Fairfield tennis moved into the final week of August with a solid win Monday at NorthWood, going 4-1 over the sectional hosts. The Falcons had quite the battle on both doubles courts, but came out with a Brant Garber/Andrew Mathews win at one dubs, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, and Matthew Holsopple/Cameron Cripe held on for a love and four result.
Garrett Stoltzfus made quick work at one singles, winning love and one, while Drew Beachy was almost as impressive in a love and three result at two singles.
The Fairfield JV battled to a 9-7 edge in undercard matches on the north side of the complex.
Thursday evening was a dominant performance by Fairfield in the Northeast Corner Conference, a 5-0 run-through of Churubusco. The Falcons allowed just six games to the Eagles, and were highlighted by a shutout at one singles by Stoltzfus and love-one scorelines at two singles and one dubs. Fairfield also ran through the JV matches in a 17-0 shutout.
The team capped the month with two big wins, beating Prairie Heights on Friday, 5-0, and East Noble on Saturday, 4-1. The Heights win was a reschedule from the heat postponement, but that didn’t change the outlook for the Falcons, which gave up just four games to the Panthers. Stoltzfus, Beachy and one dubs all won via shutout in the NECC contest. Against the Knights a few hours later, all three singles courts won, including a three-set rally by Grady Garber. The JV went a combined 21-1 in the two matchups.
Cross country had a big showing at the Oak Hill Invite this past weekend. Both ends of the program were ready to go, led by the high school boys team winning the team title, edging out Bluffton 60-62. Evan Correll and Carson Correll were both top 10, Evan third at 16:42 and Carson seventh at 17:16, but key were Caden Harris and Kaden Decker, both coming home at 17:52, to wedge out points from Bluffton in the aggregate. The high school girls team were second overall with 75 points, trailing state power Hamilton Heights’ 29 points atop the ledger. Natalee Lambright was second overall in the girls race at 20:07, followed by Lyla Dennis (8, 21:34) and Lorelei Shively (13, 22:08).
In the middle school races at Oak Hill, the Falcons were third and the Lady Falcons ninth in the team grids, led by Bently Smythe (8, 11:19) and Layna Stoltzfus (4, 12:16), respectively.
A week after running rampant over its backyard rival Goshen, Fairfield football could not get the engine started against a pesky Heritage defense at Falcon Field. Fairfield managed just 155 total yards as the Patriots closed out an impressive 21-0 win. Heritage scored on the final play of the first half to take a 13-0 lead into the break, and scored late in the third to pull away for good. Breckan Maran did manage 91 yards on 20 carries for Fairfield, but the Patriots did a great job keying on Blake Metzger, who was held to just 50 yards after posting over 250 all-purpose yards a week ago. Maran led the defense with nine tackles and Hunter Kauffman had seven stops. The JV came back Saturday and flipped the script, shutting out Heritage 14-0.
Fairfield picked up a girls golf win the easy way Monday, drawing a forfeit from Prairie Heights with just three Panthers suited up. Bella Blosser and Mallory McGowen had the top two round of the day, shooting 44 and 48, respectively.
Thursday, Garrett clipped Fairfield by a 198-207 score, West Noble trailing both at 240.
Blosser was the match medalist with a round of 41, and McGowen tied for the next-best score at 46. Vienna Griffith jumped into varsity duty and added a 57.
NorthWood made quite a statement Tuesday night in volleyball, breezing past Fairfield 3-0. Stats for Fairfield were not provided for the contest. The NorthWood JV and C teams also beat Fairfield 2-0.