In his pregame speech in the locker room at Littleton Public Schools Stadium, longtime Fairview coach Tom McCartney made the analogy to his team that for this particular Friday night, they were to be a band of rough riders who must corral a herd of buffalo to the top of a cliff, and then push them off.
Quarterback Jake Willemsen and his Knights did just that — they accepted “the invitation to be dangerous,” as McCartney put it — as the senior threw five first-half touchdown passes en route to a 48-7 rout of Arapahoe.
With the victory, the Knights not only pushed the Warriors off the proverbial cliff, they also put the 5A classification on notice that no team is safe from the Fairview onslaught.
“Obviously, football is a physical game, so we’re always trying to be prepared in that regard,” McCartney said. “We have different themes that we play to, but we always want to be dangerous and have that kind of mentality when we step on the field.”
Junior running back Mariano Kemp ripped off a 56-yard run to get Fairview within striking distance on the Knights’ momentum-spawning first drive, then a Willemsen to David McWilliams connection from 13 yards out put the Knights up 7-0 early.
Willemsen followed that up with a 40-yard scoring connection to McWilliams later on in the first, with three more touchdown passes coming in the second quarter to give the Knights a commanding 35-7 lead heading into halftime.
It was yet another performance by the first-year varsity quarterback that asserted he, too, is here to be the next prolific passer to practice off Greenbriar Boulevard; he, too, is to be considered among recent FHS gunslinging greats such as Thomas Creese, Johnny Feauto and Anders Hill.
“I’m so proud of him. He’s been preparing all his life for this, and he’s finally getting an opportunity to show what he can do,” McCartney said. “He’s making the most of it.”
It was the third consecutive loss for the Warriors (2-3), who before the current losing streak began in Week 3 had not lost a regular-season game since Oct. 16, 2014. Arapahoe plays Overland next week in the Mount Massive Conference opener.
Meanwhile, Fairview (5-0) rolls into a pivotal Mount Cameron Conference contest against loaded Columbine with ample momentum, and the Knights are now one of three undefeated teams left standing in 5A along with Aurora Central and Eaglecrest.
But don’t think for a second the old-school, football-lifer McCartney is going to let his program get distracted because of a ranking, or a record, or a 33-point average margin of victory so far in 2016. There are buffalo to corral for several more months here yet, all the way through the first Saturday in December, when the Knights have the talent and experience to be in a position to earn the school’s third football crown and first since 1987.
“This is definitely a good start, but we have five regular-season games left and they’re not going to be easy,” Mariano Kemp said. “We have Columbine, we have ThunderRidge, we have Mullen — those are really tough teams, and we have to take it week by week if we eventually want to be in a place for a championship run.”
SCORING SUMMARY
10:25 1Q: Jake Willemsen 13-yard pass to David McWilliams, Fairview 7 Arapahoe 0
6:14 1Q: Willemsen 40-yard pass to McWilliams, Fairview 14 Arapahoe 0
11:54 2Q: Willemsen 23-yard pass to Connor Twist, Fairview 21 Arapahoe 0
7:22 2Q: Willemsen 47-yard pass to McWilliams, Fairview 28 Arapahoe 0
3:35 2Q: Willemsen 16-yard pass to Twist, Fairview 35 Arapahoe 0
0:05 2Q: Connor Desch 9-yard pass to Jake Groth, Fairview 35 Arapahoe 7
6:17 3Q: Mariano Kemp 4-yard run, XP no good, Fairview 41, Arapahoe 7
2:03 3Q: Willemsen 20-yard pass to Tommy Wakefield, Fairview 48, Arapahoe 7
SCORING BY QUARTER
1 2 3 4 Total
Fairview 14 21 13 0 48
Arapahoe 0 7 0 0 7
