Falcons pull away from CCHS

WARRENTON — The second half doomed Culpeper County High School Friday night at Fauquier.

In the first half, the Blue Devils (0-2) appeared poised to snap their 14-game losing streak. In the second, the dream came crumbling apart.
Fauquier (1-1) scored 21 straight points to pull off a 42-27 victory over CCHS, despite the Blue Devils strong start.

CCHS scored 21 points in the first half and went into halftime tied with the Falcons. Quarterback Cortez Rollins threw for 189 yards and three touchdowns, all to John Lezcano, who had 156 yards receiving in the first half.

The Blue Devils’ offense was clicking the entire first two quarters. Rollins finished with 236 yards passing with the three touchdowns and one interception. Lezcano finished with five receptions for 185 yards and the three scores.

“We practiced the pass all week,” Rollins said. “We came out passing and everything was clicking. People were running the routes right, the line was on.”
In the second, the Blue Devils’ fortunes changed. Fauquier rattled off three consecutive scores behind the leadership of Garrett Diehl, who finished with 169 yards rushing with two touchdowns and 161 yards passing with another two TDs.

Diehl took over in the third quarter, guiding the Falcons to a touchdown early in the third quarter as Donovan Carpenter scored with 8:47 remaining to snap the tie and give Fauquier a 28-21 advantage.

From there, Diehl controlled the pace of the game. The Falcon quarterback took advantage of a short Culpeper punt and on the first play of the second drive of the second half rushed 39 yards for a score, essentially putting the game away.

“He’s a great athlete, you can’t say much more than that,” CCHS head coach Mike Williams said.

While Diehl was dominating in the second half, the confidence the Blue Devils garnered in the first half slipped away. Part of the reason was due to Rollins’ injured thumb, a result of him hitting a helmet in the second quarter. However, Fauquier made defensive adjustments that also stymied the Blue Devils.

“They started bringing the heat on the ends and started figuring out what rounds we were running.”

With the Blue Devils air express grounded, the ground game could do little trailing by two touchdowns.

Despite the loss, the Blue Devils were pleased with their first half performance.

“That’s one of the comments I made to them at halftime, I said ‘when was the last time you scored 21 points in a half?’” Williams said. “It gave them some confidence. We just made some mental mistakes in that second half.”

But that first half, was oh so exciting.

Rollins and Lezcano went to work on the first drive, connecting on third and eight for a 65-yard romp giving CCHS a 7-0 lead.

“It was kind of exciting getting off to a quick start, but if it wasn’t for the line we wouldn’t have any of it,” Lezcano said.

After Fauquier tied it on a Diehl-to-Jon Billings 20-yard pass play. Billings then gave the Falcons a short-lived 14-7 lead with a 5-yard run.

Two drives later, Rollins again found Lezcano, this time for a 40-yard score.

Another Diehl touchdown pass put the Falcons back up, but Rollins and Lezcano connected again, the final time for a 51-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at the half.

From there, it was all Fauquier as the Falcons handed Culpeper its 15th straight loss.