Cullman wideout Seth Donaldson races upfield after a catch during the first half of the Bearcats' 21-14 loss to Arab.

Arab coach Adam Gilbert started with the coach speak, saying every win is a big one.

But he couldn’t help putting a little extra emphasis on this one.

“This is obviously a big one, beating Cullman,” Gilbert said.

The Knights got a breakout performance from sophomore quarterback Daulton Hyatt and knocked off the Cullman Bearcats 21-14 Friday night in the season opener for both teams.

Hyatt completed 12 of 22 passes for 127 yards with three touchdowns. He added 141 rushing yards, including a 76-yard highlight reel jaunt that helped set up the game-winning touchdown midway through the fourth quarter.

“He didn’t run half the plays right,” Gilbert said of his young signal caller. “He’s not really played since junior high, and sometimes I have to bite my lip because he runs around and makes plays when we’re trying to get him to see reads.”

Cullman coach Mark Britton said offensive inconsistency took its toll on the Bearcats.

“We didn’t really sustain drives on offense,” said Britton, who is in his 14th season as Cullman’s coach. “Arab was able to keep the ball away from us. … it’s just kind of tough. We’re going to look back on the film and see a lot of good things. Inconsistencies tonight kind of hurt us.”

In the marathon that is a high school football season, the loss shouldn’t impact much of anything. The Bearcats open 2014 with non-region clashes against Arab and Etowah before a bye and starting the Class 6A, Region 8 slate in Week 4.

But the win certainly meant something to the Knights. To put things in perspective, not a player on Arab’s roster was alive the last time the Knights came out on top of the Bearcats.

“People’s going to say, ‘Well, they’re down,’” Gilbert said. “Cullman’s not down. It’s like Hoover. Hoover may lose 40 (players), but Hoover’s still Hoover. Cullman’s the same way. We’re not going to let anybody take anything away from us.”

The last Arab win over Cullman was in 1993.

Hyatt will get a lot of the credit for leading the Knights to the win. With the game tied at 14 early in the fourth, Arab faced a third-and-2 from its own 22. On a read-option play, Hyatt held on to the ball and went up the middle. He was hit several times before finally spinning away for a 76-yard run to the 2-yard line.

“He had one big, real long run that ends up being the difference in the game,” Britton said. “We had shots to tackle him right there, but just didn’t get him down. “That’s just football.”

After a penalty and negative play, Hyatt stood in the pocket and delivered a strike to Noah Cater for a 10-yard touchdown with 5:59 remaining.

Relying on a sophomore quarterback of its own, Cullman’s Ross Crocker tried to rally the Bearcats to a tie. He completed 5 of 8 passes on Cullman’s ensuing drive to get his team to the Arab 13 with about 3 minutes remaining. But Arab’s Taylor Parker stepped in front of a slant route and picked off Crocker to end the threat.

Arab went three-and-out on its next possession, as Cullman’s Justin Patterson recorded his third sack of the evening to force Arab to punt with 2 minutes remaining.

With Crocker back at the helm, Cullman reached the Arab 43 before Arab’s Ryan Parker was able to pick off a pass at the 29.

Crocker finished the night 15 of 29 and 124 yards passing.

“I thought he did a good job,” Britton said of his sophomore signal caller, making his first career start. “We need to be able to run the ball in key situations. It was tough to have a balanced type attack. We weren’t able to catch some balls … just the consistency wasn’t really there.”

Will Crenshaw led the Bearcats’ rushing attack with 122 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns.

Early on, penalties played a big factor in two Arab touchdowns.

Arab struck first, as Hyatt scrambled left and found Tommy Carr behind the Bearcats defense for a 28-yard score. On the first play of the drive, Cullman was flagged for a personal foul.

Cullman struck back on its next possession with Crenshaw finding the end zone from the 10. Crocker completed his first pass of the season on the drive, finding Maison Goodwin on a 9-yard strike. He also connected with Seth Donaldson — who had a team-high nine catches for 80 yards — Owen Lovell and Crenshaw on the drive.

Hyatt’s second touchdown pass of the evening came on the Knights’ next possession. He rolled to his right before coming back to the middle of the field and finally found a diving Trevor Harris in the end zone for the score.

This time, two personal fouls on Cullman gave the Knights a lot of free yardage.

“I think the officials have a tremendous burden on them this year,” Britton said. “There’s so much on the targeting and things, but I did think the kids adjusted well to the game as it progressed.”

After trading possessions, Cullman’s special teams came up big to help score its next touchdown. Caden Winn fielded a punt at his own 42 and found a wall of blockers down the home sideline. He eventually was pushed out of bounds at the Arab 13, setting up a five-play drive that ended with Crenshaw’s second touchdown – a 1-yard dive into the end zone. Cullman had to convert a fourth down on the short drive and took advantage of a pass interference penalty on third-and-long.

Arab had one more chance to score, but Tristen Blocker’s 37-yard field goal sailed wide left with less than a minute remaining until halftime. Blocker also missed a 43-yarder late in the third quarter.