Aidan Atkinson threw a state-record eight touchdown passes in the first half, and Henry Blackburn had five TD catches for the second straight game Thursday night to lead Fairview High School’s football team to a 56-28 win over visiting Poudre at Recht Field in Boulder.
The win by Fairview (8-1, 4-0 Front Range League) sets up a showdown for the FRL title Oct. 31 at French Field between the Knights, ranked No. 8 in the state among Class 5A schools by CHSAAnow.com, and Rocky Mountain, which is 5-3, 3-0 heading into a 7 p.m. Friday game against Horizon at North Stadium in Arvada.
Tristan Burkett ran for an early 3-yard touchdown for Poudre (2-7, 0-4), tying the score at 7-7.
Tony Drohman added an 11-yard touchdown pass to Duante Davis in the first half for Poudre, cutting the Fairview lead at the time to 35-14.
Fairview led 56-14 at halftime, so the entire second half was played with a running clock.
Atkinson, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound senior who has verbally committed to playing college football at Northwestern, now holds Colorado state records for 11-man football for passing yards in a half (425 in a game last season), passing touchdowns in a half (eight) and career touchdown passes (120), according to BoCoPreps.com.
He left Thursday night’s game early in the second half after throwing for nearly 400 yards, while Liam O’Brien stepped in to run the Knights’ offense, leaving Atkinson a little more than 100 yards short of the state’s career passing record of 10,565 by Bear Creek’s Justin Holland from 1997-2000 with one regular-season game remaining.
Atkinson has thrown 42 touchdown passes this season.
