Tompkins took its bye week seriously.

The Falcons knew they had things to fix, ways to get better and used its bye week to do just that, knowing how important it would be to bounce back after a slow start to district, with tough opponents still coming up in the schedule.

The Falcons (2-3, 0-2) did answered a lot of their own questions Thursday night and showed just how well they used that bye week, bouncing back from a three-game skid by beating Mayde Creek (3-2, 1-2) 48-27 behind a huge day from the offense in a very strong performance.

“We just stacked days over the past two weeks, and you could really see the whole team improving,” said senior quarterback Justin Thierheimer. “We knew how important it would be to respond this week and everyone in the locker room just got on a roll it felt like. Now we have to keep it going.”

The Tompkins offense was spearheaded by the backfield duo of Thierheimer and Ethan Meadows. Meadows had the best game of his young career, scoring six touchdowns, with 194 yards on the ground and 60 yards receiving, while Thierheimer threw for 282 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 108 yards as well.

“We just fixed our mentality,” Meadows said. “It doesn’t matter what happens on the play before, you have to be ready after a bad play, reset and flush it. I think everyone did a really good job of that today. It made a difference and really our offensive line just made everything happen for us all day. They were great.”

Mayde Creek was the ones that came out hot early in the game and got on the board when Trey Williams threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Chad Nelson midway through the first quarter. Tompkins responded with a strong drive of its own and tied the game early in the second on a 4-yard run from Meadows before Meadows broke free again for a 64-yard touchdown on the Falcons next drive to give the team the lead.

Mayde Creek responded well all throughout the first half and tied the game up with just under seven minutes to play in the second quarter when Williams threw a 74-yard touchdown pass to Daylin Robinson, but Tompkins offense really got rolling late in the second half and they retook the lead with just under four minutes left in the half on a 49-yard pass from Thierheimer to KJ Madison and the Falcons got the ball back again late in the half and went 75-yards on a two minute drill, scoring a touchdown on a 10-yard pass from Thierheimer to Meadow with 24 seconds left in the half to put Tompkins ahead 27-13.

“We had a good balance today,” said Tompkins head coach Todd McVey. “A big part of that is Justin, he’s growing up in that aspect of things and getting better. A lot of quarterbacking has to do with intangibles, it’s different being the starting quarterback and he’s learning, being coachable and learning from his mistakes. He’s learning that you have to be humble, but still be that guy and that leader when other guys are down. He’s learning how to do it and making strides every week.”

Thierheimer added another touchdown pass from 10 yards out to Meadows in the third quarter and after Mayde Creek scored two touchdowns in the fourth to trim the lead in a comeback attempt, Meadows put the game beyond doubt with two more touchdown runs from eight and nine yards out.

The Falcons defense played well in the game especially in the intermediate pass game and the run game, only allowing 40 yards, but did allow some big plays over the top in the pass game, giving up 311 yards through the air. It got better as the game went on and the Falcons had two interceptions in the fourth quarter, but they still know that is an area they need to continue to improve.

“The guys did a lot of things well today, but they’re going to learn and get better from watching how Mayde Creek made those plays tonight,” McVey said. “We have some young guys back there that are still learning and there’s going to be growing pains, but this is exactly how you get better is by going through those things. The mistakes, as long as they don’t cost us games it’s a good learning moment. A lot of guys grew up tonight, they made mistakes, but they also made plays and made stops and that’s what we’ve been waiting on, so I’m proud of them.”

The win was a huge one for Tompkins as they avoided dropping a third district game this early with strong opponents still upcoming. The Falcons were in this same spot last season as well and ended up making the playoffs. They’re confident they can continue stacking days and make a run again.

“We were 1-3 last year too, and the guys learned you have to have a next game mentality, that’s what this team has embraced as well,” McVey said. “It’s always about the next game, you can’t focus on records, you focus on what is in front of you that you can control. We’re going to learn from that, but there’s no feeling sorry for yourself. It’s not about you, it’s about we everyone her is making sure we’re headed in the right direction.”

Tompkins 48, Mayde Creek 27

First quarter

MC: Trey Williams 29 pass to Chad Nelson, 5:12

Second quarter

T: Ethan Meadows 4 run, 11:42

T: Meadows 64 run (Mauricio Vasquez kick) 7:33

MC: Williams 74 pass to Daylin Robinson (Michael Garcia kick) 6:39

T: Justin Thierheimer 49 pass to KJ Madison (Vasquez kick) 3:40

T: Thierheimer 10 pass to Meadows (Vasquez kick) 0:24

Third quarter

T: Thierheimer 13 pass to Meadows, 0:13

Fourth quarter

MC: Williams 9 pass to Nelson (Garcia kick) 11:48

MC: Williams 49 pass to Robinson (Garcia kick) 8:39

T: Meadows 8 run (Thierheimer pass to Bisi Bello) 5:48

T: Meadows 9 run (Garcia kick) 3:59

Team Statistics

Individual Statistics

Rushing – Tompkins: Ethan Meadows, 27-194-4; Justin Thierheimer, 9-108; Bisi Bello, 1-10; Robert Bernard, 3-0; Mayde Creek: Trey Williams, 7-31; Ansel Carter, 7-9;

Passing – Tompkins: Justin Thierheimer, 18-24-282; Mayde Creek: Trey Williams, 21-39-311-4-2;

Receiving – Tompkins: KJ Madison, 3-78-1; Bisi Bello, 6-76; Ethan Meadows, 5-60-2; Etoro Bassey, 1-31; Cade Bauer, 2-25; Mayde Creek: Daylin Robinson, 9-179-2; Chad Nelson, 8-108-2; Ansel Carter, 2-17; David Matthews Jr., 2-7;