Big plays on offense lift Falcons to 4-0
Abbotsford scored a season high 63 points and had almost 700 yards of total offense in their victory over Iola-Scandinavia. The Thunderbirds, while managing to also score a season high 27 points, were completely outmatched when the Falcons had the ball, leading to the 63-27 blowout in Abbotsford.
Running back Christian Fuentes put together his best performance of the season, rolling for 373 yards rushing and five touchdowns on just 13 carries. The freshman is up for multiple player of the week awards after racking up over 400 yards on offense.
“I think Christian has some natural abilities, but really has worked hard too,” head coach Jake Knapmiller said. “He was one of the guys who took passion in showing up to speed work and the weight room and participated in four sports as a middle schooler.”
Junior quarterback JV Castillo was just as efficient on the ground as Fuentes, adding 185 yards rushing and two touchdowns on seven carries. Abbotsford punched holes through Iola-Scandinavia’s defense all night and the speedy Castillo and Fuentes took advantage, sprinting away from Thunderbird defenders for a host of long runs.
Despite the final score and how dominant they were on the offensive side of the ball, the Falcons were momentarily down in a game that they would end up winning by over thirty points.
Iola-Scandinavia, led by quarterback Parker Gullixon on offense, took their opening possession all the way to the end zone to go up 7-0. The Falcons responded almost immediately as Fuentes galloped 60 yards to tie the game up at 7-7. Abbotsford’s defense tightened up a bit and gave the ball back to their offense, which scored on consecutive drives, courtesy of runs by Castillo and freshman Irvin Aguilera. Missed extra point attempts meant the Falcons were up 19-7, but the Thunderbirds weren’t going away quite yet.
The visitors would score two more first half touchdowns, putting them within seven points of Abbotsford with the score at 27-20. Two touchdowns from Fuentes, giving him three for the quarter and four in the half, on the ensuing drives, however, would give the Falcons a 21-point cushion going into halftime.
They would only build on this lead in the third. Castillo and senior Jacob Hirsch reached the end zone before Fuentes concluded the Falcons scoring for the evening with his fifth touchdown to put Abbotsford up 63-20. What had actually been a somewhat close game early had ballooned into a blowout. Iola-Scandinavia, while able to move the ball at times, could not keep up with the home team’s high octane offense, with the Falcons scoring 36 unanswered points between the middle of the second quarter and the end of the third.
Abbotsford spread the ball around to seven different runners on Friday. While Fuentes and Castillo made up a large chunk of the touches, Hirsch was also productive, gaining 54 yards on his four touches, one of which went for a touchdown. Aguilera also had four carries, which he took for 19 yards and a touchdown. Emilio Escalera, Chase Boller, and Grayson Totzke also toted the rock for the Falcons, contributing 12, four, and three yards respectively.
While they did not need to throw the ball much, the Falcons were efficient in that regard as well. Castillo went 3-4 for 40 yards, finding Fuentes on two passes for 31 and junior Evan Reis on one for nine yards.
Senior Brandon Diedrich led the way with 11 total tackles, one of which was for a loss, on defense. Castillo had seven of his own and Escalera had six. Fuentes was in on five tackles himself, with four of those being for a loss. Also recording tackles for a loss were Daniel Davila, Andrew Brodhagen, and Ashton Hammel.
The win brought Abbotsford’s record to 4-0, after claiming a forfeit last week from Wild Rose, which moved to an eight-man league this season. Abbotsford started the season out 4-0 last year as well, but ran into some issues once Marawood conference play began. Cancellations and better opponents made for a bumpy second half of the season for the Falcons, who look to improve on their fourth place finish in the Marawood.
They’ll see more of a challenge in the coming weeks as they head into conference play.
“I feel like the teams we have played may not have prepared us for the speed and physicality of the Marawood schedule,” Knapmiller said of the road ahead. “We took care of business so far but the second half of the season is tougher.”
Edgar, Auburndale, and Colby are also undefeated coming out of week 4, though the Falcons will have a week before facing any of those teams. Instead, they head to Marathon to take on the Red Raiders. Marathon is 2-2, coming off a 5120 loss to Assumption, and will be looking to bounce back. The start time for the first Marawood conference matchup of the season is slated for 7:00 p.m.
