FAIRVIEW — Physicality was the name of the game for Fairview, as the Warriors ground Belt into submission for their second consecutive 8-Man title last week.
“To win games late in the year, to win games in November — you see the weather. There wasn't a lot of great throwing going on (in Fairview)," Warriors head coach Derek Gackle said.
"We said we've got to run the ball and we've got to stop the run. In any level of football those are the two things; you've got to be able to run the football and you've got to be able to stop the run. That's all we work on."
Gackle points to a game two years ago in the semifinals, where Fairview rallied from a big deficit before falling in the final moments. He knew his team would bounce back, and the Warriors haven’t lost since ripping off 25 consecutive victories.
“At that point, I was like, 'We won't give up. They're bought in. They believe what we believe. They take adversity and run with it.' Let this sink in. It's 40-8, we're 10 hours from home and it's terrible weather. It's like, get us out of here. And those kids just didn't quit," he said.
The Warriors embraced the target on their back throughout the season and let the results on the field do the talking for them.
“(Belt) definitely overlooked us as much as they wanted this game. So we were like, we're going to show them what's up," senior Deacon Gackle said.
“We kept working hard, doing what we do. It didn't really affect us that much. It kind of fueled our energy, I would say, because they wanted it so much and we wanted to take it away from them," senior Tyler Loan said.
Deacon and Loan put it pretty simple — winner’s win, and Fairview has done quite a bit of that in the past two seasons.
“That's what we do. We have fun. Why do you play this game? To have fun," Derek Gackle said. "Winning is fun, we all know that. We have fun. We're playing Disney music. They're dinking around. This week they're throwing snowballs at each other. ... I learned early that these guys can flip a switch."
