ROGERS — Rogers’ losses were Fayetteville gains.

Fayetteville scored 17 points off three costly Mounties mistakes in a 45-10, mercy-rule win at Harmon Field on Friday night.

A miscommunication on a fake punt led to a Fayetteville field goal and two Rogers fumbles led to touchdowns as Fayetteville blew open a 10-10 tie.

Fayetteville backup quarterback Drew Gorton hit Quentin Smith for a 9-yard touchdown pass with 11:17 left in regulation to invoke the mercy rule.

Fayetteville starting quarterback Brandon Allen completed 17 of 28 passes for 210 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. Rogers was without the services of starting signal caller Andy Couture, who is sidelined the rest of the year after suffering a second concussion two weeks ago.

“Losing your quarterback is a devastating blow but Rogers surprised us a little by doing something we just didn’t think they would do,” Fayetteville coach Daryl Patton said.

“Cabot might run the Dead T but you don’t expect to see it from Rogers. But we monitored and adjusted, fixed some things early and really only gave up one big play.”

Without Couture, Rogers set up in power formations - including the Power I and Dead T - in an attempt to play keep-away from the Bulldogs (5-2-1, 4-1). The strategy worked in the first quarter.

The Mounties pulled ahead 7-3 on a 59-yard touchdown run by JasonOller with 3:10 left in the opening quarter. Oller led the Mounties (2-5, 0-5) with 71 yards on 10 carries.

“We go from a situation similar to Fayetteville, with a real good quarterback who can throw and run with some good receivers, to a full-house backfield,” Rogers coach Ronnie Peacock said. “We don’t have anyone who can step in and do what Andy did. Obviously, we tried but we knew we would have to do other things.”

An errant deep snap on a punt on Rogers’ first possession led to a Fayetteville field goal from 39 yards out by Will Rosteck at the 6:27 mark of the first quarter.

“We had a fake punt set up and someone forgot to tell the center and he snaps it like he normally would,” Peacock said. “And when adversity struck, we just didn’t respond very well.

We knew Fayetteville was explosive offensively so we wanted to make some plays in the running game and keep possession to keep us in the game. It worked early but right before half we made some crucial mistakes and they capitalized.”

The Bulldogs took a 10-7 edge on a nine-play, 66-yard march that was capped by Allen’s 10-yard touchdown toss to Michael Heintzman with 7:21 left in the second quarter.

Fayetteville, though, fumbled a punt return midway through the second, allowing Rogers to knot the contest at 10-all on a 20-yard field goal by Spencer Dunlop with 2:01 left until the break. A 14-yard gallop by Bronson Carpenter set the Mounties up first-and-goal from the Fayetteville 6 but Rogerscouldn’t punch it in.

Fayetteville then scored 14 points in the final 2:01 of the first half to turn a 10-all deadlock into a 24-10 halftime lead.

Allen connected on 4 of 4 passes for 49 yards on Fayetteville’s subsequent possession. Allen rolled right and zinged a 17-yard touchdown pass across the field to Dean in the left front corner of the end zone for a 17-10 lead with 1:15 remaining in the half.

Rogers fumbled the ballback to Fayetteville on its next drive.

The Mounties sacked Allen on first down for a loss of 13 but Allen lobbed a 33-yard touchdown pass to Josh Hale, who made a highlight-reel, leaping snare for the score with eight seconds left for a 24-10 lead.

The Bulldogs got the ball first in the second half and promptly traveled 75 yards in eight plays. Allen was 5 of 7 passing on the march, including a 15-yard screen pass to Dylan Hale to set upfirst-and-goal from the 3.

Dean took the direct snap and rumbled in from 3 yards out for a 31-10 advantage.

Allen later hit DylanHale for a 9-yard touchdown pass on a sideline screen with 4:01 left in the third quarter for a commanding 38-10 lead.

3rd/4th grade girls basketball

A competitive basketball team is being organized in Rogers for all interested girls. The team is for girls in grades 3-4 who will eventually attend Oakdale Middle School, Lingle Middle School and Heritage High School.

This program, endorsedby Heritage High coaches, will focus on fundamental development, ball handling, shooting and team concepts.

Skills and drills used will be the same drills players will utilize at the middle schools and Heritage High.

An information meeting is scheduled Monday, Nov. 2, at Lingle Middle School cafeteria

Sports, Pages 8 on 10/28/2009

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