Normally if a team holds an opponent to just four plays in the opening quarter, and forced a turnover, you would think that team would be in pretty good shape headed into the second quarter. However, if three of the the four plays were touchdowns, that could change the outlook on the situation.
That is exaclty what happenned to the Fort Campbell Falcons Friday night as they lost 42-0 in their district opener at home against the Mayfield Cardinals. The Falcons recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff at the Mayfield 25 yard line. The Falcons would get as close as the eight yard line, but would be stopped on 4th down.
The very next play, the Cardinals Kylan Galbreath rambled 92 yards to put Mayfield up 7-0 with 9:10 to go in the opening quarter. The very next time Mayfield got the ball, they took over at the Fort Campbell 30 yard line. The very next play, Jayden Stinson hooked up with Alonzo Daniel for a 30 yard score to make it 13-0 with 5:16 left in the first.
On the their next possession, the Falcons were forced to try a punt from deep in their own end of the field. The snap to the punter sailed out of the end zone for a safety to make it 15-0. Following the free kick, it took the Cardinals two plays to score this time, the touchdown coming on a 16 yard run by Galbreath to make it 21-0 with 2:29 left in the first.
Stinson threw his 2nd touchdown of the night midway through the second quarter, this time connecting with Kade Neely from 12 yards to make it 28-0. The Falcons were forced to punt on the ensuing possession, pinning the Cardinals at their own 6 yard line. Turned out it was no big deal, as Mayfield had its third one play drive of the night. This score came on a 94 yard pass from Stinson to Tate Puckett to extend the lead to 35-0 with 5:07 to go in the half.
The Cardinals capped off the first half scoring blitz when Galbreath scored his third touchdown of the half, this one from four yards out, with 46 seconds left in the half to blow the lead out to 42-0.
With the running clock, the second half played out quickly, with neither team really generating a threat. Mayfield’s starters did not see the field in the second half of play.
For the game, Mayfield outgained Fort Campbell 400-92. The Cardinals had 147 rushing yards and 253 passing yards. The Falcons finished with -10 yards rushing and 102 yards passing.
The only negative for the Cardinals was they did have two turnovers in the contest, but neither came back to bite them.
Fort Campbell drops to 0-6 on the season and 0-1 in district play. Mayfield improves to 5-1 and 1-0.