HELENA– Fairfield ran away from Missoula Loyola in the fourth quarter to claim the Class B state football title, winning 30-13.
In a slow, slugfest of a first quarter, the Rams would be the only ones to get on the board. After stripping over nine minutes from the clock in the opening quarter, Nick Mitzel hit Basil Coutinho to put the Rams up 7-0.
The Fairfield offense struggled early in the game, but eventually got going late in the first half when Ryder Meyer found Dawson Allen for a 50-yard pass to get the Eagles in striking distance. Meyer would eventually pound the ball home from 8 yards out for the touchdown, but a failed 2-point conversion would leave the Rams in the driver’s seat by a score of 7-6.
But as the Eagles went into the second half, a switch flipped for Fairfield as it would run away with this game.
Early in the third quarter, Fairfield’s Dawson Allen hung on to the ball and scampered left to find the end zone, giving the Eagles their first lead of the game.
The scoring was halted until the fourth quarter when Meyer hit Allen on 4th-and-18 for a 27-yard touchdown. Meyer then ran in another score from the 8-yard line to put the Eagles up 30-7.
The Rams would score once more on a pass from Mitzel to Cooper Waters from 5 yards out near the end of the game, but the Rams’ two scores on the day would only be bookends to Fairfield’s Class B championship.
“We’re such a tight-knit group. We just have fun playing together. It’s just a blast out here,” Fairfield quarterback Ryder Meyer said. “Then playing for my dad, too, probably won’t ever play for him again. That’s a surreal feeling, too. Our last game together, that’s pretty special.”
“Pretty special group of seniors. When they were incoming freshman we had a meeting and said if you guys can stick together and stay the whole time through, you got a chance to be pretty good when it’s all said and done, and they did,” Fairfield head coach Les Meyer said.
