Mules’ Season Ends With First Round Road Loss In Greenville

A year ago, Justin Townsend’s Fairfield Mules took a long bus ride north and won a playoff game they were not supposed to, beating one of the South Central Conference’s co-champions in North Mac.

On Saturday, they traveled to Greenville to try to pull off the same against this year’s South Central Conference champions in the 9-0 Comets. They were unable to repeat the feat, with the Comets flying past the Mules, 35-12.

The undefeated home team scored on their first possession of the game and led 21-0 before the Mules would get their first score. In the process, the Comets racked up 400 total yards, including 275 on the ground to help them put the Mules away.

Greenville sophomore Dayton Oliver followed a huge line to 188 rushing yards and two touchdowns, while junior quarterback Ben Hutchinson threw for 125 yards and a score. Hutchinson is head coach Todd Hutchinson’s son and the younger brother of Tyler Hutchinson. Tyler is the all-time leader in IHSA history in pass completions, yards and touchdowns in a career.

The Comets got a good return on the opening kickoff, which would prove to be a problem again for the Mules, to set up a short opening scoring drive for Greenville. Hutchinson hit Declan Graber for an 11-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-1 play with 8:48 to go in the first quarter.

Early Turnover

The Mules would show they could move the ball on the Greenville offense, but a turnover proved costly when Eli Shadowens would climb the ladder for an interception at the one-yard line to prevent the Mules from matching first possession scores.

The two teams then traded punts before the Comets put together another scoring drive, with Hutchinson completing three passes on the drive before Graber scored his second touchdown of the game on a 16-yard run for a 12-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter.

They traded punts again, with a missed fair catch by the Mules pinning them deep in their own territory. A snap sailed through the hands of Fairfield quarterback Jaylen Maners, which would lead to them facing a fourth-and-20 from their own 10. Instead of risking a punt block, Townsend had the punt snapped out of the back on endzone on purpose to take an intentional safety to put the Mules down 16-0.

The hope was they would get better field position after a safety kickoff than punting out of their own endzone. That went for naught when Graber returned the kick 55 yards. Two plays later, Oliver scored from one yard out for a 21-0 lead with 5:20 to play in the first half.

The Mules avoided a first-half shutout by scoring on their final drive of the second quarter, getting the air attack going. Maners was 4-of-5 throwing the ball on the drive, splitting the completions between Jay Snyder and Landon Harrelson before Trey Mason got the touchdown on a three-yard run for a 21-6 deficit at halftime.

Ground Game Gets Going

The Mules outrushed the Comets in the first half, 100 to 99, led by 86 first half yards from Mason. That would not hold in the second half, however, as Greenville was able to run the ball consistently to help them protect the lead. They had 176 yards rushing in the second half.

They had 81 rushing yards on their first possession of the second half alone, getting Oliver going downhill. He had six carries for 79 yards on the drive before Hutchinson took a shotgun snap and ran straight up the gut for a nine-yard touchdown and a 28-6 lead.

That would be the only score the third quarter, but a second Mule turnover, on a fumble by Maners when he got sacked, set up another short field for Greenville. Oliver scored his second touchdown at 9:10 in the fourth quarter for a 35-6 lead.

Staring the end of their season in the face, the Mules still mustered up another scoring drive late, with Maners completing three straight passes on the drive and then a fourth one when he hit a wide-open Alek Couch in the endzone with 5:01 to play.

That would be the last time the Mule offense took the field, however, as Greenville was able to run out the final five minutes of the game, salting away the clock with eight straight runs.

Wrap Up

Mason’s 98 rushing yards gave him 830 for the year, a team high. J. Snyder finished with 333, while Latrael Snyder finished with 494 yards after missing the last two games of the year with a leg injury. Mason finished with 1,186 total yards, adding in 356 receiving yards. He had 13 total touchdowns on the year as well.

Maners finished his freshman campaign with 1,273 passing yards, the fifth most in a season ever in FCHS history. Brian Simpson holds the school record with 1,638 yards in the 1988 season. Maner’s 17 passing touchdowns tied Doug Wilson for the second most ever in a season. Kip Walters has that school record with 19 in the 1994 season.

The Mules finished the season scoring 298 points while allowing 216. They made the playoffs for the 10^th straight season but had a four-year streak of first-round playoff win snapped. It is the first season since a 5-5 campaign in 2015 the Mules did not finish the season with a winning record. Fairfield’s last losing season came in 2012.

Greenville (10-0) will host Stanford Olympia in the second round of the playoffs.

Fairfield was one of four BDC teams in the playoffs with the league going 2-2. Sesser-Valier knocked off Carrolton, 34-8 in the 1A bracket. In 2A, Johnston City beat Auburn 16-8, while Carmi lost to Breese Mater Dei, 40-22.