FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Fairmont Senior found itself in unusual position ahead of Friday’s 101st meeting with rival East Fairmont at East-West Stadium.
Having spent much of the last decade at or near the top of the pecking order in Class AA, the No. 20 Polar Bears needed a victory over the 19th-rated Bees to qualify for the postseason, while East Fairmont was also playing to prolong its season.
The Bees hung in for much of the first three quarters, but two second-half touchdowns in a span of 3:14 allowed the Polar Bears to turn a one possession game into a 26-7 victory.
The win allows Fairmont Senior to qualify for the playoffs, where it will be the No. 16 seed and face No. 1 Herbert Hoover in a first-round matchup.
“We did just enough to get there. In the ratings system, you don’t get rewarded if you lose a game to anybody, no matter how good they are,” Polar Bears’ head coach Nick Bartic said. “We played a very difficult schedule and we were rewarded with a little bit of good mojo. For all the ups and downs and adversity we had throughout the season, now we have new life and it’s a new season.”
Neither team scored in the opening quarter, with the Bees forcing a turnover on downs after Fairmont Senior’s Jace Dalton intercepted Ian Crookshanks on East Fairmont’s opening series.
On the Polar Bears’ third series of the game and first of the second quarter, they marched 91 yards and went in front on Evan Dennison’s 19-yard touchdown run.
Jayden Cheriza’s 32-yard pass to Alec Cross preceded the game’s first scoring play, which left Fairmont Senior (5-4) with a 7-0 lead 7:15 before halftime.
After the Bees (5-5) punted on their ensuing series, the Polar Bears struck quickly for their second touchdown — a 53-yard run by Germaine Lewis 2:48 before halftime. The point-after try failed and Senior took a 13-0 lead into halftime.
“We’re just trying to be consistent in how we can distribute the ball,” Bartic said. “We’re on to something in terms of doing that. The offensive line did a pretty good job of establishing the run as much as we needed to and we threw it enough to keep them honest.”
But East Fairmont’s Alex Culp pounced on a Lewis fumble on the Polar Bears’ second play from scrimmage of the second half, allowing the Bees to take over at the Fairmont Senior 38-yard line with 7:51 left in the third quarter.
From there, the Bees overcame a chop block and Crookshanks connected with Culp for 29 yards to set up William Sarsfield’s 5-yard touchdown run, cutting Senior’s lead to 13-7 at the 4:19 mark of the third.
“We turned it over and you can’t do that,” Bartic said. “You give life and field position and then we had a penalty and things to extend drives and boom, they took advantage of it, scored and it’s tight again.”
East Fairmont elected to try and steal a possession and attempted its second onside kick, but the Polar Bears recovered to start at their own 49.
Seven running plays later, FSSHS upped its lead to 19-7 on a 4-yard scamper from Landen Tasker. Lewis initially reached the end zone on the two-point try, but it was negated by a holding penalty, and the point-after kick missed, leaving the Polar Bears with a 12-point lead and 1:03 left in the period.
“That’s on me,” Bees’ head coach Shane Eakle said. “I made that decision [to onside kick] and we thought we had a chance to maybe flip the field on them. We saw some things. We just didn’t quite execute. Give them credit. They’re a pretty good football team. We had a couple breakdowns at bad times. We missed an alignment and gave up a touchdown and that kind of hurt us. Offensively, we had a couple turnovers, which we hadn’t done much this year.”
The Bees lost yardage on each of the first two plays of their ensuing series, then committed a penalty and threw an incomplete pass, which forced them to punt near their goal line. In turn, Senior got to start at the Bees’ 37 with 11:47 remaining, and four runs covered that distance, the last of which was a 13-yard touchdown by Cheriza with 9:49 remaining.
“We responded well,” Bartic said. “We recovered the onside kick and didn’t have a lapse there. And then we finished the drive. That was a big response, especially up front. We ran the ball well and that set us up to finish out the game.”
East Fairmont’s Jesse Rush missed a 33-yard field goal nearing the midway point of the final quarter, allowing the Polar Bears to maintain their 19-point lead, which stood until the final whistle.
“This hurts for our kids,” Eakle said. “Our kids have played hard. We battled and hopefully we earned some respect in the Big 10 and in the state. We want to continue to grow on that.”