Fieldcrest earns comeback win over GCMS to open season

GIBSON CITY — While Saturday afternoon brought with it bright sunshine, lightning struck in the third quarter at the football field at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School and that thunderbolt was the Fieldcrest Knights.

Trailing the host Falcons, ranked No. 4 in Class 2A in the Shaw Media Coaches’ Poll, by two touchdowns to begin the second half, No. 8 Fieldcrest exploded with three scores in the third quarter, then stopped the hosts’ potential game-tying drive with just over two minutes to go to capture a season-opening 21-14 victory.

It was the first home loss for GCMS since September 9, 2016.

It was the second straight year Fieldcrest came away with a win in the battle of 2A powerhouses. The Knights won 14-6 last year, snapping the Falcons’ 31-game win streak and 24-game Heart of Illinois Conference roll.

“The key message to the kids since I took over last year and leading up to the start of the season has been to persevere,” said Fieldcrest head coach Mike Freeman. “We got down 7-0, 14-0, and GCMS was knocking on the door to make it 21-0, but these guys stepped up when they needed to.

“It’s just such an unbelievable joy to be with and celebrate with these guys. I couldn’t ask for a better group of players, coaches, families and friends to do this with.”

The Falcons, despite losing starting quarterback Kellen DeSchepper to injury in the first period, dominated the opening 24 minutes, outgaining the visitors 177-24 in total yards, and used touchdown scampers from 17 and 18 yards from junior Aidan Laughery (16 carries, 83 yards) to lead 14-0.

GCMS looked to be on the verge of making it a three-score contest after having the ball 1st-and-goal at the 1 with less than a minute to go in the first half, but the Knights stopped backup sophomore QB Ty Harden twice to close the door.

Fieldcrest added to that momentum 90 seconds into the second half when Austin Jefford pounced on a Falcons’ fumble and the ensuing play saw senior wideout Henry Lorton (three catches, 98 yards) catch a tipped 27-yard pass from classmate Cory Land (6-of-11, 125 yards, 3 TDs) for a score. Jacob Joyal added the first of three perfect extra-point kicks to make it 14-7.

The Knights defense — which allowed just 63 yards in the final two quarters — then forced a 3-and-out and the offense finished off an eight-play, 57-yard drive with Land hitting Jaxon Cusac-McKay (13 carries, 151 yards; three catches, 41 yards, INT) on a wheel route for a 12-yard score to tie the game.

“We had to move our fullback to tailback and Isaiah (Chatman) did a tremendous job (and we had lost Kellen there late in the first quarter,” said GCMS coach Mike Allen, who also lost Laughery one play into the second half and saw Chatman gain 78 yards on 18 carries. “No excuses though. Our kids played hard, but as a head coach, this falls on me for not having our backups prepared enough. We came in today with a pretty small playbook with the limited practice time and Fieldcrest did a really good job of taking a lot of that away from us.

“We talked before the game about not beating ourselves, but the turnovers just killed us, and not getting it in there at the end of the first half hurt us. On offense, they went to their option in the second half and caught us in man-to-man throwing the ball with double moves a couple of times. Then on defense, they took away the outside and we had to run between the tackles and we just weren’t able to sustain drives because of that.”

Fieldcrest recovered another fumble by the hosts — this time by Ethan Stoeger at the Knights’ own 15 — and after runs of 19 and 14 by Cusac-McKay, Land found Lorton for a 44-yard score with 1:05 left in the third.

The Falcons’ only possession of the final quarter saw them move from their own 19 to the Fieldcrest 29 before Land sealed the victory with an interception with 2:16 left to play.

“Today marks the two-week mark that we’ve had the basketball players turned football players that are coming off a conference championship,” said Freeman. “Today it was a lot of those same guys contributing and making plays. In just two weeks of practice, things aren’t always going to go smoothly, but we also knew we’d get it rolling. We had a good effort in the first half, but we lost 17 seniors last year and just had to find out who we were. I feel we did that in the second half.

“You can’t see it under this mask, but I’m smiling ear to ear right now.”

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At Gibson City

Fieldcrest 21, Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley 14

Fielcrest (1-0) 0 0 21 0 — 21

GCMS (0-1) 7 7 0 0 — 14

Scoring summary

First quarter

GCMS — Laughery 18 run (Mueller kick), 1:05, 7-0.

Second quarter

GCMS — Laughery 17 run (Mueller kick), 8:31, 14-0.

Third quarter

FLD — Lorton 27 pass from Land (Joyal kick), 10:23, 14-7.

FLD — Cusac-McKay 12 pass from Land (Joyal kick), 5:07, 14-14.

FLD — Lorton 44 pass from Land (Joyal kick), 1:05, 14-21.

Fourth quarter

No scoring

Team statistics

FLD GCMS

First Downs 9 15

Rushes-Yards 23-144 52-199

Passing yards 152 41

Total offense 296 240

Comp.-Att.-Int. 7-12-1 2-6-2

Fumbles-Lost 4-0 6-2

Penalties-Yards 4-30 2-28

Punts-Avg. 2-33.5 2-24.0

Time of possession 16:25 31:35

Individual statistics

RUSHING: Fieldcrest — Cusac-McKay 13-151, Land 10-(minus 7); GCMS — Laughery 16-83, Chatman 18-78, Harden 12-26, DeSchepper 1-5, Kallal 3-4, Wier 2-3.

PASSING (C-A-TD-INT-YD): Fieldcrest — Land 6-11-1-3-125, Cusac-McKay 1-1-0-0-27; GCMS — DeSchepper 0-1-0-0-0, Harden 2-5-2-0-41.

RECEIVING: Fieldcrest — Lorton 3-98, Cusac-McKay 3-41, Jefford 1-13; GCMS — Kean 1-22, Kallal 1-19.