By Mark Monosky

The North Jefferson News



FULTONDALE — Friday night the Fultondale Wildcats picked up their second win of the season and more importantly, their first region victory of the year, as they overcame a halftime deficit and beat the Hale County Wildcats 23-7.

“Last week was a disappointment. We came out flat. This week we did what we’re suppose to do,” said Fultondale head coach Keith Register. “We’re hopefully back to where we need to be. Hale County has a good team. They do a good job with them. I was more interested in his this week getting better. Win, lose, or draw it was about us getting better. I think we got better this week. We got to maintain this intensity.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Hale County scored the first points of the game in the second quarter. On the second play of the quarter, Hale County quarterback Vincent Kortbawi threw a 15-yard pass to Adrian Weston for a touchdown. After a Devoris Spence point-after kick, the Hale County Wildcats led 7-0.

It didn’t take long for Fultondale to answer back. On the next offensive series, Fultondale drove the ball 56 yards in 10 plays for a touchdown. Running back Jonathan Craig capped off the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. Unfortunately for Fultondale, the point-after kick was missed. This missed point-after kick let the Hale County Wildcats hold lead at the half, 7-6.

The third quarter was a defensive slugfest. Neither team’s offense could get anything going. The main highlights came from the Fultondale defense. First Fultondale’s Cortez Edison and Jared Anderson help stop a Hale County drive on fourth down by pressuring Hale County’s quarterback Vincent Kortbawi, causing him to throw an incompletion.

The other highlight came when Anderson tackled Hale County’s Justin Spence for an 11-yard loss on third down forcing a Wildcat punt.

The Fultondale Wildcats finally took the lead in the fourth quarter. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Jonathan Craig scored his second touchdown of the game from 11 yards out. This completed a 2-play, 46-yard drive. Craig also ran in the 2-point conversion to give Fultondale the lead 14-7.

After stopping the Hale County offense on fourth down again, the Fultondale offense scored again on their next offensive series. This time, Chris Hardaway ran it in from 18 yards out. The touchdown completed a 4-play 64-yard drive.

After a Sam Robles point-after kick was good, Fultondale had a 21-7 lead.

The final score of the game came with less than 10 seconds to go. Fultondale’s Cortez Edison sacked Kortbawi in the end zone for a 14-yard loss and a safety to make the final score 23-7. The tackle was Edison’s fourth of the game and third for a loss.

Fultondale’s Jonathan Craig had spectacular night. He rushed for 195 yards and two touchdowns offensively.

Defensively he had eight tackles and on special teams he punted five times with an average of 39 yards per kick.

Criag now has run for 498 yards in three games this season.

The Fultondale Wildcats go on the road next week to play Thorsby in another region match up.