Fishburne falls to JPG

Fishburne’s Chet Berry threw for 309 yards and scored four touchdowns, including one on the ground in the first half, but his impressive stats weren’t enough to help the Caissons survive the second.

Visiting John Paul the Great Catholic School made the adjustments it needed to at the start of the second half and began to find holes in Fishburne’s defense to pick up a 56-36 non-conference win on Friday afternoon.

“[The Wolves] were well coached and had a great blitz up the middle that was hard to stop,” said Fishburne coach Val Gochenour.

The Caissons are still waiting to find out if they will be playing in the Capital Area Football Conference championship game next week. Fishburne is currently tied for second with Fredericksburg Christian and needs No. 1 Massanutten Military Academy to score a win today in Woodstock to lock up a bid for the title game.

“I’m still proud of how we hung in there, we just have some things to fix,” Gochenour said.

After their first drive failed, the Caissons fell behind early when the Wolves’ Logan Sullivan connected with Tyler Perroots for a 20-yard score.

Fishburne struggled on the run all afternoon and only tallied 39 yards on the ground in the first half. Several big passing plays kept Fishburne in the game, including a Berry 51-yard pass to Glen Franklin that gave the Caisson’s their first score of the game.

Two JPG fumbles led to two more Fishburne scores, putting the home team up 18-7. Berry scored on an 18-yard run after the Wolves flushed him from the pocket then connected with Franklin for a 69-yard score in the middle of the second quarter.

Fishburne ended the first half with a 24-14 lead after Berry completed a 10-yard pass to David Candelario.

In the second half, turnovers and a porous line spelled doom for the Caissons. The Wolves scored two touchdowns in two minutes to open the third quarter then added another at the end of the frame to take a 35-24 lead.

“We really had a difficult time with our line today,” Gochenour said. “We had some injuries.”

Fishburne did respond with a 65-yard run for a TD by Franklin, but allowed JPG to score three times in the fourth quarter.

The Caissons’ only other score came in the fourth on a five-yard touchdown pass to John Gonzalez.