Falcons finish regular season well
Published 1:54 pm Tuesday, November 7, 2017
- Fuqua School senior Billy French, left, follows senior Warren Dabney, who aims to pave a running lane Saturday afternoon during the Falcons’ 44-13 victory over host Broadwater Academy (photo by Linda E. Davis).
With its postseason seeding essentially set going into Saturday afternoon’s regular season finale, Fuqua School’s varsity football team avoided overlooking host Broadwater Academy and will now enter the state playoffs fresh off a 44-13 victory.
“It’s one of those things that athletically we were just kind of a better team than they were,” Falcons Head Coach Ben Manis said. “They were young.”
He expressed great respect for Vikings Head Coach Noble Palmer, who he said is able to lead his teams to victory against superior opponents, but Fuqua remained vigilant.
“I think we played OK,” Manis said. “There’s definitely a lot of things that we can clean up. … We kept our (starters), kept them from getting too banged up so we can go into the playoffs healthy. We tried some new stuff out, some stuff that we need to run in the next week or two, but we did well. It’s easy to look over top of a team like that and not perform well.”
The coach praised several of his players for their defensive performances.
“Billy (French) had a really good game, defensively,” Manis said. “I believe he had two (interceptions).”
Junior Christian Adams and senior Warren Dabney were also standouts, the coach said, and he made a point to highlight senior Michael Davis and junior D.J. Williams for their play on the line.
“They did the job that they needed to, and the stats won’t show it, but they made all the right things happen,” Manis said of Davis and Williams.
On offense, Manis highlighted sophomore Elijah Warner and seniors Tyler Thomas and Ben Bailey.
Warner went 11-for-14 passing for 186 yards and four touchdowns. Bailey led the team with 10 carries for 96 yards and a touchdown, and he also logged two catches for 50 yards and two touchdowns. Thomas led the Fuqua receiving corps with five catches for 96 yards and two scores.
French ran the ball four times for 31 yards and a touchdown. Junior Frank Denaro also added seven carries for 50 yards.
Senior Ethan “Musket” Watson made a 28-yard field goal.
“I see it was good to kind of get a breather right here before we head off for the playoff against Quantico (Middle/High School),” Manis said.
The No. 2 Falcons host the No. 3 Warriors on Friday at 7 p.m.
