For the second straight year, the non-district Top 10 showdownbetweenKingston and Fairview lived up to billing. And unfortunately for Redskin fans the end result wasthesameastheysuffered their first loss of the season.
A walk-off 36-yard field goal on the game’s final play gave the host Yellowjackets a 23-21 victory and spoiled a tremendous second half comeback by Kingston.
Although disappointed with the final outcome, Redskin head coach Brad Hill was pleased with his squad’s resolve in a playoff-type atmosphere following a more than three and a half hour bus ride.
“It was a great high school football game to watch,” Hill stated. “Fairview is a really good football team and very well coached. We dug ourselves a hole in the first half but I thought we came out and dominated most of the second half to take the lead. We got stopped on fourth down deep in their territory inthethirdquarteranddidn’t score, which ended up being pretty costly.
“I thought our kids played hardenoughandwellenough to win the game. I was probably a little too aggressive after being too conservative last year. We showed some resilience and fight though in a playoff atmosphere and big crowd. I thought our kids and coaches did a great job. We played hard enough to win and well enough to win, just came up a little short. It will make us a better football team in the long run.”
Early Kingston miscues helped Fairview to a 20-7 halftime lead but the visitors roared back with a spirited second half. The Redskins’ lone first half score came on a Reid Patterson three-yard touchdown burst with 2:56 to play in the opening period.
Hill’s club narrowed the gap to 20-14 on an adlib 19-yard touchdown pass from Patterson to Hudson Everhart with 5:26 left in the third stanza.
Sparked by an aggressive defensive, Kingston eventually took the lead when Ty Jones picked off a Yellowjacket pass and rumbled 41 yards to paydirt with only 9:16remaininginthecontest.
Fairview began the final possession in the shadow of its own goal at the threeyard line with only 1:14 left but managed to work into field goal range for the game winner.
Patterson threw for 137 yards and rushed for 56 while accounting for two touchdowns. ParksRatzlaffrushed eight times for 70 with Logan Stephens adding 26 yards on four totes. Everhart was the leading receiver with five catches for 99 yards.
“It was a good rehearsal for us as far being similar to the playoffs,” Hill said. “Our fans travelled tremendously well. We had a sensational crowd for being that long a distance away. A couple of injuries hurt us early on and we had some penalties that took points off the board. We had a chance to win but it showed us things we need to work on. We got better by playing them even with a loss.”
Kingston looks to bounce backandbuildmomentumin their final non-district game on the road Friday at Comanche. The Indians are 1-1 on the season after beating S&S Consolidated from Texas, 33--20, in their opener before a 31-6 setback to Wynnewood this past week.
“We are really focusing on ourselves this week and having good practices,” Hill added. “Comanche is a good, physical team. We want to simplify some things on our end this week and hopefully be better and make fewer mistakes. We also want to try to get everyone healthy going into the bye week and then the start of district play.”