FAIRFIELD − Halloween is still nearly a month away, but already the West Burlington-Notre Dame high school football team is tired of seeing orange and black.
Teams with orange and black uniforms have become the Falcons’ House of Horrors this season, trouncing the Falcons by a combined 129-19 margin in three games.
And the Falcons still have games to play against Grinnell and Washington, two more schools with orange and black color schemes.
The latest case in point came Friday night. In a game the Falcons had hopes of winning, Fairfield hit one big play after another, rolling to a 53-7 win over the injury-depleted Falcons in a Class 3A District 5 game at Trojan Stadium.
West Burlington-Notre Dame previously lost games to orange-and-black clad teams Mediapolis (40-12) and Solon (36-0).
On a near-perfect night for football, things went from bad to worse in a hurry for West Burlington-Notre Dame.
“It’s extremely tough. Again, we have a lot of young guys who are playing hard. It just seems like it’s ‘Groundhog Day.’ We seem to put ourselves in the same situation consistently. Obviously we just have to find a way to do better with the guys we have,” WB-ND head coach Joe Bowman said. “Fairfield is a lot like Mediapolis in that they have a lot of good numbers now. They are fully invested into their athletic program. Looking around their stadium, you can tell that they are invested in it. People are buying in. When you have buy-in across the board, good things happen. They’re reaping the benefits of it.”
Fairfield (4-2 overall, 2-0 District 5) struck early and often, dashing any hopes the Falcons had of coming away with a win.
On the fourth play from scrimmage, Fairfield senior quarterback Tate Allen connected with junior Tallon Bates on a 75-yard touchdown on a fly pattern down the left hash in which no defender was within 20 yards of Bates.
That would be the start of a big night for Bates, who caught two passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns and returned a kickoff 90 yards for another score.
“The thing for us offensively is we came out fast. We came out explosive. That sets the tone for the game. I think we’re capable of doing that. I think that’s a big thing,” Fairfield head coach Nate Wheaton said.
With the defense keying on 6-foot-5, 220-pound senior tight end Max Wheaton, Bates and fellow junior wideout Bode Hoskins had plenty of time to haunt the Falcons’ defensive back. Hoskins caught three passes for 46 yards and two scores.
“Tallon Bates and Bode Hoskins really gave us great balance,” Wheaton said. “We’ve been talking about that, too. Obviously Max is a great target for us. Max is a great player for us. Tate and Max have a great chemistry. It’s hard not to see it. It’s hard not to put a three over two or even a four over two when Max is split out or even with his hand on the ground We’ve been talking to these guys that they have to step up Defenses have to honor that and now that opens up our passing game even more I think we’ll see that If guys don’t want to honor that, we’ll continue to rely on Tallon and Bode both. We’re proud of those young guys to be able to step up like that.”
“Those guys are ready to step up, so you play three guys on me, watch out,” Max Wheaton said. “We’ve got Bode Hoskins and Tallon Bates. They had two touchdowns each tonight. Our backs are lethal, too. Everybody is ready to go. When you do that, watch out.”
A perfect strike
Not all players were out of position for the Falcons. Midway through the second quarter, Allen hit Bates with a perfect pass, hitting the flanker in stride after Bates got a step on the defender. Bates made a sensational over-the-shoulder grab and sprinted the rest of the way to complete the 89-yard scoring strike.
Fairfield took a 32-0 lead into halftime.
“That’s just a statement throw right there,” Max Wheaton said. “He’s airing it out and that’s right in stride. Tallon catches it with his fingertips. That’s just a statement throw. Tallon is going to do it all night. He did it two times and we were ready to go.”
“I felt really good about our execution,” Coach Wheaton said. “I felt it’s finally where we just really put the execution to the test. We told them, ‘Look. You have to come into every football game and out-execute your opponent.’ Tonight they did. That was really good.”
Allen completed 7-of-11 passes for 234 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 140 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown.
“The defense is set up for three stacked backers to play downhill and play fast,” Bowman said. “When they can’t do that or they’re not doing that or it’s a combination of it, we’re definitely going to struggle.”
Falcons pick up the pace in second half
West Burlington-Notre Dame came out after halftime re-energized and started to put some things together.
Quarterback Caden Schwenker connected with sophomore tailback Malachi Allison on a 36-yard pass and had a 43-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter.
Senior fullback Hayden Vandenberg laid the lumber to the Trojans on numerous occasions, once flattening Allen, who paid the price for trying to tackle the six-foot, 190-pound runaway freight train high.
WB-ND shut out the Trojans in the third quarter.
“I thought the guys played with a lot more energy in the second half,” Bowman said.
But the Falcons’ deficit proved too much to overcome as players began to tire in the second half.
“This team is just relentless. We’re going to come out like we did and we’re going to punch you in the mouth. We let down a little bit in the third quarter. We’ve got to fix that,” Max Wheaton said. “The past few weeks going down to the wire, two wins by one point, this is a big statement win. We preached in practice that we’ve got to come out fast. We’ve got to come out fast. It was clicking Everywhere. You can’t run the ball without a line, without Tate back there. It was just an all-around great effort team win.”
On the horizon
Fairfield hosts Solon at 7:30 pm Oct. 7 in a District 5 showdown with playoff implications on the line.
West Burlington-Notre Dame hits the road for a long trip to play Grinnell at 7 pm Oct. 7.
By the numbers
WB-ND. FF
First down. 13. 18
Rushes yards 22-125. 33-228
passing yards 160. 234
Comp Att Int. 15-28-2. 7-11-0
Total offense. 285. 462
Fumbles-lost. 0-0 1-0
punts average. .4-26.0. 1-28.0
Penalties yards. 5-52. 9-74
3rd down efficiency. 1-10 4-6
4th down efficiency. 2-5 0-1
time of possession. 23:06. 24:54
Scoring by quarters
WB-ND 0 0 0 7 — 7
Fairfield 20 12 0 21 — 53
scoring
FTallon Bates 75 pass from Tate Allen (kick failed)
FBode Hoskins 16 pass from Allen (Bates run)
FMax Wheaton 17 pass from Allen (kick failed)
FBates 89 pass from Allen (kick failed)
FHoskins 10 pass from Allen (pass failed)
FAllen 40 run (Drew Twohill kick)
FMyles McEntee 4 run (two hill kick)
WB—Caden Schwenker 43 run (Taylor Lundgren kick)
FBates 90 kickoff return (Twohill kick)
Individual statistics
RUSHING: West Burlington-Notre Dame — Schwenker 10-83, Malachai Allison 4-17, Quincy Collins 2-16, Hayden Vandenberg 6-9. Fairfield — Allen 14-140, McEntee 9-71, Bates 2-19, Team 1-0, Calvin McLain 1-(-1), Carter Moore 1-(-1).
PASSING: West Burlington-Notre Dame — Swivel 15-28-160-2. Fairfield — Allen 7-11-234-0.
RECEIVING: West Burlington-Notre Dame — Allison 4-64, Vandenberg 4-50, Levi Fletcher-Bates 1-14, Gedi Boal 2-13, Dylan Kipp 1-11, Isaiah Crow 1-5, Matthew Booten 1-3, Collins 1-0. Fairfield — Bates 2-164, Hoskins 3-46, Wheaton 2-24.
Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA Today Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 32 years at The Hawk Eye. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.
