While Fulton ran away with a 53-14 NCMC victory over Kirksville in Friday night's regular-season finale at Robert E. Fisher Jr. Stadium, Hornets head coach Pat Kelley decided to do something he has rarely done in his career.
Instead of deferring after Fulton (7-2, 5-2 North Central Missouri Conference) won the opening coin toss, Kelley took the ball to start the game.
"It was kind of odd," Kelley said jokingly afterward. "That's probably two or three times that I've chose to do that in 19 years. I usually like to start on defense to set the tone, but we felt that we needed to get off to a fast start and get off as quickly as we could on offense.
"The first play didn't work well, but the second play worked OK."
That would be a bit of an understatement. After being tackled for an 8-yard loss on the opening play, senior running back Travis Dean charged his way into the end zone for a 67-yard touchdown run less than a minute into the game to provide the quick start Kelley was seeking.
Dean finished with 240 yards and four touchdowns, becoming the Hornets' new single-season rushing leader with 1,732 yards.
"Travis is an extremely gifted running back," Kelley said. "Even though we didn't block as well as we needed to at times, he made up for that."
Despite Fulton's fast start, Kirksville (0-9, 0-6 North Central Missouri Conference) made some offensive noise of its own in the first quarter. An interception of Hornets junior quarterback Devin Masek set up a 32-yard touchdown pass from Tigers sophomore quarterback John Bohon to sophomore receiver Blake Lewis.
"We had a miscommunication and blew a coverage on the first touchdown, and that's gonna happen," Kelley said. "From that point on, we settled in.
"Other than that, our defense played solid and we were able to control the line of scrimmage and do a lot of things we wanted to do."
Fulton (7-2, 5-2) then began to take full control of the game. In another possession lasting less than a minute, Dean broke out for a 61-yard touchdown run with 5 minutes, 24 seconds left in the quarter.
The Hornets forced a punt and were able to capitalize again with a minute remaining in the quarter. Masek was chased out of the pocket, scrambled left and found senior wide receiver Radarion Glover for a 32-yard touchdown.
Masek completed 5-of-7 passes for 92 yards.
Fulton senior defensive back Andy Baysinger picked off Bohon on the first play of the second quarter and Masek sprinted 33 yards for a touchdown on the next play to extend the Hornets' advantage to 26-6. Masek finished with 82 yards on just five carries.
Fulton received a scare on its next series. Dean was slammed the ground after a 38-yard gain and left the game for the rest of the possession.
"He got tackled from behind and just kind of hit his head on the ground," Kelley said. "We just wanted to check him out."
Dean's teammates responded. Two plays after the hit, Masek ran for 39 yards on a draw play to set up a 4-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Cameron Vaughn with 7:35 to play in the first half.
"It's kind of the next man up philosophy," Kelley said. "When you've got five guys up front there that can block as well as they can block, you can put a lot of guys back there that can have success.
Dean returned in a big way on the Hornets' next drive, speeding his way for a 37-yard touchdown run at the 2:55 mark, sending Fulton into the break with a comfortable 40-6 lead. Dean supplied his final score on a 49-yard sprint early in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore running back Ammod Davis also rushed for 116 yards on 10 carries for the Hornets, including a 60-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
"I think we got back to being consistent," Kelley said. "On defense, we tackled a whole lot better, we read our keys a whole lot better.
"We scored 53 points, and our varsity gave up six points. So all said, it was a pretty good night."
Fulton is the second seed in Class 3, District 6 with 44.82 points and will host a familiar foe, Boonville, in a first-round game next Friday night. The sixth-seeded Pirates (2-7) suffered a 35-14 NCMC loss to Marshall on Friday night.
The Hornets trounced Boonville 47-13 in Fulton on Oct. 2.