In the second round of the Class 5 District 2 Tournament on Nov. 8, the football team lost to Lafayette 49-7. 

Junior Wide receiver Rowan Jackson scored the only touchdown for the Falcons during the first quarter.

After a change in Lafayette’s quarterback, senior quarterback Blane Branscum said they took the opportunity to run the same play in an attempt to bring the score up from 14-0.

“They subbed a new quarterback in, so we saw that and tried to take advantage of it. So, we ran the same play as before and we ran a deep slant and had good protection from the o-line. Then I threw it to him and he was fast so he just ran for the touchdown,” Branscum said.

Junior safety Aidan Amy said the Falcons’ defense focused on keeping Lafayette’s offense from passing the ball as much as possible.

“Our [defensive] strategy was to shut down their passes because they are really good at passing,” Amy said. 

Branscum said the biggest challenge overall was pushing past the thought of losing considering the score was 49-7 at halftime, but that the thought of it being the seniors’ last game, they kept playing their hardest.

“It’s hard coming back from halftime and still being able to want to go out there and keep playing. Most of us knew it was our last game as seniors. So, we wanted to go out there and give it everything we had left,” Branscum said.

Branscum said the team knew what to do to win; they just didn’t come out on top.

“We watched a lot of film and we were prepared, we just didn’t execute. The team’s effort was there, we just didn’t play our best but we fought hard and kept fighting till the end,” Branscumsaid. 

Going forward and into the next season, Amy said the team’s defense will continue to improve. 

“We have a lot of potential and there were a lot of guys on the team who hadn’t played before so we will have a lot of people who have experience next year so we will be a great defense next year,” Amy said.