It may have been a pre-season jamboree game, but when it came to working the referees, Fultondale coach Keith Register was already in mid-season form.

During their warm-up contest Thursday night at Corner’s brand new stadium, he also learned quickly about one of this year’s officiating points of emphasis: sideline infractions.

Register was flagged twice for being in the space between the team box and the sideline during a live-ball situation. On the second call, his foot was barely on the line, which sent Register into apoplexy.

But that rule was the least of his worries, as the host Yellow Jackets shut out the Wildcats 24-0 in two quarters of A-team play.

Jake Collier scored for Corner on a three yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter.

Less than a minute later, after a Wildcat fumble, Jordan Shipp threw a nine-yard scoring pass. (Shipp had opened the scoring for Corner with a field goal.)

Then with 8:46 left in the half, Jarred Causey scooped up a Fultondale fumble on the fly and rambled 23 yards for a touchdown.

Aaron Cummings had five carries for 75 yards for the Jackets. Blake Byrd was 2-for-3 in passing with 56 yards.

Corner also had issues with sideline infractions, drawing one flag when an assistant was standing in the prohibited space, even though he was 35 yards behind the play and well away from the rest of the staff and team.

And in the second half, a different version of the rule had fans and reporters scrambling for a rule book to see the signal for another penalty. The call was sideline interference, siginified by the referee standing with his back to the stands with his hands crossed behind his back.

B-teams — Fultondale 12, Corner 0: The Wildcats’ youngsters got revenge in the second half of Thursday’s jamboree.

Freshman running back DiJonn Temple scored both of Fultondale’s touchdown, one on a 33-yard run and another for 17 yards.

In other jamboree games:

Mortimer Jordan 13, Dora 0: “We’re just glad to get out here again,” said Jordan head coach Greg Watts, after the Blue Devils shut out Dora in the first two quarters of  Thursday’s jamboree at Trotter Stadium.

Late in the first quarter, after an interception by Seth Holzhauer helped stop a Dora drive, Marquis Dobbs ran 33 yards down the sidelines. That set up a 47-yard touchdown pass by Orion Recke to Rod Washington.

Mortimer Jordan scored again less a minute later after a Dora fumble. Josh Pate ran the ball right up the middle 11 yards for the score.

Tackles for losses by Seth Kennedy, Donteez Wilson, Tristan Lash, Brandon Gill, and DeAndre Roden helped preserve the win.

“I liked the way we played on defense. We feel we’re going to be improved on defense. We showed progress there. On offense we showed better ability to strike. We threw the ball better. I thought running backs and our fullback ran the ball extremely hard. I think our running will come on and our passing game is better than it’s been. We’ve got to protect the football better. We struggled in the kicking game, so we still have a lot of work to do,” Watts said.

Mortimer Jordan 6, Hanceville 0: The Devils offense could only come up with one score in the scrimmage against Hanceville, with little more than a minute to play in the first quarter.

Once again, it was a Recke touchdown pass to Washington, this time for 11 yards. The score finished off an 11 play, 80 yard drive.

Mortimer Jordan held on to that lead, but wasn’t easy. Late in the scrimmage a bad snap gave Hanceville the ball on the 4-yard line. But the the Jordan held the Bulldogs out of the end zone four times to preserve the victory.

Marquis Dobbs rushed four times for 97 yards over both halves.

Recke was 5-for-7 with one interception for the night.

Mark Monosky

Homewood 14, Gardendale 0: The Patriots scored a touchdown in each quarter of the two-period varsity exhbition Friday night at Driver Stadium.

“Homewood played well. I thought our effort was good, but our execution was poor,” said Gardendale head coach Chris Fancher. “I thought our defense played outstanding. They did a great job all night. But our offense played very, very average. It’s not enough to just play hard, which we did, but we must execute also.”

Both teams’ defenses dominated most of the first quarter. Gardendale’s Jeffrey McGraw made a big sack on third down that forced a Homewood punt. Unfortunately for the Rockets, the offense could not take advantage of the play.

The first score of game came with little over a minute to go in the first quarter. Homewood’s Stephen Daggett threw to a wide open Nyck Young, who ran untouched into the endzone for the touchdown. The play covered 78 yards.

Late in the quarter the Patriots scored again. This time the score came from Ameer Abdullah, who ran the ball up the middle 31 yards for the touchdown.

Next week Gardendale opens regular season on the road at Hewitt-Trussville.

Mark Monosky

Hayden 53, Holly Pond 14: Eighth-grade quarterback Brandon Butts had four touchdown passes and one two-point conversion.

Hayden scored on their second possession when senior running back Adams Roberts ran in from four yards out  midway through the first quarter.

The Wildcats scored again late in the quarter when senior running back Issac Veitch scampered in from 29 yards out.

Butts hit Aaron Whitt on a 10-yard scoring strike midway through the second quarter to break the game open at 27-0.

Freshman Dylan Putnam raced 46 yards for a score late in the first half, as the Cats took a 33-8 lead into halftime.

Butts added two scoring  passes in the second half, the first to sophomore Parker Sims for 25 yards and the second to freshman Duncan Parker for nine.

The leading rusher in the game for the Cats was Putnam, who had 70 yards on six carries and a touchdown. Fellow freshman J. J. Jinright added 56 yards on nine carries, while Veitch added 54 yards on eight carries and a touchdown.

The Wildcats open the season Thursday night at the new stadium at Corner.

Robert Bradford