It was a heartbreaking end to the boys tennis season for Fairfield, falling to Goshen 4-1 in Friday’s semi-final round of the Goshen Boys Tennis Sectional.
Fairfield, which finished 17-3 overall this season, had two of its losses come to Goshen, the loss on Friday with just Chase Buckholz a court winner at three singles. Among the loss was also Garrett Stoltzfus’ only loss of the year, falling to Pi Wellington to close out his outstanding season. Goshen would go on to beat Bremen in the finals on Saturday.
The Falcons finished its season Wawasee Invite champs as well as regular season and tournament champions in the Northeast Corner Conference.
Cross country officially entered the second season with entry in the NECC Championships on Saturday. The girls finished second overall and the boys fifth in the team standings, trailing West Noble in the girls standings and Angola topping the boys standings.
The girls had six earn All-NECC honors for finishing within the top 25, led by First Team honors for Kaitlyn Kuhn (10th, 21:09), Lyla Dennis (12th, 21:18) and Natalee Lambright (14th, 21:21). Also earning Honorable Mention All-NECC awards were Lorelei Shively (19th, 22:00), Claira Foust (20th, 22:03) and Emma Walker (23th, 22:18).
The boys had two earn honors, Evan Correll (13th, 17:32) for All-NECC and Ethan Garcia (16th, 17:36) for Honorable Mention All-NECC. Just off the pace was Kaden Decker, who was 27th at 18:32.
The two programs will compete at the Elkhart Sectional in two weeks (Oct. 14) at Ox Bow Park.
Fairfield capped a fun senior night with a 3-1 win over Central Noble Thursday on the volleyball court.
Eva Herbert commanded the net for the Lady Falcons with 13 kills and two blocks, and added three aces to boot. Amanda McGuire led the seniors with 20 digs while Maddy Miller and Abby Graber combined for 36 assists. The Cougars edged the Falcons in the JV contest, taking a 2-1 win after a 15-13 third set. Lacy Stoltzfus had three kills and two aces, Graber had six digs and three assists, and Shelby Cripe added seven digs.
At Saturday's Elkhart Invite, the varsity went 0-2, losing to Elkhart, 3-0, and Fort Wayne Dwenger, 3-1. Addy Piasecki had a standout day for the Lady Falcons, collecting 12 digs, seven kills and three aces. McGuire added 20 digs, Miller had 18 assists, and Herbert piled up nine kills and eight blocks.
Garrett used a late touchdown to get past Fairfield, 22-19, Friday night in NECC gridiron action.
Fairfield used touchdown runs from Blake Metzger and Breckan Maran as well as a pair of two-point conversions, plus a 33-yard Sawyer Ernsberger field goal, to take a 19-14 lead into the half.
Garrett would get the winning score on a quarterback keeper by Calder Hefty.
JV opened the week up with a strong defensive effort in a 6-0 win over Angola. Aries Ambrose led the Falcon defense with eight tackles. Miguel Gutierrez had the game’s lone touchdown, a 27-yard run, in the first quarter. Gutierrez finished with 41 yards rushing and Warren Kaufman carried the rock 18 times for 75 yards.
The Falcon C team completed the sweep of Angola with a 20-12 win. Kahler Maust had a pair of touchdown runs and hit Cole Knight with a 20-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field. Miguel Gutierrez added 102 yards on the ground and a long interception return to thwart a potential tying Hornet score, sending the Falcons to 5-0 on the season.