Missed opportunities cost FCW in 20-17 loss to St. Thomas More

RURAL STREATOR – A few dropped passes. A trio of lost fumbles. Coming up 4 inches short on a fourth-and-a-foot.

Had any of these gone the other way, the Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland might be celebrating a 2-0 start to the season.

Instead, the Falcons saw themselves slip to 1-1 with a hard-fought but ultimately sloppy 20-17 loss to St. Thomas More on Friday at the Woodland Wood Shed. Both FCW and the visiting Sabres suffered self-inflicted wounds throughout – FCW more in the first half, St. Thomas More mostly in the second half – but with the three-point loss, the Falcons likely will be thinking about theirs more during the holiday weekend.

“Offensively, ball security was our worst enemy tonight,” Falcons coach Todd Reed said. “We had some fumbled snaps, some dropped passes, a couple fumbled tosses, and down in the red zone, we’ve got to put the ball in the end zone.”

St. Thomas More (2-0) controlled the first half, leading 8-0 at the close of one quarter and 14-0 before Payton Quaintance’s 82-yard kickoff return touchdown and Jonathan Moore’s juggling two-point catch of a Seth Jones pass put FCW on the board. The Sabers rebuilt their advantage just before halftime, however, with a 78-yard touchdown strike from Reid Craddock (4 of 15, 142 yards) to featured running back/Wildcat quarterback Peace Bumba (107 yards rushing, 78 yards receiving, two total touchdowns) making it 20-8 at the break.

Fourteen of Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland’s 21 first-half plays went for a loss or no gain, with the team struggling to get anything going. Quaintance missing large stretches because of cramping played a factor in that, as did St. Thomas More’s aggressive defense and momentum.

The second half, however, played out very differently.

Packing the backfield with 6-3, 202-pound Kesler Collins and 5-10, 213-pound Brennan Edens, FCW muscled its way back into the game. A 43-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Connor Reed – a redemption catch after Reed dropped a certain touchdown late in the first half – on third-and 15 followed by Connor Decker’s true PAT kick cut the Falcons’ deficit to 20-15.

FCW then forced a punt and took over at their own 8-yard line with 26.5 seconds remaining in the third quarter and pieced together a 15-play, 7-minute, 52-second drive that put the Falcons in position to take their first lead late in the fourth quarter. Four running plays 5 yards from a first down, however, only gained 4 2/3 yards, turning it over on downs.

“We couldn’t finish the drive out,” Coach Reed said.

The Falcons forced a punt formation, but St. Thomas More coach Nathan Watson instructed his team to run backwards, burn clock and take the safety. It cut the Sabers’ lead to 20-17, but left FCW with only 45 seconds to work with after the ensuing free kick.

“I was just trying to run out the clock,” Watson said. “I knew we hadn’t been doing kickoff very well, and I just felt like instead of risking it, just run off some time, and we’d end up kicking it from the same place anyway. We won the game, so I guess it was the right call. ... It’s a shame that someone has to lose a game like that.”

The Falcons flipped the field on a Jones-to-Zander Radke 38-yard pass, but ran out of time.

Jones finished 9 of 20 for 149 yards, a TD and an interception. His top targets were Reed (three receptions for 60 yards), Moore (three catches for 38 yards) and Logan Ruddy (three receptions for 35 yards). Jaron Follmer added 1.5 tackles for loss, Emerson Weber recovered a St. Thomas More fumble, and Radke recorded an interception. Collins ran for 49 yards and recorded two TFLs.

“I’m incredibly impressed with our team,” Collins said. “We came out a little flat, but the defense stepped up second half. We just have to take care of the mental mistakes. We had some people step up in different positions, and I’m proud of how they performed.

“We’ll get better for next week.”

FCW plays its third home game of the eight-man season Friday, hosting Milford-Cissna Park in Flanagan.