Trojan magical pro-T leaves Hounds with fourth loss

FAIRFIELD – The key to neutralizing a pro-T offense is disciplined gap assignments. And Fort Madison regularly failed their assignments Friday night with the menacing pro-T set of the Fairfield Trojans.
The Hounds (3-4, 1-2 in 3A District 4) got lost in the well-executed triple back set of the Trojans all night as senior quarterback Voss Richardson ran some nifty sleight of hand on tight turnarounds in the Fairfield backfield and handed the Bloodhounds a 40-14 loss Friday night in Fairfield.
The Trojans fumbled the snap on their first play from scrimmage, but recovered at their own 40. It took just two plays before Ethan Bisgard took a hand-off and disappeared in the Bloodhound defensive line only to pop out behind them and shoot to the left for a 55-yard touchdown run and an 8-0 lead three plays into the game.
Fort Madison would execute a nice response going 41 yards on 11 plays but came up empty when Owen Huffman’s pass to Mo Thacher out wide to the left resulted in a 5-yard loss and turnover on downs.
Fairfield scored again six plays later on a 10-yard run by Bisgard. This time the 2-pointer failed and the Hounds trailed 14-0.
Head Coach Derek Doherty’s Hounds set off on another long drive going 73 yards on 13 plays only to turn it over on downs again despite Thacher’s 52 yards on the ground. Huffman would pull the ball on a keeper on 4th and 2 at the 15 and get stuffed for no gain.
Fort Madison looked to get their first stop of the game on the next series when they had the Trojans 3rd and 7 at the Fairfield 38. But Richardson would fake a handoff, literally walk a few steps to the right behind the Fairfield line, and then pop into the Hounds’ secondary for a 43-yard run to the 19. A late hit out of bounds moved the ball to the Bloodhound 11 where Bisgard slipped in again for a 20-0 lead on the next play.
Fort Madison would go 4-and-out and Fairfield would get their fourth score of the game six plays later when Richardson got loose down the Trojan sideline on an end run and scoot all the way to the endzone from 50 yards out for a 26-0 lead.
Fort Madison would suffer another 4 and out, and Fairfield would then run the clock out on the first half.
“You have to be fundamentally sound,” Doherty said. “All week we had been talking about keys because we knew they were going to run the ball. But game speed is different and they run their offense better than we can simulate it.”
Doherty said the Hound defenders were letting their eyes get into the Trojan backfield too often.
“We were just undisciplined and when that happens against an offense like that, they make you look silly,” he said.

The Trojans would score on another big run after forcing a Bloodhound punt to open the third period. Bisgard would take the first hand-off from scrimmage for the Trojans and run 55-yards to the endzone down the Bloodhound sideline to make it 32-0. Fairfield was on the verge of getting a running clock, but the Hounds found the endzone on another extended drive with good production out of the running game and now the passing game.
Huffman went 6-of-7 in the 16-play, 81-yard drive where the Hounds were, for the first time all night, able to establish a short-pass game to give Thacher some breathing room. The junior again finished over the century mark going for 144 yards giving him 1,243 on the year. Thacher would bull in from the six with 2:34 left in the third period.
Fort Madison then got the gist of what Doherty and the Bloodhound coaching staff was saying and limited the big plays on Fairfield’s next drive, but the Trojans were fine pounding away at the Hounds front four going 61 yards on 14 plays with Bisgard again finding the endzone on 3rd and goal from the one to make it 40-8 with the 2 pt conversion.
Fort Madison would get their final score following a fumble recovery with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter as the Trojans were diligently trying to run the clock out. Huffman would go in from four yards out to set the final score.
Fort Madison played a clean game without any turnovers. Huffman was 16-29 for 109 yards and ran for 32 more and the touchdown. Jayden Cratton had five catches on seven targets for 39 yards.
Doherty said he wasn’t disappointed in the way the Hounds moved the ball but was disappointed in the inability to come away with points.
“That’s kind of the frustrating thing, and was our halftime talk,” he said. “We were in the redzone two other times and we came away with no points. Momentum is a crazy piece to this game. You put two in the endzone, and you never know what’s going to happen. We gotta capitalize in the endzone. We proved we could get down there, we just couldn’t execute.”
Ryker Peters led the Hounds with six tackles, one for a loss. Jonah Santiago, Liam Prier, and Ren Watson all had four tackles on the night.
Fort Madison hosts Washington next week before wrapping up the regular season with a trip to top-ranked Solon on the 23rd.