Clayton Bristol says he averaged 42 yards per carry as an eighth-grade running back.
Now a 250-pound senior defensive tackle, Bristol relived his ball-carrying days while putting an exclamation point on a tremendous second-half defensive effort by the Fulton Hornets.
Bristol's 75-yard interception return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter highlighted Fulton's shutout of the School of the Osage Indians after halftime in the Hornets' 33-21 season-opening triumph Friday night at Robert E. Fisher Jr. Stadium.
"It's a lineman's dream come true," Fulton head coach Pat Kelley said of Bristol's feat. "... He's very athletic and if we were in a power set, he'd be an ideal fullback, but he's an all-conference (offensive) guard and defensive tackle as well, and he could play a lot of positions on the front seven on both sides of the ball."
Trailing 27-21, Osage faced a third-and-8 from the Hornets' 25-yard line. Sophomore quarterback Zack Wheeler dropped back for an attempted screen pass, a route that burned Fulton a number of times in the first half.
According to Bristol, Wheeler drew Hornet defenders too far upfield to thwart those previous tries. This time around, Bristol noticed he'd pursued just far enough toward the quarterback that he could afford to drop back a couple of steps to defend the pass.
Bristol snagged the ball at its highest point and barreled toward the sideline, shaking off an intended Osage tackle and lowering his shoulder to plow through ensuing defenders. He followed one more block and lumbered the rest of the way for the score with 6 minutes, 38 remaining.
"I'm not much of a juker, I'm more of a run-people-over (runner) and that's what I did," Bristol said.
The touchdown dashed any lingering hopes for the Indians, who were limited by Fulton to just 65 of their 302 yards of total offense in the final two quarters. The night started promising enough for Osage after notching a pair of first-quarter touchdowns within a span of 1:15.
The Indians drove 87 yards in 11 plays on their second drive of the game, topped off by Wheeler's 20-yard touchdown throw to senior wide receiver Russell Williams with 6:44 left in the first quarter. Trying to maintain the momentum, Osage followed up by successfully recovered an onside kick near its own sideline at the Fulton 46.
Four plays later, Wheeler's option keeper from 8 yards out increased the Indians' advantage to 14-0 with 5:29 to go in the period. The Hornets found themselves in a similar two-score deficit - and unable to recover - in last season's 41-14 loss at Osage.
The fact that his team didn't spiral in a similar direction this time impressed Kelley.
"It was early, there was still a lot of time left and they did, they kept their poise," he said. "Nobody got rattled, nobody got shook and I think that's a sign that we have senior leadership."
Fulton responded immediately. The Hornets drove 74 yards in nine plays, picking up 39 of that total on five carries by senior running back Travis Dean.
Senior wide receiver Radarion Glover then put Fulton on the scoreboard with the first of his two touchdowns. Masek connected with Glover in the flat on a bubble screen, going for a 14-yard touchdown at the 1:45 mark.
Glover struck again early in the second quarter when the Hornets cashed in on sophomore corner back Cameron Vaughn's interception of Wheeler with 8:17 remaining in the half.
Glover reeled in Masek's high delivery on the traditional wide-receiver screen pass, wove through blocks from senior teammates Andy Baysinger and Trenton Clines and dashed 44 yards to tie the game at 14-all with 7:24 to play in the half.
"We were watching (the play) from behind and you could just kind of see it break," Kelley said. "Once you saw daylight, he kind of turned it on and got in the end zone."
Glover finished with a game-high 75 yards on four catches.
Osage turned it over on downs at the Hornets' 30 on its next drive, but responded by forcing Fulton to punt with 2:50 left. Wheeler finished an eight-play, 66-yard drive with a 25-yard touchdown pass to senior Brandon Pierce to restore the Indians' one-touchdown lead with :42 to go.
Osage sent the kickoff out of bounds to set Fulton up at its own 35. Masek hooked up with junior receiver Isaac Franklin for 16 yards, then found sophomore receiver Makygh Galbreath for 7 yards before calling a timeout with :19 remaining.
On the next play, Dean broke the arm tackles of Indian junior defenders CJ Meyers and Jason Edwards and turned a sure first down into a 45-yard touchdown bolt to pull the Hornets square again at 21-all with :08 to play.
"... He had a few people around him and you thought, "Surely he's not getting out of it,'" said Bristol, who was blocking on the play. "And he did and I had to keep blocking."
Dean went untouched on the go-ahead score, blowing by Osage for a 58-yard touchdown run with 2:35 remaining in the third quarter. He totaled a career-high 227 yards on 22 carries as the Hornets ran 33 times for 247 yards.
Masek completed 9-of-15 passes for 109 yards as Fulton racked up 356 yards of total offense.
Pierce paced the Indians with 117 yards rushing on 21 carries, while Wheeler connected on 11-of-29 passes for 159 yards.
Fulton opens its road schedule at Versailles this week. The Tigers edged Knob Noster 29-28 on Friday night.