Hornets roar past Tigers in tune-up for district play

Dean becomes single-season rushing leader

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.