Following a narrow 37-34 overtime loss to Coolidge last Saturday evening, Nov. 9, the Falcon football squad has exited the state playoffs in the opening round, thus wrapping up the 2013 season.

The Falcons began the first game of the playoffs on the receiving end of a Bears kickoff, ending their opening drive in the end zone to go up 7-0.

From there, the local boys were large and in charge for the first three quarters of play, besting Coolidge 13-6 in the first quarter and going ahead 20-6 at halftime.

The local boys managed two more touchdowns in the third to Coolidge’s single score, moving ahead 34-12 with only a quarter left in regular play.

“It was a good game, but we made some costly mistakes in the end,” said head coach Jim Fairfield.

“We fumbled at the end of the third and they quickly scored on that. Then we had a ball go through our legs on the kickoff, giving them the ball on their own 10 and eventually scoring again.”

Fairfield said this led to the Bears catching up rather quickly, going on to score 22 unanswered points of their own in the fourth quarter.

“We told them the game was still in our hands, we just needed to play hard and do our jobs,” Fairfield said.

“But everything [Coolidge] did then went right and everything we did went wrong. The turnovers gave them the momentum shift.”

With the fourth quarter ending at 34-34, the game went into overtime. It was an evenly-fought final few minutes of play, but Coolidge managed to land the game-winning field goal, going ahead 37-34 to oust the Falcons from the playoffs.

“The kids played hard, but that loss hurt,” Fairfield said.

“[Coolidge] is an exceptionally good team, but so are we. When you score 34 points, usually you think that’s enough to win the game. Still, they fought hard and I’m proud of that.”

Offensively, the Falcons had little trouble moving the ball in the air. Quarterback Luke McDermott was 19 for 29 in passing, totaling 323 yards.

He had a total of six receivers helping him out on the opposite end of his passes, with Jordan Atienza leading the charge at seven receptions for 117 yards. Nick Montalbano brought down five for 81 yards with Jacob DeGroote catching four for 77 yards.

On the ground, Montalbano carried 16 for 70 yards. Michael Doka toted six for eight yards, with Jonathan Burris carrying four for seven.

Montalbano scored three of the Falcons’ touchdowns with Trent Bode and Atienza scoring one apiece.

Kicker Kent Smith added a little offensive oomph to the scoreboard, putting four PATs through the uprights.