Fairfield football ushered in the Cory Stoner era right off the jump Friday night, recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff and never looked back in a 55-17 win at Goshen. The Falcons ran wild on the RedHawks by gaining 511 yards on the ground, led by Blake Metzger’s 250 yards and three scores. Breckan Maran also crossed into triple digits with 108 yards with a score and a two-pointer. Cole McCloud, Isaac Yoder and Hunter Kauffman also added scores on the ground, and Kasey Hershberger added a receiving touchdown in the blowout.
Kauffman, Maran and Elijah Miller all had five tackles to lead the defense.
In the JV game Saturday morning, Columbia City visited Fairfield and left with a 20-14 win.
Fairfield girls golf took on NorthWood Tuesday, but couldn’t keep pace with the Panthers in a 224-189 loss at Meadow Valley. Bella Blosser had the low round for the hosts with a card of 46. Sophie Richmond continued her hot start of the year for NorthWood with a three-over medalist round of 39.
Knowledge of the home course may have been the difference Thursday as Fremont squeaked out a 215-216 victory over Fairfield, with Central Noble behind both at 227. Blosser was the medalist for the match with a 47, but while Fremont were all in the 50s, Fairfield had one in the 60s, which played into the equation. Mallory McGowen had a 51 in the NECC split.
Cross country took on a pair of neighbors in NorthWood and host Bremen Tuesday in Marshall County. The girls side worked over Bremen, 15-50, and NorthWood, 23-32, to earn its first two dual wins of the season. Natalee Lambright was first overall and Lyla Dennis was third to highlight the Lady Falcons. The Falcon boys split its two duals, losing to NorthWood, 31-27, but beating the host Lions, 25-31. Evan Correll was the race medalist, with brother, Carson, in third. Kaden Decker was eighth.
At Saturday’s Huntington Invite, the boys placed seventh and the girls tenth in a loaded field of northeast Indiana powers. The boys had a pair of top 25 finishes, with Evan Correll 13th overall at 17:06 and Carson Correll 21st at 17:17. Caden Harris was third in for the Falcons (17:49), followed by Levi Sydor (18:50) and Dillon Fussle (19:32). Lambright had the lone top 25 for the Lady Falcons, taking 18th overall at 20:29, yet the team had six season or personal bests in the meet. Dennis (21:30), Lorelei Shively (22:44), Emma Walter (23:05) and Claire Foust (24:00) were the scorers for the blue and gold. Fort Wayne Carroll won the boys team title and Fort Wayne Concordia the girls title at Huntington.
Volleyball hit the road Tuesday for its second NECC match in a row, and found the hospitality less than friendly in a 3-0 loss at Fremont. Elli Yoder had seven digs and Maddy Miller added five assists and four digs for the Lady Falcons. In the JV contest, Fairfield rallied from a game down to beat Fremont 2-1, taking the clincher 15-11. In its first step outside the NECC, Fairfield hosted its neighbor, Wawasee, and battled to a 3-1 win Thursday night. Fairfield were aggressive at the net, with Eva Herbert leading the charge with 13 kills and six blocks, and Ariana Schwartz had 10 kills. Schwartz and Elli Yoder each had 17 digs, and Miller added 10 digs, 21 assists and three aces. The JV started the night with a 2-1 win, rolling 15-4 in the third game. Savannah Buss had eight kills and Shelby Cripe dug 19 attempts for the junior Falcons.
Boys tennis opened with a fury Thursday, shutting out Bremen, 5-0, at the DeSantis Tennis Courts in Bremen. The Falcons took four of the five courts in straights, led by a one-love win by Garrett Stoltzfus and a one-two win by Grady Garber. The junior Falcons also rolled, winning 12 of 13 courts.
In a matchup of two of the premier singles players in the area, Stoltzfus made a statement by knocking off Penn’s Chris Chen, 6-3, 6-3, among action at the Northridge Invite on Saturday. Stoltzfus also beat Northridge’s Seth Lomas, 6-2, 6-1, in the other team matchup for Fairfield, which beat the Raiders, 5-0, and lost to the Kingsmen, 4-1.
In the win over Ridge, Drew Beachy beat Josiah Schrock love and one, Grady Garber beat Peyton Schrock 6-2, 7-5, the one dubs duo of Brant Garber and Andrew Mathews knocked off Gavin Mullins and Ollie Burnstine two and love, and Cameron Cripe and Conner LeCount took care of Joe Snyder and Jayden Ramirez two and four.
The JV played at the Penn Invite, beating Northridge and Valpo by matching 4-1 results and lost to Penn 4-1.