It wasn’t a friendly road opener for Fairfield Friday night at Heritage, losing to the Patriots 39-13 on the gridiron.
Blake Metzger had a highlight reel play with a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and added a 52-yard punt return. Brooks Custer had the other Fairfield score, a 39-yard touchdown run. The Patriot defense held leading rusher Breckan Maran to just 21 yards on the ground. Ethan Hochstetler led the Falcon defense with seven stops and a sack.
Fairfield pulled back a game, but couldn’t keep the momentum in a 3-1 volleyball loss to No. 8 NorthWood Tuesday night in the Nest. Taking game two, 25-19, after a game one loss, Fairfield couldn’t get any further in losing the next two games in lopsided fashion to the sectional rival Panthers. Alice Morrison, McKenna Fisher and Macy Worthman all finished with six kills for the Falcons. NorthWood won the JV game, 2-0. Kylie Beachy and Joya Holsopple each had six digs in the loss.
Against another quality opponent Thursday, Fairfield fell short in a marathon 3-2 loss at Mishawaka Marian. Down 2-1, Fairfield won game four, 25-12, but couldn’t finish it off in game five, losing 15-10. Morrison had 11 kills, eight digs and three aces, Maddy Miller had 23 assists, eight digs and a block, and Amanda McGuire added 15 digs. The JV beat Marian in three, winning 15-7 in the clincher. Savanah Buss had four kills and Neil Rumfelt had nine assists and two aces.
Fairfield had a tough weekend at the prestigious Mishawaka Invite on Saturday, dropping a match to eventual champion Lafayette Harrison as well as losses to Marian and Elkhart among its action. Stats from the weekend were not immediately provided.
Fairfield girls XC won all three duals in a four-way Tuesday at Bremen, beating the Lions, John Glenn and Plymouth to move its historical program win total to 201 all-time. Natalee Lambright was third, Lyla Dennis fourth, Katie Kuhn fifth and Lorelei Shively was eighth to lead the Lady Falcons. Full results from the boys meet were not immediately available.
On Aug. 19, the Fairfield junior cross teams ran at Lakeland, Caden Harris leading the boys with the top time in the meet while Layla Stoltzfus was second in the girls race. Levi Sydor and Easton Garber were top 10 for the boys while Ellie Carl and Jules Hinkle were top 10 for the girls.
The girls finished second and the boys were third at the Oak Hill Invite on Saturday. Also of note, the junior high boys won their division and the junior high girls were fifth. Harris paced the junior high runners with a second-place finish and Sydor was third. Stoltzfus was third overall to pace the girls junior team.
It’s always good to get a win over NorthWood, and boys tennis raised the flag with a 5-0 win Monday. Garrett Stoltzfus won by shutout at one singles and Chase Buckholz recovered from a second set loss to Caleb Yoder to rally for a 6-1 third set clincher. Fairfield also polished off NorthWood with 11 of 15 JV court wins. Tuesday evening, Fairfield allowed just four games in sweeping Prairie Heights, 5-0. Stoltzfus, Cooper LeCount and the duo of Matt Holsopple and Andrew Mathews at doubles all won by shutout.
Busco provided no major opposition on Friday, Fairfield sweeping the match 5-0 with the Falcons allowing just three games to the Eagles. Less than 24 hours later, Fairfield also swept past East Noble, 5-0, all five courts in straights for the Falcons. Highlight matches against the Knights was a one and love win from LeCount at two singles and a one and one run by Grady Garber and Drew Beachy at two dubs. The JV also saw success, moving to 7-1 on the year with wins over the Eagles and Knights.
Addie Mast was again sensational, shooting a 40 with nothing over bogey to lead Fairfield to a 204-239 win over Elkhart Monday evening. Mallory McGowen at 50 and Bella Blosser at 53 both came in ahead of the top Elkhart score to help the Fairfield cause. Tuesday was McGowen’s turn to lead the charge, shooting a 45 to medal in the 196-280 NECC win over Prairie Heights.
Mast finished second with an 81 and Blosser shot 97 for eighth overall as Fairfield finished second at 389 at the Westview Invite Saturday afternoon. Fremont won the tournament with a 375, led by medalist Khloe Glendening’s 81, winning honors on a tiebreaker. McGowen had a 103 and Paige Lantz shot 108 for Fairfield.