By Brendan Jordan

The Farmers met up with the Dakota Ridge Eagles on Friday Sept. 30 and put on one hecky-doodle of a show for both sets of fans.

The Eagles had high hopes for the game, as it was their homecoming game. Both teams, after warm ups, looked fully prepared to take on the storm that was coming in the near future.

The Farmers won the coin toss and chose to receive the ball to start the game. Starting quarterback, Sophomore Anthony Tate, and the rest of his fellow classmen lined up for the first play to start this game. The Farmers coaching staff looked like they wanted to play a run-first offensive game, as the Farmers didn’t take long until they were forced to punt the ball to the Eagles. The punt by the Farmers put the Eagles on their own 32 yard line. Unfortunately, following the punt, the Eagles’ quarterback made a 15- yard pass to his wide receiver, and said receiver took the ball all the way down to the endzone for a touchdown, taking the lead over the Farmers, 7-0. The rest of the first quarter was pretty uneventful, until the last minute. The Farmers got the ball back within the last minute and tied the game at seven with 18 seconds left in the first quarter.

The first quarter came to an end, and the second quarter got underway immediately. A few minutes went by before the Farmers took the lead when running junior back Payton Dietrich scored the Farmers’ second touchdown of the game. Shortly after the Farmers’ scoring play, the Eagles took the ball from their own 16 yard line to their offensive 16 yard line to attempt a field goal. Fortunately for us, the attempt was shameful, as the ball went far wide of the goal.

The Farmers got the ball back on their defensive 16 yard line. Tate executed a running play on the next drive, using running back Payton Dietrich’s speed as an advantage. Tate called for the play to start and handed the ball off to Dietrich, who ran over 40 yards, dodging player after player to get the Farmers a first down on their offensive 46 yard line.

The Farmers brought themselves up to the 13 yard line before scoring their third touchdown of the game to make the score 20-7. Just before the end of the second quarter, the Eagles scored one more touchdown to make the score 20-14 to start halftime.

Right off the start of the third quarter, the Eagles took the lead 21-20 after a 40-yard kick return and a 20-yard pass. A little over three minutes passed before a fumble by Tate was recovered and taken back for a touchdown for the Eagles. The Farmers’ score deficit was now 28-20.

After a quick three-and-out set of plays for the Farmers, the Eagles got the ball back off the punt and fumbled it on the 50 yard line for junior Jeremiah McCarthy to recover for the Farmers. They lined up on the next play when Tate handed the ball off to Dietrich, who ran the ball all the way back for a 50-yard touchdown. Instead of taking the single extra point, the Farmers attempted a two-point conversion. It had failed, resulting in the score being 26-28.

The third quarter came to an end, and the fourth quarter began with a sense of urgency in the hearts of the Farmers’ players. The Farmers started the quarter with the ball on their offensive 15 yard line. On second down, Tate accidentally threw the ball to an Eagles defender, resulting in an interception on the Farmers’ offensive six yard line. However, a delay of game flag was thrown on the play to penalize the Eagles, resulting in the play being on the Farmers’ offensive one yard line. With the thought of a possible safety, the Farmers played a very tight defense on the Eagles’ quarterback to eventually lead to them having to punt the ball to the Farmers on the three yard line. The Farmers received the ball on their offensive 47 yard line with 8:20 left on the clock for the fourth quarter.

Farmers quarterback Tate seemed to rely a lot on running back Payton Dietrich for the offensive plays, as on the next play after the Eagles punt, a running play was executed. Dietrich used his speed to his advantage as he put the Farmers on the 28 yard line with an amazing run.

The Farmers now lined up on the 28 yard line in an attempt to take the lead in this very close game. Once again, the Farmers leaned on the outstanding play of Dietrich to lead them to success. Dietrich ran another outstanding run and scored his third touchdown of the game to make the score 32-28. The Farmers’ bench, now filled with adrenaline, turned to the crowd to get them to make some noise for their running back.

After the terrific back-to-back offensive plays for Dietrich, the Farmers kicked the ball off to the Eagles. The Eagles, receiving the ball on their defensive 28 yard line, would eventually get the ball down to their offensive 18 yard line, putting some pressure on the Farmers to keep the score the way it was.

The Eagles lined up on fourth down to attempt to take the lead over the Farmers. The ball was snapped, and the Eagles quarterback threw the ball right into the hands of defensive lineman junior Naishon Thomas. The Farmers had gotten the ball back with time dwindling down on the clock. After a first down that put the Farmers on their defensive 39 yard line, the Farmers dropped the ball, resulting in a fumble recovery on the 39 yard line for the Eagles. The hopes of them coming back in this game were now sparked up again. Despite the Farmers’ tight defense on the Eagles’ offensive line, a touchdown was scored by Dakota Ridge, making the score 35-32 with a little over 30 seconds remaining in the game. The Eagles would eventually hold off the Farmers’ desperate attempts to take the game into their own hands to secure a 35-32 victory in the game.

A heartbreaker for sure, as the Farmers walked off the field with upset looks on their faces. Despite the loss, the Farmers can look back on this game and take a lot out of it. Not only did running back Payton Dietrich have an outstanding game, but the Farmers held the contest to a close battle throughout the entire game. That should be one of many positives to take away from this heartbreaking defeat.