Fallon defensive lineman Hunter Holcomb, right, and T.J. Magua bring down South Tahoe running back Dylan Gardner during the Wave's 48-21 win on Friday.
The South Tahoe football team got off to an ideal start against Fallon on Friday night — but once the Greenwave got rolling, they quickly took control of the game. Fallon scored five unanswered first-half touchdowns and sent the Vikings to a 48-21 defeat at Viking Stadium.
“We just couldn’t stop that for a little bit,” Vikings head coach Kevin Hennessee said of Fallon’s offense.
South Tahoe (0-4, 0-3 Northern I-A) put a premium on offensive production leading up to the game, and the extra work immediately paid off. The Vikings took the opening possession 79 yards in 10 plays for a score — a 25-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mason Cain to receiver Will Mori with 6:28 left in the opening frame capped the drive.
“We moved right down, we had some great catches and did some great things,” Hennessee said. “I knew that was something we were capable of, and that was what we thought we could do.”
Ahead 7-0, South Tahoe’s defense forced a three-and-out on the next drive. The Vikings were backed up to their own 10-yard line following the Greenwave punt, and after failing to get a first down the Vikings punted the ball back to their opponents.
A short punt gave Fallon (3-1, 3-0) a short field — and that’s when the visitors started rolling. The Greenwave needed only four plays to reach the end zone, tying things up with a 3-yard touchdown run from back Trae Workman with 2:34 remaining in the first quarter — the first of five unanswered scores before halftime.
Fallon started its next three possessions in South Tahoe territory — and all three drives went for touchdowns. The last of the scores came three plays after a Vikings’ fumble, an 18-yard run from back Charles Fulks that gave the Greenwave a 27-7 lead just more than two minutes into the second quarter.
“They’re a good team, and you can’t do that with good teams,” Hennessee said.
In less than five minutes, Fallon reeled off four touchdowns to put South Tahoe in a three-score hole. The Greenwave struck again just before halftime with an 80-yard run from Fulks to take a commanding 34-7 lead into the break — in the second quarter, STHS had 69 yards of offense with three turnovers and a pair of missed field goals.
On the first play from scrimmage of the second half, South Tahoe’s defense surrendered another big play to fall further behind. Fallon running back Nathan Heck took an inside handoff, bounced left and raced down the sideline for a 66-yard score that put the Vikings behind by 34.
“We know we are (explosive) — that’s kind of how we’ve been and we’re deep,” Fallon head coach Brooke Hill said. “We have a really talented team this year, they’re hardworking kids, they know how to play the game and they play physical — they come out ready to go all the time and that’s the mark of a good football team.”
South Tahoe ended Fallon’s string of six straight touchdowns on the next drive, when receiver Kirby David hauled in a Cain pass in the corner of the end zone for a 15-yard score. David’s acrobatic catch and balancing act midway through the third quarter made the score 41-14.
Fallon answered the Vikings’ first score since their opening drive with one of its own, and had a 48-14 lead after three quarters. Midway through the fourth quarter, David made a one-handed catch in the end zone on a pass from Cain for a 32-yard touchdown — the Greenwave ran out the last six minutes to remain undefeated in league play.
“We played better in the second half but we started running out of guys,” Hennessee said.
For South Tahoe, Cain finished 20-of-39 passing for 268 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions. David caught eight passes for a game-high 111 yards and two touchdowns, and receiver Brandon Erickson had four receptions for 76 yards — on the ground Vikings’ backs ran for minus-5 yards on 18 carries, often left nowhere to run.
“We knew they could throw the football a little bit — our guys just had to see it, and once they saw it we made some decent adjustments to it,” Hill added. “We did a good job of creating some turnovers, and hanging in there and hanging with it.”
Fallon ran for 256 yards in the victory, led by a pair 100-yard rushers — Fulks had 119 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries and Heck ran five times for 103 yards and two scores. Six of Fallon’s seven touchdowns on Friday night went for 17 yards or more.
“They’ve got some players,” Hennessee said. “We didn’t play as good of defense as we had the past couple weeks.”
Fallon takes on Dayton for Homecoming at 7 p.m. Friday, while South Tahoe visits Lowry (3-1, 2-1).
“Everybody should be back next week. We should be completely healthy for the first time and that’s promising,” Hennessee said. “We’re very close to finding success, and I think we’re going to get there.”
Freshmen, JV also win
The Fallon freshmen football team pitched a shutout last week at South Tahoe.
The Greenwave dropped South Tahoe, 12-0, as the Wave scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter. In addition, the defense forced four turnovers including two in the fourth quarter.
Fallon broke through for the game’s first score in the fourth quarter when Matt Goings capped a drive with a 3-yard TD run.
Chrisitan Nemeth added a 1-yard TD plunge to give the Wave a 12-0 lead. He also recovered a fumble stopping the Viking drive on 42-yard line in the second quarter.
Nemeth also had an interception in the fourth quarter, return the ball to the South Tahoe 14 and scored several plays later.
In the third quarter, Anthony Freeman sacked and stripped the ball from on the South Tahoe 46-yard line. Clayton Steelmon got Fallon’s first pick in the fourth quarter leading to Going’s TD run.
Fallon’s JV team picked up a 42-13 win on Friday. No other information was provided.