By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The Williams football team showed up in road jerseys with “Burlington” across the front, and it turned out that the Bulldogs owned the city Friday night.
Zach Powell scored two first-half touchdowns and the Williams defense was overpowering in a season-opening 43-0 victory against city rival Cummings.
At Thursday’s practice, Williams coach Patrick Stokes unveiled jersey options for the trip across the city. There was one version that the Bulldogs had never seen.
“It was a surprise he had for us a day before the game,” Powell said. “Everyone went crazy when we saw them. Them being new, No. 1, but I really do like the way they look. If you look at the older jerseys, they’re kind of throwback jerseys in a way and I really like that. Because Cummings and Williams is an old rivalry, it kind of shows the history behind it.”
Williams went on to record the most-lopsided result in the 53-game history of the rivalry. The Bulldogs lead the series, 27-26.
“Burlington High School has kind of gotten lost in time,” Stokes said of what he called an alternate jersey. “This is a chance to honor that with the 75th year at Williams. To pay tribute to that and to celebrate that. I think tradition matters.”
In the first meeting between the teams since 2022, the outcome ruined the debut of Terrance Alford as Cummings’ interim coach.
The clash counted as a Mid-Carolina Conference game in the newly-aligned conference. It also marked the first victory for Stokes in three matchups with Cummings.
“It’s important to beat them knowing what it means to Williams and to the town,” Bulldogs linebacker Nathan Williams-Medley said.
Amarion Richmond rushed for 124 yards, and quarterback Kyrian Fuller gained 115 yards on the ground and threw for 148 more. William Overby led the Bulldogs in receiving with four catches for 89 yards and a touchdown.
Powell took a backward pass and ran 16 yards for a touchdown with 2:17 left in the first quarter for the game’s first points.
The next points came on an 80-yard, second-quarter drive that ended with Richmond’s 5-yard run on third-and-goal. Fuller tossed a 33-yard scoring pass to Powell later in the second quarter.
The Cavaliers, who missed on one field-goal attempt in each half, were thwarted on a few threats in the first half.
They moved inside the 10-yard line before quarterback Ja’Kori McNair was sacked by Amari Ferguson and Elijah Kimber on the first play of the second quarter on third down.
Cummings reached Williams territory again late in the first half. But three penalties, two dropped passes, and an overthrown pass came before Kimber’s fourth-down sack. That possession began on Devin Witherspoon’s 11-yard run on a reverse, but one of the Cavaliers’ most experienced and productive returning players was injured on the play and out for the rest of the game.
“Cummings has a lot of threats,” Stokes said. “The defense’s effort was tremendous.”
The score was 19-0 at halftime. The Bulldogs wanted more.
“The coaches weren’t satisfied. None of the players were satisfied. We were still hungry,” Powell said. “We came out in the second half and finished the job. That was probably the best part. . . You can sit out here and practice all day, but you don’t know until you go against real competition.”
Stokes liked the second-half response.
“We looked much better after halftime,” he said. “We have a long list of things we have to work on.”
Williams scored in a variety of ways in the second half, including on Faris Ovcina’s 25-yard field goal for the only points of the third quarter. Overby scored via a 64-yard shovel pass as the lead grew to 29-0.
Fuller ran 13 yards for a touchdown and Jazian Bigelow added a 4-yard TD run.
