“We always run around. We’re just hungry for the football,” said McKenzie, a senior linebacker. “Always 11 hats to the ball, and we always rally. We just want it. It’s as simple as that.”
Fairfield earned a 325-304 advantage in yardage, limiting the Thunderbolts (1-1) t0 59 yards on the ground.
“I think the defense played a great game,” Indians coach Jason Krause said. “They just kept getting stop after stop after stop after stop in the second half for us. We think our run defense is good. Obviously in our league and our region, we believe that you have to play good run defense to win.”
Northmont did get a strong performance from quarterback Brenden Reck, who was 21 of 40 for 245 yards and a pair of touchdowns (to Donavin Wallace and Tyree Trammell).
Reck was picked off by Rudy Jones and Josiah Scott, the latter at the FHS 2-yard line in the second period.
“I didn’t see his stat line, but if you just go by courage and guts, Brenden played great,” Thunderbolts coach Tony Broering said. “This is my 26th year coaching. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a game where the quarterback got hit that many times and stayed in the game. He’s a really tough kid.”
“We wanted to get to him,” Krause said. “Obviously they’ve got great skill guys running around out there. We didn’t want to give him a lot of time, but kudos to that young man. He kept getting back up and making throws.”
Zack Waddell and Drew Bartolovich collected eight tackles apiece for the Tribe, and Scott totaled seven. Greg Fitzpatrick had 2.5 tackles for loss and forced the Wallace fumble that McKenzie scooped up and took for a touchdown in the first quarter.
“The crowd was going nuts, and it just felt good when I finally crossed that end zone with all my teammates behind me,” McKenzie said. “It was amazing seeing all the student section going crazy. Running with the ball up … I loved it.”
Aaron Carmack completed 15 of 25 throws for 201 yards for Fairfield, connecting with Alex Kaminsky and James Mitchell for scores. Carmack also ran for a TD.
Northmont cut the deficit to 20-13 with 0:56 left in the first half on a 64-yard touchdown connection from Reck to Trammell. The Thunderbolts caught a break on the play as two FHS defenders collided in the secondary.
But the hosts opened the second half with an 80-yard scoring drive. Carmack tossed a screen pass to Mitchell, who bolted 55 yards to the end zone.
“Without looking at film and grading him, he scrambled and got out of some things, made some good throws,” Krause said of Carmack. “I think he probably played really well again. That’s kind of where it starts for us. But ultimately we rushed for over 100 yards. The entire second half, they loaded the box up and played some zero coverage on us, and we were able to just kind of grind the ball out a little bit. It was really important in the win.”
Mitchell (17 carries, 53 yards) and Carmack (12 carries, 38 yards) led the Indians’ ground attack. Devin Kenerly (10 carries, 43 yards) paced Northmont.
“Fairfield’s going to win a lot of games, no doubt about it,” Broering said. “We wanted to run it, but it’s just tough in there. We knew coming in that they were big and strong and really fast on defense. They just fly around. You know where they’re coming, but what do you do? You’ve still got to handle them.
“I’m proud of the boys for sure. They really fought hard and stayed with it. We’ve got a lot of kids banged up, but we got through it and were still playing hard at the end.”
Said McKenzie, “They ran around and played hard. You’ve got to respect them.”
Jason Zile had 11 tackles and Alex Birt recovered a fumble for the Thunderbolts, who will host Lakota East next Friday.
“We can’t put our heads down and feel sorry for ourselves,” Broering said. “We played Winton Woods in a tough, hard-hitting, close game, and we played Fairfield in a tough, hard-hitting, close game. And here comes Lakota East next week, the same kind of team. I have all the respect in the world for Coach (Rick) Haynes. I’ve known him forever, so I know what his team is. It’s a daunting task ahead of us.”
Fairfield will try to sweep its nonconference schedule next Friday when the Indians travel to Dublin Coffman.
“It feels great (being 2-0), especially with the senior class that left,” McKenzie said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that stepped up. I’m so thankful for that and the teammates around me and their will to win.”
“We were hoping that we could have a chance to be 2-0 going all the way to Coffman next week,” Krause said. “We feel really good sitting at 2-0 right now.”
Tribe receiver Will Cornwall suffered a dislocated knee in the second quarter and left the field on a stretcher. Krause said he was taken to the hospital for X-rays.
Northmont 6-7-0-0—13
Fairfield 13-7-7-0—27
N: Donavin Wallace 21 pass from Brenden Reck (Kick failed)
F: Aaron Carmack 4 run (Jerred McGuire kick)
F: Aaron McKenzie 62 fumble return (Kick blocked)
F: Alex Kaminsky 6 pass from Carmack (McGuire kick)
N: Tyree Trammell 64 pass from Reck (Nick Winchester kick)
F: James Mitchell 55 pass from Carmack (McGuire kick)
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