GIBSON CITY – With each week comes a common goal for the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley varsity football team: improvement.
The Falcons, who are ranked fourth in Class 1A by the Associated Press, improved their record to 2-0 with a 57-7 win over Fisher on Friday.
“We strive to get better every week, and we thought we got better this week,” GCMS senior linebacker/offensive lineman Logan Ward said. “It was a pretty convincing win.”
Starting off strong
After Jack Andrews recovered the onside kick on the 50-yard line on the opening kickoff and Jacob Chase ran for seven yards on the first play from scrimmage, Chase scampered for another 17 yards toward the right sideline.
Tucker Mueller then ran for 14 yards on the next play before gaining another yard on the next play.
Cameron Hitchcock then found daylight down the right sideline for an 11-yard touchdown run. After an extra-point kick by Mason Doman, who went 7-for-8 on extra-point attempts, GCMS led 7-0 with 10:19 left in the first quarter.
After Andrew Todd gained two yards on Fisher’s first offensive play, Logan Ward recorded the first of his four tackles for loss of yards on second down, tackling Colby Chander for a loss of three yards.
On third-and-11, Jack Andrews intercepted a Blake Green pass attempt before returning the pick to Fisher’s 22-yard line.
On the next play, Mueller found Graydon Leonard for a touchdown pass with 8:35 left in the first quarter.
On Fisher’s ensuing possession, Todd was tackled by Ward on a 1-yard run before Ward tackled Todd for a loss of one yard on second down. On third-and-10, Ward recovered a fumble to give GCMS the ball back at the Bunnies’ 24-yard line.
“We had some pretty big hits,” Ward said. “The defensive line controlled the whole game. Without the defensive linemen opening up those gaps, I wouldn’t have been able to get in there and get those tackles. Without the outside linebackers setting the edge, there’s no way I could have gone out there and chased them down.”
The Falcons were stopped on Fisher’s 18-yard line as Todd tackled Brayden Bradbury short of the first-down marker on fourth-and-4, giving the Bunnies the ball back on their own 18-yard line.
Tristan Wooton tackled Colt Daugherty for a loss of three yards on first down before Ward tackled Todd for a loss of four more yards on second-and-13. Bo Epperson recovered a fumble for Fisher on a botched handoff before a bobbled snap on a fourth-down punt attempt resulted in a safety that extended GCMS’s lead to 16-0 with 4:21 left in the first quarter.
After the Falcons were forced to punt, Fisher got the ball back on its own 15-yard line. Todd ran for five yards a pass from Green to Daugherty netted three yards.
On third-and-2, Chase forced a fumble by Todd that Ely Harden recovered on Fisher’s 43-yard line.
From there, two runs by Mueller netted 18 yards before Chase ran for a 24-yard touchdown with 11:06 left in the second quarter.
After Todd ran for nine yards on the first play of Fisher’s ensuing possession, Conner Kinzinger broke up a pass attempt on second-and-1 and Ethan Lowe tackled Green for a loss of one yard on third-and-1, forcing the Bunnies to punt to GCMS’s 43-yard line, marking the first time the ball was placed in Falcon territory.
Lowe ran for 10 yards on the first play of the ensuing GCMS drive before three runs by Chase moved the ball to the 23-yard line. Two plays later, a second-and-10 run by Mueller drew a horse-collar penalty on the Bunnies that moved the ball to the 10-yard line.
From there, Chase tallied his second touchdown run of the game with 6:05 left in the second quarter.
Green recovered a botched snap on the first play of Fisher’s ensuing possession before throwing an incomplete pass on second-and-13.
On third-and-13, a GCMS facemask penalty resulted in the Bunnies moving the chains for the first time all game.
Following a 7-yard run by Todd and a 2-yard plunge by Green, Reed Tompkins intercepted a Green pass on third-and-1 with 3 ½ minutes left in the first half, one of five Fisher turnovers forced by a Falcon defense that yielded only 18 rushing yards in the first half.
After Chase ran for 27 yards to move the ball to the Fisher 41-yard line, Weston Ensign intercepted a Mueller pass two plays later to give the Bunnies the ball back on their own 37-yard line.
Dominick Bond tackled Todd for no gain on first down before Ward tackled Daugherty for a loss of four yards and Green recovered a third-down fumble via a bad snap, forcing the Bunnies to punt on fourth-and-forever.
“It was pretty fun being out there with my teammates. We were all able to get our job done,” Ward said. “That’s definitely one of the goals of our team this year – to have a great defense. We did a pretty good job of stopping them and not allowing them to move the ball, and that put our offense in an even better position to score more points.”
After getting the ball back on Fisher’s 42-yard line, GCMS gained 20 yards on a reception from Conner Kinzinger.
In first-and-15 from the 27-yard line, Evan Landers-Kristensen caught a pass in the end zone with 17 seconds left in the first half to extend the Falcons’ lead to 36-0.
