The Pilot News - Bremen comes up short

“It’s easy to look at the last drive, but we had opportunities throughout the game to blow this game out of the water,” said Lions head coach Rich Moren. “We fumbled two different times in the red zone. We didn’t execute that reverse pass that was wide open. That’s three potential scores that I felt pretty good about. That’s 21 more points, and that’s the bottom line. We had opportunities. We made some plays, but we didn’t make enough when we needed them, and that was the difference tonight.”
Bremen jumped off to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter on touchdown runs by Eryk Zimmerman and quarterback Nate Leeper of 5 and 10 yards, respectively. The Lions had a chance to break the game wide open on an open flea-flicker pass into the Fairfield 20 around the 8-minute mark of the second frame, but the catch was bobbled and instead Bremen was forced to punt from its own 43.
Fairfield scored on the subsequent drive, and the Falcons entered halftime trailing just 14-7 and with the game’s momentum in their corner.
“We would have gone up 21-nothing,” said Moren of the play. “Instead we don’t execute that, they punch it in, and it’s 14-7 instead of 21-zip. That was big.”
Fairfield wasted no time tying it up in the third as Pinion hit Foust for a 91-yard catch-and-carry with 10:26 on the clock. Bremen wasted a chance to retake the lead five minutes later, coughing up a fumble on a first-and-goal at the 9-yard line, and the Lions gave up the go-ahead on another miscue in the final frame, this time turning over at their own 24 to give up a 76-yard fumble return for a touchdown with 9:42 left on the clock.
Brock Molebash — who led Bremen’s rushing game with 140 yards on 19 carries — retied the back-and-forth game with a 14-yard rumble up the gut with 1:45 on the game clock, and Cody Barrier scored the surprise go-ahead on a 30-yard interception return up the Bremen sideline on the ensuing Fairfield possession, but kicker Justin Nick — who booted a clutch 30-yard field goal to lift Bremen to a 3-0 win last week — missed the PAT, leaving the Falcons the narrowest window to seize the win.
While Fairfield survives at 10-2, Bremen closes out a difficult season at 3-9.
“We put together a little run, and that’s fun for the kids,” Moren said. “I’m glad they got to experience it, but... I thought we were good enough to win the sectional, and we definitely proved that tonight. We just came up short on the scoreboard.”
• FAIRFIELD 28, BREMEN 27
At Class A, Sectional 26 championship at Fairfield
Score by quarters
B: 14 0 0 13 — 27
F: 0 7 7 14 — 28
Scoring summary
First quarter
B — Eryk Zimmerman run 5 (kick fail), 7:03
B — Nate Leeper run 10 (Cody Barrier pass from Leeper), 2:50
Second quarter
F — Chase Pinion run 2 (Derek Vogelzang kick), 3:02
Third quarter
Tanner Foust 91-yd pass from Pinion (Vogelzang kick), 10:26
Fourth quarter
F — Doug Beiler 76-yd fumble return (Vogelzang kick), 9:42
B — Brock Molebash run 14 (Justin Nick kick), 1:45
B — Barrier 30-yd interception return (kick fail), 1:16
F — Foust 13-yd pass from Pinion (Vogelzang kick), 0:05.2
Team statistics
Bremen
Rushing: 43-199; Brock Molebash 19-140
Passing: Nate Leeper 10-26-0 for 134
Receiving: Drew Bennitt 6-71; Cody Barrier 2-51
First downs: 19
Fumbles-lost: 5-3
Penalties-yds lost: 4-20
Fairfield
Rushing: 26-107; Micah Noble 14-67
Passing: Chase Pinion 10-25-2 for 196
Receiving: Tanner Foust 3-118; Derek Vogelzang 4-41
First downs: 12
Fumbles-lost: 1-0
Penalties-yds lost: 2-10
Records: Fairfield 10-2, Bremen 3-9 (final)