When Dalton Cloyd ran the opening kickoff 94 yards to the house, one might assume that Fair Grove could easily roll over Catholic and that this game could be a high-scoring affair.
Neither assumption would be true.
On Saturday, the Fair Grove Eagles did beat Springfield Catholic, but by the narrowest of margins.
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“We knew it would be a game like this,” said Fair Grove coach Bill Voorhis. “With the coaching staff like [Catholic] has over there and that kind of special kid at quarterback, you knew it was not going to be like the kind of games we’ve been having.”
49-7; 50-14; 75-0. Those are the final scores from Fair Grove’s previous three games this year. But this one was different. Springfield Catholic fought and gave the Eagles everything they could handle in a game that came down to the final possession.
Catholic’s quarterback Tyson Riley was a stud for the Irish. Not only did he rally his team to take the lead after trailing – twice – but he also scored his team’s only two touchdowns on the night.
With the Irish trailing 7-6 late in the third quarter, Riley piloted a 10-play, 66-yard scoring drive and ran into the end zone from six yards out. He also ran in the two-point conversion to give Catholic a 14-7 lead with 45.9 seconds remaining in the quarter.
That lead didn’t last long at all. On the ensuing possession, Fair Grove capped off a two-play, 62-yard drive and two-point conversion to regain the lead 15-14 before the third quarter ended.
Both plays were running plays by Dalton Cloyd. He busted a 59-yard run and then punched it in from the three yard line on the next play.
In addition to his 94-yard kick return touchdown, Cloyd also added 10 carries for 76 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
“You never want it to come down that close,” said Cloyd after the win. “You wanna put it away early. But they are a good team and when it got hard, we just kept playing harder. That’s what I thought.”
“Dalton is a special kid,” said Voorhis. “He’s made himself into that player through his hard work. He grinds and works hard every day… We knew it was just a matter of time before he would do something special tonight.”
But the Fightin’ Irish weren’t done fightin’ just yet.
With 2:49 remaining in the game, Riley punched in another score from the 8-yard line. They tried for two to go up seven points, but the conversion failed. Catholic regained the lead 20-15 with less than three minutes to play.
And just like the first time they fell behind, the Eagles responded quickly and in a big way.
On the next possession, a facemask penalty by Catholic set Fair Grove up on their opponent’s 46-yard line. The Eagles took advantage of the mistake on the very next play. Jayden Kensinger tossed a bomb to a wide-open Isaac Mauldin down the right hash for the go-ahead score 21-20.
“We actually got that play from a coach on our staff who has a brother at Tulsa Union,” said Voorhis. “We got that play from him. We’ve had it in our back pocket all summer long. We haven’t used it yet and we just felt like it was the right time. Jayden throws that ball really well in practice, so we thought we’d give it a shot. It was kind of a gut feeling.”
That left Catholic with just 1:54 to drive down the field and score. Even a field goal would do the trick, but the Fair Grove defense stepped up when they needed to.
Catholic’s final possession went as follows: incomplete pass, sack (time out), incomplete pass, incomplete pass. And on 4th and 12 with the game on the line, it was none other than Mauldin who came up with the big pass breakup.
“It felt pretty good knowing I caught the game-winning touchdown,” said Mauldin, “and I stopped the one chance for them to really catch the ball and try to take it down [the field] again.”
“[Defensive coordinator] Mark Talbert put together a special game plan,” said Coach Voorhis. “I thought to keep a team like that to 20 points says a lot about our defense. It says more about our defense tonight than our offense.”
Riley finished with 77 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns. Irish running back Ramiro Avilla carried the ball 21 times and racked up 103 yards.
But despite a valiant effort, Catholic falls to 2-2 on the season. They’ll get back in action next week when they travel to Bolivar in hopes of handing the Liberators their second conference loss this season.
Fair Grove improves to a pristine 4-0. They have no intentions of dropping a game for the rest of the season.
“Go undefeated,” said Mauldin. “Conference champs. Just take it to the top.”
“We’re trying to win every game,” said Cloyd. “Just win ‘em all. This is one more step. It was a close one, but we just gotta keep winning one game at a time."
