Friday night’s game was extremely important to the Falcons, as a win over NFA would at least guarantee a tie for the ECC Division 1 championship. If you factor in that Fitch hasn’t won a game on NFA’s field in over a decade, it raises the stakes going into the game even more. The first two quarters were slow with a halftime score of only 8-0, after Junior Melakai Maddox took one to the house on a 17 yard rush, including a fake PAT attempt pass received by Junior Skylar Noland to convert the 2 points. NFA struggled to get positive yardage as they only had one redzone trip in the first half which resulted in a turnover on downs.

Coming into the second half the Falcons were looking to put this game away, as they started it with the ball. With a strong performance from Fitch’s running backs Thomas Williams, who had 112 yards plus a touchdown, and Shawn Beebe who scored on the ground with a 23 yard rush. They created a multiple score lead and proved to be too much for the Wildcat run defense. 

Although the offense showed out, the Fitch defensive line is what kept the score margin so large throughout the second half. Seniors Elijah Shelton and Sean Porter both made an impact with 2 sacks plus multiple tackles for loss. The Falcon secondary also looked like a no fly zone as they gathered 2 interceptions throughout the night from Juniors Melakai Maddox and Skylar Noland. Maddox went for another score as he seemed to be unstoppable with over 140 yards and 2 TDs on the night. At this point the game was out of reach for NFA and the clock ran out.

Fitch now looks onto the next week against division rival East Lyme, a win this game will secure the ECC Division 1 Championship for the Falcons. With the intensity displayed by the run game and defense over the course of this season, a win should not be a difficult task.