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| Mac Bassett 22 yard-touchdown pass from Darren Beenken (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
The victory pushed the unbeaten Tigers' record to 4-0 and left them tied with Holy Angels at the top of the conference standings with identical 3-0 marks.
The first Farmington touchdown came early in the second period on a 22-yard scoring strike from Darren Beenken to junior wide receiver Mac Bassett.
Athen Ashton, who recorded his fourth 100-yard rushing performance in as many games, scored the second on the Tigers' first possession of the third quarter on a five-yard run.
"We did some good things again tonight," Tiger coach Mark Froehling said, "but we have to execute better, especially on offense. We move the ball well at times but we hurt ourselves with penalties and missed assignments.
"We say we always strive for perfection even though we know we may never get there. We can't become complacent or satisfied with these types of mistakes."
New Prague scored its lone touchdown of the night with 11 minutes to play in regulation on a three-yard run by bruising fullback Nathan Preston (23 carries for 145 yards) and then made it more than a little interesting.
Ashton coughed up a rare fumble on the Tigers next possession and the Trojans were in business at the 25. Two plays later Godfrey Mpetey returned the favor by pouncing on a loose ball at the Farmington 20.
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| Athen Aston 4 straight 100-yard games (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
This time Beenken and Company moved the ball deep into Trojan territory before a 29-yard field goal attempt by Reid Taubenheim sailed wide right to give the home team and its fired up Homecoming crowd new life with 3:30 remaining.
But Denver Robinson sacked the quarterback on first down and the resilient Tiger defense allowed just seven yards on the next three plays to finally salt the game away.
"We knew coming in we had to play more physical football," Froehling said. "If you don't stop their fullback, you don't beat New Prague...I thought we did an outstanding job of running to the ball and we made a couple of key fumble recoveries toward the end."
The Tigers may have been a bit undersized against the Trojans but defensive coordinator Glenn Mogensen said that is about par for the course.
"We could play some of our bigger offensive linemen on defense," he said, " but we want to stick with our platoon system. We have a lot of good athletes who go out there and play on every down. That's who we are."
Mason Auge led the defense with eight tackles Mason Gaylord added six, Alex Chadwick 5.5 and Mpetety five. Kevin Clifton recorded 4.5 stops, including a key first quarter sack that thwarted a Trojan threat.
Ashton finished with 125 yards on 25 carries and caught two passes for 60 more to pace the Farmington offense.
Beenken completed six of 13 passes for 143 yards. Jordan DeCroock matched Ashton in receptions with two good for 50 yards.
The Tigers get another chance to win a homecoming game next Friday when Chaska invades Tiger Stadium for a Missota Conference tilt. The Hawks shut out Red Wing 33-0 Friday night.