Mueller completed 6-of-12 passes for 99 yards while Leonard caught two passes for 42 yards and Landers-Kristensen made one reception for 27 yards.
“We have a great receiving core. All our receivers are so good,” GCMS head coach Chad Augspurger said. “Tucker’s a threat with his feet and his arm. We’re pretty excited about what we can do offensively.”
Bond tackled Todd for a loss of two yards on the first play of the second half before Zeb Greer tackled Green for no gain on second down.
On third-and-12, Todd scampered for an 88-yard touchdown to put Fisher on the board with 10:25 left in the third quarter.
“We knew we were going to run that trap, and we’ve still got to be able to stop that,” Augspurger said. “Their running back really ran that ball well. When he got off, we couldn’t catch them.”
Soaring onward
Following Todd’s touchdown, Chase ran for a gain of 18 yards to move the ball to Fisher’s 40-yard line.
After Leonard caught a pass for 20 yards and Mueller scampered for 19 yards, Mueller ran for a 6-yard touchdown with 8:48 left in the third quarter.
Jaxon Wright tackled Todd for no gain on the first play of Fisher’s ensuing possession before Lowe did the same on second down. Dev Patel tackled Todd for a loss of two yards on third down to force the Bunnies to punt to their own 38-yard line.
After Kinzinger caught a pass for three yards, Lowe scampered 35 yards for a touchdown that forced the running clock via a score of 50-7 with 5:31 left in the third quarter.
Lowe was part of a running game that gained 296 yards, including 117 on eight carries by Chase.
“We’ve got a good core of running backs,” Augspurger said. “Everybody knows Jacob Chase, but we know Bradbury and Lowe can run the ball well.”
After Fisher took over on its own 15-yard line, Nate Bristow tackled Todd for no gain before Leonard tackled Todd for a loss of two yards on second down. The Bunnies punted after Green ran for eight yards on third-and-12.
After GCMS went three-and-out and punted for the second time in the contest, Fisher took over on its own 9-yard line.
Two runs by Todd moved the ball to the Bunnies’ 21-yard line. After Bristow tackled Green for a loss of one yard, Colten Hewerdine caught a pass on third-and-8 to move the ball to the Fisher 31-yard line.
Following a 4-yard run by Todd, an incomplete pass and a botched snap, the Bunnies punted to their own 49-yard line.
Four plays later, Anthony Maloney scampered 40 yards for a touchdown for GCMS to put the icing on the cake with 11 seconds left in the contest.
The Falcons finished the game outgaining the Bunnies 395-131.
“It was a good win for us,” Augspurger said. “I thought we did a lot of great things offensively and definitely, and the special teams played well. It was just a good all-around victory in all three phases of the game. We still have a few things we have to shore up.”
One last meeting
After the game, GCMS and Fisher met on the field for a postgame huddle with some handshakes exchanged before and afterwards.
Fisher is leaving for the Lincoln Prairie Conference next year.
“We have a good relationship with the Fisher coaches there,” Augspurger said. “We just wanted to celebrate together. The teams played hard. Everybody came out healthy. That’s something to celebrate. They’ve got a good foundation they’re building there.”
The Bunnies fell to 0-2 with Friday’s loss.
“Fisher’s doing a lot of rebuilding and playing a lot of young guys, but we knew we still had to come out and execute and we had to play well and do the things we wanted to do,” Augspurger said. “For the most part, we did. We were pretty happy with that. The effort was great.”
Up next
The Falcons will host a winless LeRoy team at 7 p.m. next Friday.
“We know they’re always going play tough,” Augspurger said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re ready to go come Monday. We’re just excited and ready for LeRoy next week.”
Last year, GCMS (2-0) lost 34-13 to LeRoy in a Week 8 battle of unbeatens en route to the Panthers reaching the IHSA Class 1A state semifinals.
“We definitely remember what happened to us last year against them,” Ward said. “We feel that we need to get them back for what they did to us. It should be fun. It was a good win (over Fisher). Let’s keep rolling.”
GCMS 57, Fisher 7
FISH 0 0 7 0 — 7
GCMS 16 20 14 7 — 57
Scoring summary
GCMS – Hitchcock 11 run (Doman kick).
GCMS – Leonard 22 pass from Mueller (Doman kick).
GCMS – Safety.
GCMS – Chase 24 run (Doman kick).
GCMS – Chase 10 run (Doman kick).
GCMS — Landers-Kristensen 27 pass from Mueller (kick failed).
FISH – Todd 88 run (Green kick).
GCMS – Mueller 6 run (Doman kick).
GCMS – Lowe 35 run (Doman kick).
GCMS – Maloney 40 run (Doman kick).
Stat leaders
RUSHING – Fisher 120 (Todd 24-148). GCMS 296 (Chase 8-117).
PASSING – Fisher 11 (Green 2-7-11). GCMS 99 (Mueller 6-12-99).
RECEIVING – Fisher (Hewerdine 1-8). GCMS (Leonard 2-42. Landers-Kristensen 1-27).