File photo by Jake Olson: Fairmont wide receiver/defensive back Tavian Harvey returns a kickoff during a Monday, Oct 20 practice at Mahoney Field to prepare for the opening quarterfinal round of the Section 3AAA Football Tournament.

FAIRMONT – Fans at the Tri-City United High School football stadium hung onto the edge of their seats during the waning moments of Tuesday, Oct. 21, Section 3AAA quarterfinals matchup between Fairmont High School and the home Titans team.

Cardinals senior quarterback Joe Long wouldn’t let his team quit so easily while facing a 21-14 deficit. Stringing together deep completions to wide receivers Tavian Harvey, Merritt Pomerenke, and Brayden Williamson, Long brought his offense down to the Tri-City United 3-yard line, with three seconds on the scoreboard to determine Fairmont’s fate.

As many are aware, this comeback came up just short for the Cardinals. Long rolled out to his right, scanned the endzone thoroughly, and ultimately tossed up a ball to Pomerenke that would hit the ground as time expired.

While the game was a disappointing ending, this sequence of coming up short after fighting tooth and nail the entire contest perfectly summarizes Fairmont’s fall season: close, but not close enough.

“What I will say more than anything is that our guys took this hard,” Fairmont head coach Mat Mahoney said. “They never gave up the hope, which I think was great. … I thought these guys really wanted it, they invested a lot of time into it, but it just wasn’t our season.”

Fairmont’s season-ending defeat to the Titans placed them with a 4-5 record, giving the program its first sub .500 season since the fall of 2014, and the first time the Cardinals haven’t won a section playoff game in even longer.

So what happened?

Why, with the return of your starting quarterback, a handful of offensive linemen, and weapons on both sides of the ball, did things fail to really gain momentum when the rubber met the road?

Frankly, it was a mix of multiple factors.

The Cardinals entered the year losing a handful of impactful players, such as backfield mates Hank Artz and Elijah Johnson, to name a few, who deliberately left their impact on last year’s team success. No matter who stepped in to replace this lost talent, the magnitude of their disappearance will always be felt.

On top of that, Mahoney and his coaching staff had to deal with a handful of key injuries, most notably a season-ending knee injury to running back Cole Brockmann in week two. This gave backfield responsibilities to defensive back Dakota Wiley and linebacker Ty Tumbleson, two players who had to use even more energy now playing both sides of the ball.

“It was something [injuries] that just wore us out as the season wore on,” Mahoney said. “Physically and mentally, we played a lot more kids both ways than we had. … We’re not going to make excuses, or whine or complain about it, but that’s just how the season happened.”

Finally, what came to be the most determining factor of team success was the number of games Fairmont lost by one possession. Mahoney will be the first to tell you that if a couple of plays throughout the season went their way, there is a solid chance his team is still playing in late October.

Whether you want to look at Waseca’s 90-yard kickoff return by Deron Russell to begin the third quarter, the final game-winning drive from Albert Lea, or the aforementioned ending to Fairmont’s final loss of the season, the Cardinals were closer to a deep playoff run than their record projects.

The response to a year like this may be puzzling for some. How do we find the solution? Do we have to change anything to succeed going forward? For Mahoney, none of that matters. He knows his incoming class of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will hit the ground running in their offseason workouts.

If players are not participating in a winter or spring sport, they are asked to attend team lifts three times a week from November to May. Not only does this increase strength and endurance to enhance skills on the gridiron, but Mahoney sees these opportunities as ways his incoming roster can bond and grow as a team.

“When my grandpa coached football, you coached from August to November, and then you had the next eight months to focus on other stuff. But now, in the competitive nature of our world, we have to be lifting weights,” Mahoney said. “Our attendance has always been really good; we have had great senior leaders.”