For a quarter and a half it looked like the Fort Campbell Falcons might be able to go on the road in the wake of adversity and pull off a stunner. Instead, the Union County Braves scored three touchdowns in a five minute span late in the second quarter to seize control of the game on their way to a 28-6 win Friday night in Morganfield.
The Falcons came into the game dressing only 25 players after several players apparently decided to depart from the team over the two week period since the Falcons last game at home against Trigg County.
The first quarter and a half was dominated by the defenses on both sides. Union County’s defense gave up very little, while the Fort Campbell defense bent, but did not break, and neither team’s offense could find the end zone.
That all changed about halfway through the second quarter. Following a Fort Campbell turnover, the Braves struck quickly. On the second play after the turnover, Lincoln Sisk broke a handful of tackles and sprinted to the end zone to put the Braves up 7-0 with 6:27 left in the first half.
Just over four minutes later it was Sisk again, this time on a 35 yard pass from Solomon Teehan, and Union County extended the lead to 14-0 with 2:19 left in the half. Then, after a deflected pass in the backfield, that was intercepted by the Braves, Union County pushed the lead out to 21-0 when Teehan connected with J.J. Rickets on a 20-yard touchdown pass with 1:38 left in the half.
The Braves got the ball back one more time in the half, but a hail mary pass fell incomplete in the end zone as time expired.
The Braves then kept the pressure on the Falcons coming out of the locker room in the second half. Union County drove inside the Falcon 10. However, the Falcons turned the Braves away when Elijah Jones came up with an interception in the end zone.
The turnover gave a bit of a spark to the Falcon offense which drove down the field. A big pass from Matt Middleton to Edwin Syester set up an Ethan Tomerlin 20 yard touchdown run with 4:33 left in the third. The extra point was blocked and the Falcons trailed 21-6.
Any hopes of a Falcon comeback were put to bed about halfway through the final quarter when the Braves went on a long drive capped off by a 9 yard touchdown run by Corithian Portee-Seales to make it 28-6 with 6:52 to go in the game. The touchdown ended a 9 play 82 yard drive.
The Braves picked off the Falcons on Fort Campbell’s next offensive possession and then ran out the clock to pick up the win.
The loss drops the Falcons to 1-6 overall and 0-2 in the district. Union County improves to 5-2 and 1-1 in the district.
Fort Campbell returns to action at home next Friday night against Caldwell County, who clinched the regular season district championship with their win over Trigg County at Tiger Stadium Friday night.
