After a slow start, Fairfield Union turned the tables on Amanda-Clearcreek and cruised to a big MSL-Buckeye Division win.
LANCASTER — In 1999, Fairfield Union coach Andy Clark was a senior at Chesapeake High School and helped his team to an 11-0 record and a spot in the Region 19 semifinals.
In his team’s way of a spot in the regional final that season was the Amanda-Clearcreek Aces, who thumped Clark and Chesapeake and went on to win the Division V state championship under then-coach Ron Hinton. The Aces had also been a thorn in the side of the Falcons for the better part of those 20 years as well, winning 16 of 21 games up until 2020.
However, since the 2021 season, it’s been all Falcons in the rivalry and Friday night’s game was the latest Falcon victory. Fairfield Union forced three turnovers and completely shut down Amanda-Clearcreek’s run game to run away with a 34-14 victory at Fairfield Union Stadium.
“Tons of respect for Amanda-Clearcreek,” Clark said after the game. “Any time you can beat a team like that with their history, you get up for it and our kids take pride in playing them. When you have someone like that next door with the tradition and the years and years of not being on the good side of the scoreboard against them makes it sweeter.”
Fairfield Union (5-4, 4-2 MSL Buckeye) came into the game having allowed just three points — scoring only six points in last week’s victory over Circleville — but the way the game with the Aces started out, it appeared that the two teams may be in for a dogfight and an offensive explosion.
Amanda-Clearcreek (4-5, 2-3) used some trickery on the first play of the game that caught the Falcons defense in a state of confusion. Karsin Amann took a pitch from quarterback Carter Madison wide right and faked a handoff to Tommy Stai on a reverse. Amann then ran toward the sideline and, just before he stepped out of bounds, threw the ball down field to a wide-open Boston Fowler, who outran the Falcon defense 63 yards for a touchdown and an early 7-0 lead.
Fairfield Union went three-and-out on its first possession, but its defense gave it a spark when Cash Stover recovered an Aces fumble and set the Falcons up in Aces territory. A few plays later, Lane Burkardt powered into the endzone for a five-yard touchdown, but a missed extra point kept the Aces in front, 7-6.
On the Aces next drive, the visitors fed the ball to Stai to the tune of four carries for 51 yards and he capped it with a 19-yard touchdown run to boost their lead to 14-6 with 4:18 left to play in the first quarter. During a timeout on that possession, Clark was clearly frustrated with the effort of the defense as the Aces gashed the Falcons with ease, picking up 128 yards on their first two scoring drives.
But from that point on, the Falcons defense locked in and shut down Stai and the Aces offense to the tune of just 74 total yards for the remaining 40 minutes of the game.
“We have a gritty bunch of kids,” Clark said. “(Amanda-Clearcreek) got out to a hot start, the first play of the game popped a score there, and we took the punches and just kept punching back. And I felt like from that point on we controlled the tempo of the game and controlled the game overall.”
Fairfield Union tied the game with one minute left in the first quarter when Burkhardt scored on a one-yard run that capped a 9-play, 75-yard scoring drive. Quarterback Dean Clark scored on a two-point conversion try that tied the game at 14-14.
The Falcons scored just before halftime when Clark scored on a five-yard keeper that gave them their first lead of the game, and a lead they did not relinquish. In the second half, the Falcons scored on their first possession when Burkhardt broke off a 44-yard touchdown run — his third score of the game — that really seemed to break the game open.
Burkhardt, a junior listed at 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds, looked every bit like a workhorse back, finishing with a game-high 147 rushing yards on 25 carries to go with his three scores. Clark added 86 yards on the ground and 102 passing yards as the second part of a dynamic backfield for the game.
“It starts with the offensive line, we don’t do any of that without those guys that did a great job,” Clark said. “But Lane’s been a workhorse all year, if you look at him you wouldn’t think he’s the workhorse because of his size, but he plays way bigger with a lot of heart and is super competitive and just doing a great job.”
Even with the loss, Amanda-Clearcreek still has a chance at the postseason, hovering around the final playoff spot in Region 19. It will come down to its Week 10 game at Liberty Union (3-6) as well as hoping for some teams around them in the points rankings to lose to help solidify a spot.
For Fairfield Union, the win boosts the Falcons’ playoff chances as they still are currently penciled in around the final few playoff spots in Region 15. The Falcons host John Marshall from West Virginia next week as they aim to lock up a playoff spot.
“We have an improved John Marshall team coming in here, so we’re going to have our hands full again. There’s no such thing as an easy game for us,” Clark said. “It’s one day at a time, one week at a time, and the playoffs will sort themselves out. We get no say in it, we just have to win, and that’s the goal.”
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Fairfield Union's push for playoffs takes big step after win over A-C
Category: General Sports
