By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Logan Foust scored on five touchdown runs and racked up 272 rushing yards as Southern Alamance defeated host Williams 33-20 on Friday night in the Central 3-A Conference football opener for both teams at Burlington Memorial Stadium.
Foust’s 1-yard run for the only points of the third quarter broke a tie and the Patriots (4-1) led the rest of the way.
This marked Southern’s first game in the conference after a realignment. The outcome avenged a home non-league loss to Williams from a year ago.
Foust, a senior running back, carried the ball 41 times.
“Against a pretty good Williams team,” Southern coach Fritz Hessenthaler said of Foust’s numbers. “We made some adjustments at halftime that probably weren’t plain to the eye.”
The Bulldogs (3-2) were within 27-20 after Milton Turner’s 7-yard touchdown reception from Dan Mahan with 2:32 remaining. Southern recovered an onside kick and two plays later Foust went 42 yards for his final touchdown.
Southern benefitted from two Williams turnovers in the fourth quarter with Foust’s interception and Evan Gerringer’s forced fumble.
Those were parts of a strong defensive performance from the Patriots.
“They kind of had to nickel and dime it and drive the ball and that’s what you want to force a big-play offense to do,” Hessenthaler said. “We met just about all our defensive goals. Defense came up big in that second half.”
Williams scored first on Mahan’s 12-yard scramble. Southern scored the next two touchdowns on Foust’s runs of 1 and 12 yards. Haneef Rasheed II’s 4-yard touchdown run helped the Bulldogs pull even at 13-13 in the second quarter.
Southern extended its lead in the fourth quarter on Foust’s 3-yard run and Josiah Tysinger’s two-point conversion run.
The Patriots finished with 350 rushing yards and 23 yards in the air.
Mahan threw for 198 yards on 15-for-22 passing. Bron Rogers made six catches for 60 yards.
See roundup of other Alamance County teams in action Friday night here: https://alamancenews.com/western-win-streak-continues-southeast-cummings-collect-big-league-wins/
