Faith Academy football beats Founders Classical
CAPTION: Faith Academy senior Andrew Houy played a big role for the Flames in every area of the win against Leander Founders Classical Oct. 10. Photo by Stennis Shotts
The Faith Academy of Marble Falls football team defeated Leander Founders Classical 70-48 to give the Archers their first loss of the season.
It’s the second consecutive week the Flames (6-1) hosted an undefeated opponent and beat them.
“Grit and toughness of our boys,” head coach Jay Silvers said. “We just did what we do. We run the ball and we did a lot more passing this game.”
The Flames (6-1) led 16-0 after the first quarter thanks in part to a 41-yard scoop and score fumble recovery and touchdown by senior Andrew Houy. Faith trailed 32-28 at the half.
“At halftime you have to light a fire back under them,” Silvers said. “We held Founders to three scores. We started clicking and getting stuff done.”
That includes special teams where Faith had a kickoff return for a touchdown.
Faith led 49-42 after the third quarter.
One big highlight of the final stanza was when senior Adam Merlick saw a bobbled snap and broke through to “get back there and blew up everything,” Silvers said. Merlick got the fumble.
“That was one of the momentum shifts,” he said. “I think the other one was a goal line stand on the one-yard line. They probably had all four downs. They were within 10 yards. And we ended up tackling their guy on the one-yard line on their fourth down play, and that really just turned everything around for us. And the boys then had the momentum that they had from Adam’s fumble recovery, and then to stop them on fourth down, we took over full momentum and imposed our will at that point.”
Silvers, who is the program’s offensive coordinator, said the unit called about the same number of running and passing plays.
“We did a little more passing in this game,” he said. “We were more 50-50.”
The vast majority of the plays started with junior Wade Dillard, sophomore Landon Silvers and Houy.
Houy had 15 rushes for 152 yards, four touchdowns and a fumble and completed 9 of 15 passes for 186 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
Landon Silvers had 15 rushes for 170 yards and two touchdowns, threw a 29-yard touchdown pass, and caught a 20-yard scoring pass.
Dillard had four receptions for 102 yards and three touchdowns, while junior Cooper Hansard caught three passes for 52 yards, Merlick had two receptions for 30 yards, and sophomore Graham McGraw had a 21-yard reception.
“We let Andrew and Landon just take over the game and Wade really stepped up this game with his receiving and running, so it was good,” the coach said. “It was just a good all-around game for us in the second half, where we did the things that we know we do well.”
Defensively, the Flames forced the Archers to change their offensive scheme. Founders senior running back Connor Stephens, who had more than 800 yards on the season, did not play.
Defensively, junior Price Rosamond had 11 tackles, while sophomore Egan Barnes had five tackles, and sophomore Ronin Burns, Landon Silvers, Merlick and sophomore Madden Kinnee each had three tackles.
“We shut down what we call the jaybird look, their tight looks,” Jay Silvers said. “We shut down that running part of the game, and I think even if they had (Stephens) in there, that defensive scheme that (defensive coordinator Garrett) Cole had come up with did a great job of just bottlenecking everything. And so they got out of that and went to their diamond package (three running backs and a quarterback in a diamond look), and we haven’t seen a whole lot of the diamond this year. It made us have to adjust kind of on the fly. We had a hard time with it in the first half. In the second half, we figured out what we needed to get done and really just pinned our ears back and went after them. And they did a good job. The boys reacted well and did what they were supposed to do.”
Faith is on a bye this week and will begin defense of their District 4, Division II championship of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools when the Flames travel to play at San Marcos Academy Friday, Oct. 24.
CAPTION: Faith Academy sophomore Landon Silvers continued to do his thing during the win against Leander Founders Classical as he scored in various ways. Photo by Stennis Shotts
