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Falcon’s Diehl pounds in 4 TDs in 49-6 win over BDHS
Though the final score of a game is not always indicative of each side's season, the Friday night match up between Fauquier and Brentsville District summed up everything succinctly.The Falcons (5-1 overall, 1-0 district) opened up its Evergreen District season with a 49-6 drubbing of the Tigers (1-5, 1-1), continuing the paths both teams set since the second week of the regular season.
Fauquier quarterback Garrett Diehl rushed in four touchdowns during the first half after his counterpart from Brentsville, KC Willard, put up the Tigers' on the board first with a touchdown though the extra point attempt failed.
Sophomore running back Robert Scott added another Fauquier touchdown to give the flying red a 35-6 lead heading into half time, a margin that only grew from there.
Junior wide receiver JP Rodriguez cut inside and on a cross route at the Brentsville 33-yard line with less than a minute to go in the third quarter and weaved through the Tigers' occupied secondary to bump the score up to 42-6.
Linebacker Hunter Ball picked off Brentsville in Fauquier territory during the final minute of the game and darted back over 60 yards to pay dirt to seal the Falcons' first district win. Fauquier junior kicker Arch Randolph hit seven out of seven extra points on the night and senior line backer Robert Maldonado brought in two interceptions, stunting the Tigers' offense.
According to Diehl, the Falcons' bye week leading into the game gave the team enough reps during practice to prepare for a Brentsville team that did not always do what they expected.
"They're a tough team, they're going to come out with energy," said the senior quarterback, who doubled as a defensive back. "They have nothing to lose. They're looking to win a game so we came out, stuck to our guns, and as soon as we had our backs against the wall, we answered."
Brentsville coach Dean Reedy credited Fauquier for providing power off the snap.
"I mean, you're facing a very explosive offense. We tried to get in a tight (spot), slow the pace of the game down, control the clock," said Reedy. "We did pretty good."
That rang true more so in the second half than the first half when Diehl repeatedly hooked up with wide receiver Darius Stanford on both the long ball and short routes while the Fauquier offensive line took care oncoming attacks by Brentsville.
"They got weapons spread all over the field," said Reedy. "They did a nice job with their blocking scheme up front. They do a good job of picking up blitzes and all of that, you know?"
Fauquier fended off Brentsville's man-to-man coverage despite film study showing that the Tigers did not necessarily use a lot of that sort of defense, according to Falcons coach Mark Scott.
"We weren't necessarily expecting it, but we practice against it all the time, so our guys knew what to do, we knew what routes we were going to," said Scott. "Garrett did a good job in distributing the football, making good reads."
Utilizing an empty backfield to free up five wide receivers actually enhanced Diehl's running game as it spread the Tigers out defensively. Diehl mentioned that offensive linemen Evan Oddenino, Luca Carillo, Max Biskup, Ben Harris and Jesse Matthews "pulled hard" against four Brentsville defenders inside the box, which neutralized the front line of Brentsville's attack.
"You break through that first line (and) it's a touchdown," he said. "My line opened stuff up and I just ran through there."
For the Tigers, the 43-point loss to Fauquier turned out to be the biggest of the season as it eclipsed the 40-7 defeat at the hands of James Wood on Oct. 1 and the 48-14 beating delivered by John Handley on Sept. 24.
In all, Brentsville's opponents outscored the Tigers 137-27 during the last three weeks and 183-51 on the season. Fauquier's been on the opposite end of that equation by a factor of 196-122 through the team's first six games. Brentsville's scored more than one touchdown just twice this season, one of which resulted in a 17-14 win on opening day as the Tigers came from behind to defeat Kettle Run.
Reedy mentioned that losing football games compounds more significant problems, such as the players coping with the Sept. 27 death of their teammate Austin Trenum.
"I can't, you can't, I don't know anybody that can explain" what they're going through, he said. "When you're down and you're getting beat, and, you know, it's harder to get their heads up. They've been through a lot."
The Tigers instead can only resort to taking the season on a game-by-game basis, something that sounds cliche but really hits home for the team from Nokesville.
"That's all you can do," said Reedy. 'We can't go back and change anything that's happened. We can't go back and put any more points up on the board. It's a double uphill battle now because you're fighting multiple negatives."
He added, "I mean, they've had enough as it is. You compile that with the loss ... it's not lack of effort."
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