Fulton head coach Pat Kelley knew Hannibal senior running back Shamar Griffith would be a handful.
Griffith and the state-ranked Pirates certainly were, particularly in the second half as the game got out of hand.
Griffith rushed for 291 of Hannibal's 423 yards rushing and scored four touchdowns, and the Pirates pulled away behind 41 unanswered points in the second half to flatten Fulton in a 75-22 North Central Missouri Conference romp at Robert E. Fisher Jr. Stadium on Friday night.
"It wasn't a shock," Kelley said of Griffith's performance. "He runs fast, hard and quick. He's a four-year starter at that school and he's just a great athlete."
The Hornets (3-3, 1-2 NCMC) had pulled within 28-22 of Hannibal on senior quarterback Devin Masek's 5-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Makygh Galbreath with 35 seconds to play in the first half. Masek added the two-point conversion on a run.
The Pirates, though, had a fast answer when senior quarterback Trevor Watson connected with junior wide receiver Wyatt Waelder for a 15-yard touchdown with just :09 left. That sent Hannibal (5-1, 4-0) - ranked fourth in Class 4 - into halftime with a 12-point advantage.
"(I told our players after the game) that I was awful proud of them that they stood toe-to-toe with the No. 4 team in Class 4 for 24 minutes," Kelley said. "We just didn't come out in the third quarter and execute like we're capable of doing."
That certainly wasn't the case for the Pirates, who decisively took control behind a 27-point outburst in the third quarter. Griffith's third touchdown of the game, coming on a 46-yard burst, pushed Hannibal's lead to 40-22 with 9:51 remaining in the quarter.
The Pirates then recovered a Fulton fumble at the Hornets' 15-yard line and Griffith followed with a 7-yard touchdown run at the 8:31 mark. Hannibal would add two more scores in the period and two touchdowns - one on defense - in the fourth quarter.
"I think that took the wind out of our sails," Kelley said. "We came out third quarter and gave up 13 quick points and all of a sudden you're down four scores. It's hard to come back from that.
"Up front, Hannibal is big and fast and they have an incredible running back that we couldn't slow down. That kind of put us behind the eight-ball early (in the third quarter), and then we had that turnover down there that led to a score. We just didn't execute in the third quarter and that was the ball game."
After junior running back Billy Smashey scored the second of his three touchdowns on a 6-yard run with 6:46 to play in the third quarter, two Fulton offensive starters suffered injuries. Junior running back Ammod Davis left the game when he took a hit on a 2-yard run and Masek was pulled three plays later after slowly getting up from a hit after throwing an incomplete pass.
Kelley did not know the extent of either player's injury after the game. He removed all of the Hornets' offensive starters on their next possession as a safety precaution.
Masek finished 20-of-31 passing for 238 yards, 220 in the first half, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
"Once they (Davis and Masek) came out, we had all of our starters out," Kelley said. "There wasn't any reason to play them. They (Pirates) kept their guys in and that's their choice.
"But we felt there was no reason to risk injury, especially after Ammod's because his may be more serious. With Devin, he was taking shots all night - it was just time to take him out."
Fulton matched Hannibal score-for-score throughout most of the first half.
The Hornets jumped on top on the game's opening possession when senior wide receiver Alec Fleetwood scored on an 8-yard run off a jet sweep with 10:02 left in the first quarter. The Pirates immediately answered on the first play of their initial series when Griffith sprinted 60 yards for a touchdown and Hannibal hit the extra point to take a 7-6 lead at the 9:48 mark.
Following a punt by Fulton, the Pirates increased their lead on Watson's 1-yard touchdown run with 5:43 to play in the quarter. On the Hornets' next drive, Masek hooked up with Fleetwood on a 20-yard touchdown pass and then connected with Galbreath for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14-all with 2:52 remaining.
Griffith put Hannibal back in front on a 2-yard touchdown run with :49 left in the quarter and Smashey gave the Pirates a 28-14 edge when he scored on an 8-yard run with 1:34 to go in the second quarter.
The Hornets travel to Boonville (1-5, 0-3) this week for an NCMC encounter. The Pirates suffered a 35-13 conference loss at Kirksville on Friday night.
"Our message is that we're 3-3 - we have to stay ahead of the chain, record-wise," Kelley said. "We're going to come in Monday and talk about what we need to do to correct the mistakes we made and get ready to go play Boonville.
"That's all you can do."