It did not take long to get the feeling that there was just something different going on for the Fort Campbell Falcons Friday night. In fact, it took just about 14 seconds. The Falcons’ Amari Waddy returned the opening kickoff of the season 90 yards for a touchdown and that set the tone for the night as the Fort Campbell Falcons flew past the Muhlenberg County Mustangs 38-14 at Fryar Stadium.
The win was the first for new Falcon head coach Henry Mitchell.
The opening touchdown was one of three scores in the game for Waddy, who also caught touchdown passes of 16 yards and 39 yards as part of a monster night for the Falcons.
After the Falcons scored on the opening kickoff to take a 6-0 lead, another big tone-setting moment came on the first possession of the night for Muhlenberg County. The Mustangs promptly went on a 14-play drive and were knocking on the door of the end zone. However, the Falcon defense closed that door and the Mustangs missed a 25-yard field goal. That would be a missed opportunity that Muhlenberg County would never recover from.
The Falcons went on a long drive of their own a couple of possessions later, capping it off on the first play of the second quarter when Darrion Hutson punched it in from one yard out to extend the lead to 12-0.
Muhlenberg County briefly got back in the game, converting a Falcon fumble into a score when Kanyon Johnson found Jon Putnam for a 19-yard score to cut the lead to 12-6.
But this was not last year’s Falcon team, which might have been wobbled by seeing their lead cut in half. Instead, Fort Campbell went right back down the field and answered with a score of their own. Amari Waddy caught a 16-yard pass from Darin Frederick for the score and the two-point conversion made it 20-6.
After forcing a Mustang punt, the Falcons would score in the waning seconds of the half when Frederick threw his second TD pass of the night, this one for 9 yards to Jalyel Welch with 12 seconds left in the half to send the Falcons to the break up 26-6.
Things went rapidly downhill for Muhlenberg County in the second half. The Mustangs would cough the ball up three times in the final 24 minutes. The only saving grace for Muhlenberg County was that the Falcons dropped two sure touchdown passes that would have blown the game wide open.
Frederick would throw two more touchdown passes in the second half, a 39-yarder to Waddy and a 48-yarder to Maurice Moore.
In between the two scores, the Mustangs did rip off a 63-yard run, but it was far too little for Muhlenberg County.
Frederick’s debut at quarterback was pretty impressive as he was 18-27 for 300 yards and four touchdowns. The Falcons also rushed the ball for 84 yards, bringing their total offense to 384 yards.
The Falcon defense bent, but did not break in the game. They gave up 348 yards, but just the two scores and did come up with three turnovers in the second half of play.
The Falcons have now won their last two games going back to last season when they won their season finale over Webster County. The win over Muhlenberg County was the first for the Falcons in a season opener since 2017 when they beat Marshall County 18-12.
The Falcons will hit the road next Friday as they travel to Elkton to take on the Todd County Central Rebels.
