Sept. 3FALCONS 30 – VISTA RIDGE 3The Falcons hosted Vista Ridge Sept. 3 for their first football game of the 2010 season. It was a beautiful night for football, and the Falcons were on top of their game, winning by a score of 30-3.The Falcons received the opening kickoff, but were forced to punt on fourth down, and Vista Ridge immediately hung 3 points on the Falcons with a first-quarter field goal. They were the only points allowed by the Falcon defense. The defense played phenomenal throughout the entire ball game, and the inexperience of the Wolves showed up in the second half. In the third and fourth quarters the Falcons wore them down because the Falcons were a more experienced and conditioned team.On offense, the Falcons had a total of 360 yards, with 228 yards of that on the ground. The totals are exceptional for the first game of the season. Senior quarterback Joey Caron came out firing, and had 131 yards in the air. Coach Jason Catron said Joey did a great job with his play action fakes, and it looks like he’ll have another good year. Some things that Catron wanted to see happen did, so he was pleased with the overall performance and is looking for some good things throughout the season.The Falcons were forced to punt just one time, so you can see they were really in control on both sides of the ball. The Falcons were also in total control of the clock throughout the game. Eight, nine and 10 offensive plays were the norm on most of the Falcon’s offensive series. Joe Vela touched the ball three times during the night, with two going for touchdowns. The top ground gainers for the Falcons were sophomore running back Keenan Britton, with 117 yards rushing, and senior free safety and starting running back Jade Gale, who ended up with 86 yards. Anytime you have not only one but two backs running for around 100 yards in a game, you can usually expect a favorable outcome at the end of the game.On the defensive side of the ball, senior linebacker Brandon Albright had eight and one-half tackles; senior free safety Jade Gale had seven and one-half tackles; and senior linebacker Chris Rucker had six and one-half tackles. As you can tell by these figures, the Wolves did not have much of a chance to get their offense rolling. Overall, Catron said the Falcons played really well. He is excited for all his players and the Falcon program, as it goes forward for the 2010 season. This game was a tremendous start for what looks like an exciting year of football at Falcon High. Sept. 9FALCONS 29 – PUEBLO SOUTH COLTS 28For the second game of the season, the Falcons made the trip south to Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo for a 7 p.m. shootout with a talented Pueblo South Colt squad. It was another great night for football, and the stands were filled with boosters from both schools.The game started out with a bang, and never let up. The Falcons scored first, and then the Colts scored. It went back and forth like that until the end of the fourth quarter. With just under two minutes left in the fourth quarter and trailing by a touchdown, the Falcons had to go to their no-huddle offense. They scored on a 40-yard pass play from Joey Caron to Joe Vela to give the Falcons the tying score at 28-28. The extra point try by Isaac Schoeppey was good and put the Falcons ahead by 1, 29-28. Schoeppey also had a 30-yard 3-pointer. It almost seemed that the Falcons might have scored too soon. After the Falcon’s final score and with about a minute and a half left on the clock, Pueblo received the kickoff and was marching down the field for what appeared to be the possible winning touchdown or field goal. They were helped on the final drive by a somewhat questionable roughing-the-passer penalty, but a couple of fumbled snaps from the shotgun put them out of field goal range, and a last-second Hail Mary pass was batted down by the Falcon defense to preserve the 1-point Falcon victory.Coach Catron said it was one of the most exciting games he has ever been part of. Caron had another good night throwing the ball, with 128 yards through the air and two touchdowns. His totals might have been greater, except a couple of balls that probably should have been caught were dropped, and one pass was dropped in the end zone with what would have been a touchdown. Joe Vela ended up with four catches for 76 yards and two touchdowns. The leading ground gainer for the second straight game was sophomore Keenan Britton, with 148 yards on 28 carries. Fullback Andrew Hunley had six carries for 25 yards and a touchdown. Catron said they were not planning to use Britton as much as they did, but Pueblo was giving the Falcons the off-tackle slot defensively, so it was a no-brainer.The Falcon offensive front line played well for the second game in a row. The Falcon defensive front had some problems against Pueblo by not wrapping their ball carriers up and letting them go for extra yards. That put a lot of pressure on the Falcon defensive backs, but again they rose to the occasion by coming up with a lot of stops. The leading tackler was Logan Balaich, with seven and one-half stops; followed by Brandon Albright, with five and one-half tackles; and safety Jade Gale had five tackles.The Colts had a solid team and several good athletes. They had an exceptional quarterback, who had experience and size that helped them on their option plays. Catron said he was pleased with the character and confidence his team showed. Even when they were behind, they never lost their composure. The Falcons have yet to play a conference game, and are 2 – 0 in nonconference matchups.Homecoming 2010Sept. 17FALCON 41 – LITTLETON LIONS 21The homecoming game against Littleton Sept. 17 drew a standing-room-only crowd at Falcon Stadium. The Falcons came out fast and strong, wasting no time putting points on the board. Jade Gale, filling in for Keenan Britton at running back, scored first on a 26-yard run with about three minutes gone in the first quarter, and then came right back with a touchdown run of 37 yards. On the night, Jade had 162 yards on 20 carries. The first quarter ended with the Falcons leading 14-0.Joey Caron found Zach Bagby crossing over the middle to start the second half, and hit him with a 57-yard reception for a touchdown. Wide receiver Joe Vela got in the mix in the second quarter with a 24-yard reception for a touchdown from “gunslinger” Joey Caron. With 10 seconds left in the first half, Vela caught a touchdown pass of 55 yards from Caron. Vela had 98 total yards on offense for the night. The score at halftime was Falcons 35 and Littleton 7. Isaac Schoeppey was perfect for the night, hitting all his extra points. Joey Caron was 6 for 13 for 169 yards passing with three touchdown passes and one interception. With three games played, Joey is averaging 143 yards through the air, while the ground game is running along averaging over 200 yards per game.The second half showed a little bit of a letdown, and Littleton scored two touchdowns. Because it was homecoming, Coach Jason Catron was trying to get as many of his reserve players in the game as possible. The defense scored the only points for Falcon in the second half. In the fourth quarter, Brandon Albright blocked a Littleton punt, and recovered it in the end zone for the touchdown. The special teams had a good night, with Jade Gale returning two kickoffs and two punts for 65 yards, and David Beals getting 77 yards on two returns.Littleton was a big, physical team that really spread the Falcon defense out, but defensive coordinator Coach Spain had his boys up to the task. The defense played well throughout the game. Brandon Albright and Jarred McCorvey each had an interception. The leading tacklers for the Falcons were Andrew Hunley with seven, Jade Gale with six and one-half and Brandon Albright with five.This column does not necessarily represent the views of The New Falcon Herald.
