DOUGLAS, Ala. — On a cool, crisp September night Fairview wasted no time putting points on the board and collecting a 42-19 region win over the Douglas Eagles.
Fairview, who received the opening kickoff, put together a quick 6 play, 65-yard drive together behind senior running back Tyler Simmons 39 yards on four carries. Senior QB1 Parker Martin would cap the drive off with a 11-yard touchdown run that looked to be stopped a good 5 yards short of the goal line, but he would break tackles and drive his way into the endzone for an early 7-0 lead. Simmons, who has been battling some minor injuries, would see limited action and rest the rest of the game.
After the stingy Aggie defense forced a three and out, the madness would begin. We’ll put the madness this way, in the time it took you to read this sentence Fairview was flagged two times. While that may be tongue in cheek, Fairview would be flagged 12 total times throughout the game negating touchdowns, big stops, and long returns.
After flags stalled the Aggies promising drive, “the ball didn’t lie.” Following the Aggie punt, Jameson Goble had seen enough and made the first quarter a personal highlight reel. In a matter of six plays Jennings would recover a fumble on the Eagles first play of the drive, catch a 13-yard touchdown from Martin to put Fairview up 14-0 a few plays later, and then deliver a Madden style “hit stick” tackle, putting Douglas behind the sticks.
Just a couple plays later defensive lineman Ethan Bice dropped back into the flats and picked off the Douglas quarterback. Another flag would take Simmons last carry of the night, a 10-yard touchdown, off the scoreboard the following play. Simmons, who has been battling some minor injuries, would see limited action, and would rest the rest of the game following the negated touchdown. Martin would capitalize the next play finding Caden Jennings for a 19-yard strike for a 21-0 lead.
Jennings would continue to make big plays picking off the Eagles once more. After an Aggie turnover, the defense would again force a quick punt. Martin and sophomore running back Eli Frost would lead the offense down the field in a balanced attack finishing with another Martin touchdown pass, this time to Bryson Chamness. Fairview would go on to force another punt followed by another Chamness touchdown catch for a 35-0 halftime lead. A crazy first half stat: the Aggies outgained the Eagles 246-9 in first half yards.
Frost would find the endzone early in the third quarter, and the subbing would begin. He would finish with 57 yards on 14 carries. Martin would account for another huge offensive night, finishing with five total touchdowns and 174 yards. His lone interception came on a hail mary pass on the last play of the half.
During the rest of the second half senior running back Tristin Holmes showed out finishing with 78 yards on seven carries and adding 19 more on a great snag on a swing route out of the endzone. The most impressive thing about those 78 yards was more than 50 came from YAC (yards after contact). He’d break tackle after tackle, driving, spinning, and juking his way to extra yards.
Douglas would score a few touchdowns against the younger Aggies getting reps finishing the game with a final score of 42-19. Coach Redding had this to say about his team’s impressive night, “I’m really proud of how our 1st group came out tonight. They’d played really well, we just gotta tighten up on the little things. But these kind of games are so great for our program. To get so many kids in the second half is huge. We’re about developing kids on and off the field, so we love getting to give some of our younger guys some reps and experience.”
Martin added, “We are improving each week. We just have to keep getting better, fixing the mistakes. We have a lot of season to go.”
In light of the Aggies hosting of the 2021 edition of the Branding Iron Bowl against county and region rival West Point next week Martin added, “West Point has a great team and that game is always a dogfight so I’m looking forward to getting to play one more at home next Friday night.”
As Martin said, the Aggies will return home for their 2021 homecoming game to host the West Point Warriors in the Brandin’ Iron Bowl.
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