By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Williams set the tone with a gadget play that resulted in Bubba Sims scoring a touchdown against his former team, and from there the visiting Bulldogs used a huge performance from quarterback Kyrian Fuller in defeating Southeast Alamance 41-21 on Friday night in Haw River.
Fuller threw for two touchdowns and ran for another, and Amarion Richmond rushed for two touchdowns in the Mid-Carolina Conference game that marked the first varsity football meeting between the schools.
Williams began its first possessions with Sims, a defensive back who a year ago was a Southeast captain, at quarterback. He took the snap before Fuller ended up with the ball on a reverse. Fuller then unleashed a pass to Sims, who cut out of the backfield on the left side and was without a defender in sight to complete a 41-yard touchdown play.
“It was just showing we’re still having fun,” Fuller said. “Still can run trick plays and score on them. . . That’s what Bubba wanted, so got revenge on (his) old team.”
The play drew reactions.
“Creative,” Southeast coach Tony Aguilar said, though he pointed out he wasn’t surprised to see Sims involved early on Williams’ offense. “Great call on their part, caught us off guard. I liked it. I’ll put that one in the bag for down the road.”
Aguilar and Williams coach Patrick Stokes are former colleagues on Eastern Alamance’s staff.
“You want to strike first if you can against a really good team,” Stokes said. “Kyrian found the guy wide open and he made it work. The guy caught the ball, tucked it, and scored, and real proud of him.”
Williams (6-1, 4-0 Mid-Carolina Conference) was up 21-0 at halftime, largely because of Fuller’s rushing. He ran 64 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter.
Then when the Bulldogs took over at their own 10-yard line with 1:12 to go in the half, Fuller rambled 74 yards. Williams cashed in on Jazian Bigelow’s 16-yard, third-down touchdown run.
By the end, Fuller had 171 rushing yards on seven carries and 179 passing yards on 11-for-17 throwing.
“The work we put in, the practice day-by-day, is just showing on the field,” Fuller said. “I feel like everything we did in practice is starting to come together and we’re just building upon it and making it even better week by week.”
Southeast (3-3, 2-1) was shut out in the first half for the second week in a row despite producing chunks of yards.
“We dug too big a hole, just couldn’t get out of it,” Aguilar said.
Stallions quarterback Tyler Jackson threw for three touchdowns and 308 yards, completing 28 of 41 throws with an interception. His yardage total would have been higher had not six of the completions resulted in lost yardage, including four of those plays in the game’s first 14 minutes.
Jackson connected with Jatayvion McMillian for a 40-yard touchdown play to open the second half. Williams then went up 27-6 on Richmond’s 1-yard run.
The Stallions countered with Jackson’s 10-yard pass to Drew Easter and Jackson’s two-point conversion run, making it 27-14.
Williams faced fourth-and-1 at the Southeast 26 when Fuller fired a short pass to Colby Elliot, who shed several would-be tacklers and ended up in the end zone.
After Christian Booth’s interception, Richmond scored on another 1-yard run with 1:52 left. Southeast posted the final touchdown on Jackson’s 7-yard pass to Logan Luang-Sy.
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