6-play, 48-yard scoring drive capped by Wells’ 14-yard bootleg when he sold a fake by pretending to handoff. Earlier in the drive Wells passed to Vanzant for 23 yards and Vanzant ran a jet sweep six yards to the Rogers’ 14. The tandem connected on a 2-point conversion to make the score, 28-14, with 6:54 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Napier praised the play of safety Michael DeRonda and linebacker Peyton Funk on defense, saying he was really proud of those two with both impressing him against Rogers.
“Two guys tonight that really impressed me, one, Michael DeRonda, he stepped in at safety. He’s a kid, who’s kind of worked his way into a starting position. We went and scrimmaged Fayetteville Purple and Van Buren last week and he stepped up and made some tackles so he got some reps in practice. We played him tonight and he did a good job. And another kid that man he’s just a worker, a football player, and he does everything to the best of his ability, that’s Peyton Funk. I was really proud of those two tonight.”