Football: Hornets fall in Highway 54 Bowl

Down two scores and on the subpar end of a lopsided total yardage imbalance, momentum - believe it or not - rested with the Fulton Hornets to start the second half of the Highway 54 Bowl.

Fulton had the ball, some semblance of offensive rhythm and something to hang their hat on defensively to start the third quarter. Unfortunately for the Hornets, the rival Mexico Bulldogs ensured that everything that could go wrong did during that disastrous 12 minutes.

Through a combination of special-team breakdowns and a fatigued defense, Fulton saw its deficit double in the third quarter, allowing Mexico to pull away for a 49-14 North Central Missouri Conference win Friday night at Robert E. Fisher Jr. Stadium.

"Really in that second half, Mexico really became the hammer and we became the nail," Hornets head coach Trey Barrow said.

Fulton (0-8, 0-5 NCMC) has now dropped six in a row to Mexico, its last win in the series coming in a 35-19 decision in 2012. Down 21-0 with 3:13 left in the second quarter Friday night, the Hornets pieced together an offensive drive of almost 3 minutes, capping the march off on senior running back Taeon Logan's 2-yard touchdown run.

On the scoreboard and receiving the second-half kickoff, Fulton and Barrow saw a simple path back into the game.

"You know, we had the mindset of we're going to take the ball, go down and score, get a stop, then go down and score again," Barrow said. "And then, you know, it's a tossup."

Situated at its own 43-yard line to start the third quarter, the Fulton offense lost 11 yards on its opening possession, then netted a meager 6 yards on the punt to set the Bulldogs up at the Hornets' 38. Mexico (5-3, 2-3 NCMC) scored five plays later on junior running back Tyler Talley's 3-yard plunge.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Bulldogs squibbed it into the middle of the Hornets' return team, then recovered the ball after it caromed off a Fulton upback. Suddenly back on offense at the Hornets' 46, Mexico cobbled together an eight-play drive over the next 4 minutes, finishing it off on senior fullback Dillon Nichols' 14-yard touchdown run with 3:23 left in the quarter.

Fulton's coverage team, again, was unable to recover the ensuing kickoff, putting the Hornets' defense immediately back on the field just inside its own territory.

"We rep these things in practice," Barrow said. "The front line, they know their first job, they know their job. We just didn't execute well. They didn't catch us off-guard, we just didn't do what we needed to do."

The Bulldogs stalled at the Fulton 21 with 1:11 to go in the quarter, ending that prolonged stretch of the period for the Hornets' defense at 18 plays and nearly 9 minutes. During that juncture, Fulton surrendered 112 yards of offense and lost 11.

"Third quarter, Mexico had all the momentum, they had the ball the majority of the time, and I think our defense was a little down," Barrow said. "But we made a couple of four-down stops in that quarter to stop them from scoring. I'm proud of them that they didn't stop fighting."

Fulton topped its scoring off on a 24-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Tyler Sayler to junior receiver Zaylin McNeil in the fourth quarter. A week after the Hornets' offense seemed to find its footing in its unsuccessful comeback at Southeast Kansas City, the Bulldogs' defense clamped down on Fulton's running game Friday night.

Logan finished with 90 yards rushing, just the third time this season he failed to reach 100 yards. The touchdown pass represented Sayler's lone completion of the game, though he was just off on a number of downfield attempts.

"Sayler has a good arm and is a pretty good quarterback - we just didn't execute our one-on-one matchups," Barrow said.

The Bulldogs padded their lead with fourth-quarter touchdown runs of 8 and 2 yards by sophomore running backs Ian Williams and Dante Billups, respectively. As a team, Mexico tallied 417 yards rushing in 64 attempts (6.5 yards per carry), both season highs for a Fulton opponent.

Talley and Nichols each carried the ball 16 times, logging 143 and 100 yards, respectively.

"Everybody they put back there ran really hard, they ran downhill and they really impressed me," Barrow said.

The Hornets close out the regular season at home against Missouri Military Academy this week. The Colonels (0-8) fell at St. Lutheran (Concordia) 17-0 on Friday night.

"I don't have magic words right now. It hurts, a game like this," Barrow said. "We have to look back at film, correct what we did in this game, build on that for this week and carry that into next week and districts."