In Anaconda’s last year in Class B, they are once again getting a brutal non-conference schedule to kick off the campaign. This week, it’s Fairfield coming off a remarkable 41-0 beatdown of Eureka last Friday.
Returning a large contingent of the team Anaconda beat 27-20, Fairfield has garnered a lot of early, well-deserved hype – and even more so following the shutout they posted against one of the perennial best collective programs in all of Class B.
Anaconda is 0-1 following a 36-6 loss to the defending Class B state champion in Manhattan last week, a weird game that had an hour delay starting the second half due to lightning. Surely a 30-point loss is not what Copperhead head coach Dan Lacey had in mind, but a couple broken plays in the fourth quarter when the game was already controlled by the Tigers blew it open.
Anaconda was only able to manage 149 total offense against Manhattan (91 passing, 58 rushing), but that effort was a little skewed due to the talent of the opponent. Ryder Anderson completed 9-of-24 passes with a TD and INT, hooking up with his classmate Carson Lacey for 7-59 and the lone score for Anaconda. Gillie Everett also played some snaps at QB, completing 3-7 for 24 yards. Senior Owen Pesanti caught three passes for 13 yards and brothers Soren and Bohdi Keeland had one reception each.
Defensively, Lacey and Soren Keeland led the team with 14 total tackles apiece, followed by Reid Maes with eight. The Copperheads also hauled in two interceptions, one each by Ryder Anderson and Gillie Everett, and were able to blank the Tigers in the first and third quarters before giving up a few big plays to Montana Grizzly-commit WR Brayden Zikmund and QB Tyson Pavlik – who hooked up for four TDs in the opener.
Anaconda put up video-game like numbers against Fairfield last year. Record-breaking QB Travis Dye threw for 390 yards combined with 89 yards rushing en route to piling up 524 total yards. Even with that production, Fairfield kept it close. Lacey hauled in five receptions for 66 yards a year ago, Anderson had a 41-yard reception and Gillie Everett had three catches for 21 yards and a TD.
Fairfield put up a solid 142 yards rushing against Anaconda last year led by Preston with 70 and returning quarterback Brock Peace was 10-of-23 for 121 yards and 31 yards rushing. Peace is coming off an impressive four-TD, 196 yards passing performance last week in the win over Eureka.
Anaconda and Fairfield are 1-1 all time with the rubber match Friday night. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. with the live broadcast slated to begin at 6:45 on copperheadcountry.org
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