By Mike Simmons, Staff Writer

The Albert Lea football team carried its momentum from last week&8217;s win against Winona into Friday night&8217;s match-up with 1-4 Faribault and put 21 points on the Falcons. Despite the 40-21 defeat, the Tiger offense came away with a lot of confidence after moving the ball against a physical Faribault defense.

&8220;We&8217;re happy with the way we played, we moved the ball at times and did a lot of good things,&8221; said Tigers head coach Clay Anderson. &8220;Physically I was very happy with the way we played, but mentally, you just can&8217;t break down mentally like we did. If we can eliminate that, it will allow us to get even better.&8221;

The Tigers went four-and-out on their first two possessions of the first quarter while the Falcons ran off 11 plays in two drives and held an early 14-0 advantage courtesy of two touchdowns by Adam Hallet. The first came on a one yard plunge, then Hallet broke free for 52 yards and his second score.

To start the second quarter the Tigers put together a 12 play drive that included three first downs and a 26 yard hook-up between Logan Ferrie and Logan Kortan and ended with a Louie Grossman two yard dive that pulled A.L. to within one score at 14-7.

The emotional high for A.L. didn&8217;t last long as the Falcons returned the following kickoff all the way to the Tigers 47 yard line. On Faribault&8217;s first play from scrimmage, Blayze Petersen went 47 yards untouched for a 20-7 Falcon lead.

With just over three minutes remaining until the half it looked as though the Tigers running game was doing just enough to send them to the locker room trailing by just 13. But as was the case most of the night, the Falcons big play threat beat the Tigers, this time a 45 yard score by Blake Nelson and A.L. found itself trailing 26-7. It could have been worse yet as the Falcons connected on a 38 yard pass with just 1:08 left in the half but fumbled it in the endzone and the ball was recovered by Hector Rivera with no further damage done.

Faribault pushed the score to 40-7 late in the third but still the Tigers continued to fight for every yard. Their tenacity finally paid off when Jared Matson found himself wide open for a 20 yard reception good for A.L.&8217;s second score of the night. Then with just 2:38 remaining in the game Matt Tiegs scored from three yards out for a final score of 40-21.

With the loss the Tigers fall to 1-5 overall and 1-4 in the Big Nine. A.L. travels to Rochester next Friday for another tough Big Nine contest against Century.

Faribault 40, Albert Lea 21

Faribault – 14

12

14

0 – 40

Albert Lea- 0

7

0

14 – 21

First Quarter

Far.- Adam Hallet 1 run (kick good)

Far.- Hallet 52 run (kick good)

Second Quarter

AL – Louie Grossman 2 run (kick good)

Far.- Blayze Petersen 47 run (kick failed)

Far.- Blaec Nelson 45 run (conv. failed)

Third Quarter

Far.- Petersen 8 run (kick good)

Far.- Devin Barksdale 1 run (kick good)

Fourth Quarter

AL – Jared Matson 20 pass from Logan Ferrie (kick failed)

AL – Matt Tiegs 3 run (conv. good)