RUSSELLVILLE -- Cale Fulsom played through a little pain Friday night to help coach Billy Dawson pick up his first win at Russellville.
Fulsom threw a pair of touchdown passes to Caleb Stokes and that was plenty for a stingy Cyclones' defense en route to a 17-0 win over Rogers Heritage at Cyclone Stadium.
Nonconference
Russellville 17, Rogers Heritage 0
Rogers Heritage^0^0^0^0—^0
Russellville^7^0^3^7^—^17
First Quarter
Russ- Stokes 3 pass from Fulscom (Turner kick), 7:13.
Third Quarter
Russ- Turner 20 FG, 5:22.
Fourth Quarter
Russ- Stokes 13 pass from Fulscom (Turner kick), 8:16.
Dawson said his junior quarterback suffered a leg injury in practice earlier this week, but came through big for his team on Friday night.
"He dinged his knee up, but I thought he did a great job tonight," Dawson said. "We didn't run him much. We like to run him, but we tried to protect him and thought the kids did a good job."
Dawson pointed to an exchange of turnovers in a mistake-plagued game by both teams as a key that helped Russellville (1-1) turn the momentum in its favor.
Fulsom threw an interception inside the Heritage 10-yard-line midway through the third quarter. But the Cyclones recovered a War Eagles' fumble on the next play and managed to get a 20-yard field goal from Nate Turner for a 10-0 advantage.
"We threw the interception, then they fumbled and gave it right back to us," Dawson said. "It's a momentum deal. We got three points out of it to make it a two-possession game. That puts a lot of pressure on them offensively to try to get back in the game. They probably did things to try to get back in the game they generally wouldn't do.
"They ran the ball some in the first half pretty effectively. But couldn't do that down two scores."
Fulsom found Stokes again on a 13-yard scoring strike in the fourth quarter to set the final score.
Heritage coach Perry Escalante said his team's offense struggled mightily, turning the ball over three times.
"Offensively we didn't do anything," Escalante said. "We did nothing. They had a pretty simple plan and they executed everything really well. The first half was pretty sloppy, a bunch of penalties on both sides. Our offense just didn't show up tonight. Defense, just on the field too long. It got us late.
"We made some mental mistakes. We had a guy jump offsides five times I believe. That's lack of discipline."
Russellville managed the lone score of the first half on its initial drive of the game. Fulsom capped a 15-play drive with a 2-yard touchdown completion to Stokes on fourth-and-goal. The drive was aided by three Heritage offsides penalties.
Fulsom found Stokes in the end zone again later in the half, but that score was called back for offensive pass interference.
Heritage (1-1) put together one drive inside the Russellville 20 in the first half, but a pair of penalties pushed the War Eagles back. They ultimately turned the ball over on downs.
Sports on 09/12/2015