Fallon senior Bryce Larsen wraps up Fernley's Logan Kibbe.
FERNLEY — The message was sent on the first play from scrimmage.
A 34-yard quick strike in Fallon’s first series set the tone as the Greenwave football team avenged last year’s loss to Fernley, winning 40-0 on Friday.
After forcing Fernley to punt on the opening series, junior quarterback Elijah Jackson found fellow junior Brock Richardson for a 34-yard touchdown to begin Fallon’s second week of avenging losses from last year. Fallon blew out Spring Creek last week after the Spartans beat the Greenwave twice in 2017.
Fallon visits Truckee on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in a battle of early-season favorites to win the Northern 3A division.
“Playing at their place, their confidence is going to come out really tough just like Fernley did,” Jackson said about facing Truckee. “They’re going to play the whole game through and not give up.”
Jackson powered the Greenwave offense with a strong performance, completing 14-of-23 passes for 224 yards and the lone touchdown to Richardson. He also ran the ball 11 times for 141 yards and three touchdowns.
“Fernley always comes out good,” Jackson said. “We wanted it more. We needed revenge from last year and this whole week in practice, we worked hard and pushed ourselves to a certain limit where we just couldn’t be stopped.”
Richardson also gave the Vaqueros a complex, running for 78 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns to go with 80 yards on four receptions for one score. Junior Tommy McCormick was Jackson’s favorite target, hauling in six receptions for 117 yards.
After Jackson’s only touchdown pass of the evening, he got going on the ground in the next series, capped off by a 1-yard keeper with 6 minutes, 1 second left in the first quarter.
Alternating between Richardson and senior Reid Clyburn in the backfield, one of the quarter’s final plays sent the senior running back to the sidelines. On his third carry of the game, Clyburn injured his leg on a late Fernley hit and did not return.
“We want to start out strong against everyone and it’s something we push for,” Fallon coach Brooke Hill said about the opening quarter. “We want the kids to come out and execute and we did early. Then the injury happened and it kind of took the wind out of our sails and we had to regroup. That’s football and we have to overcome adversity. The kids responded pretty well.”
After going almost 13 minutes without a score, the Greenwave added its third touchdown of the game when Richardson scored from 1 yard out with 5:31 left in the second, giving Fallon a 20-0 lead. A 71-yard run by Jackson with no time left in the half sent Fallon to the locker room with a 27-0 advantage.
With Clyburn on the sideline with a similar injury that had him most of the 2017 season, fellow senior Nick Delgado went down in the third quarter and did not return. Delgado, like Clyburn, suffered a season-ending injury last year.
With three minutes left in the third quarter, Fallon added to its lead when Jackson scored his final touchdown, a 4-yard run into the end zone. Richardson added a 3-yard touchdown run with 10:33 left in the fourth to engage the running clock.
Like Jackson lighting up the Fernley defense, junior Dominyke Edwards helped Fallon’s defense shut down the Vaquero offense. Edwards recorded 21 tackles, including 16 solo, registered the team’s only sack and recovered a fumble.
The senior Larsen brothers of Brenden and Bryce combined for 17 tackles (Brenden, 10, and one fumble recovery; Bryce, seven), and Richardson had the team’s only interception. Junior Ethan Andrews also forced and recovered a fumble.
“We blocked well on the edge. We executed well in the run game,” Hill said about the game. “We still have lapses in play. We got sloppy in that second quarter and in the second half. I thought we were physical again. Our guys like to hit and play fast. We’re tackling pretty well.”