Key fourth down stop propels Fairborn over Greenville

By
Steven Wright
-

Photos by Steven Wright | Greene County News

Fairborn’s defense was on top of Greenville all night Friday as the Skyhawks won 27-0.

FAIRBORN — As Greenville steadily built up momentum in an attempt to cut into Fairborn’s lead, all of it quickly evaporated in a two-play stretch.

Check out photos from the week eight matchup between Greenville and Fairborn.

The fourth quarter began with a fourth down stop that was followed by a big run for the Skyhawks to set the tone for the remainder of the contest.

Fairborn turned a close score into a runaway in the final minutes to snap its four-game losing streak and make it a happy Homecoming weekend in beating Greenville 27-0 on Friday at home.

Controlling the game with a 14-0 lead after halftime, the Skyhawks defense was suddenly tested as Greenville started a drive at its own 10-yard line and trickled its way down the field. Using up the remaining time in the third quarter, the Green Wave continued its march into the red zone and rode running back Gabe Rammel until encountering its first fourth down situation of the drive. Racing into the backfield, Fairborn put a halt to Greenville’s drive which went 17 plays, 82 yards and used 9:18 of game time to score no points.

“Almari Byrd made that big fourth down play,” head coach Larry Cox said. “He’s starting to turn into that guy and I tell him all the time that we need an Alpha Dog. And he’s starting to turn into that as he did exactly what we put him in that sport for on that play.”

Greenville would never get the ball on offense again for the final 9:39 of the fourth quarter.

Cameron Faircloth ran the ensuing play from scrimmage for Fairborn for a 53-yard gain down his team’s sideline and the Skyhawks kept moving downhill from there.

Zyaire Cavitt pounded in his second touchdown of the game from three yards out to increase Fairborn’s lead to 20, and then the Skyhawks made a play on special teams by recovering a short directional kickoff to get the ball back.

Faircloth finished off the short drive with another score before Fairborn (3-5, 2-5) again got the ball back by forcing and recovering a fumble on the kickoff. They were able to run out the remainder of the clock.

“It feels amazing knowing all of our guys are working together,” Jackson Fifield said. “All of us really just putting in a team effort to really close the game out there.”

Fairborn outgained Greenville 321-182 and rarely was pushed backward. Faircloth was the leading rusher, carrying the ball 18 times for 136 yard and two touchdowns. Cavitt on top of his two scores gained 62 yards on 12 carries.

The Skyhawks stormed down the field on the game’s opening possession with Faircloth taking a reverse to score from 22 yards out and put his team up 7-0 early. Cavitt made it 14-0 just before halftime and Greenville (0-8, 0-7) followed by nearly cutting into the lead. A pair of screen passes were the only two completes the Green Wave completed and quickly gained 44 yards, but with 11 seconds left what looked to be a pass play to get to the end zone was never thrown as Aiden Manix was tackled while trying to scramble. Greenville had no timeouts left and was unable to stop the clock.

Fairborn will next travel to Troy to continue MVL play.

See all of the week eight scores for Greene County teams.

Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR