Football: Fultondale 56, Central-Coosa 42

Published 12:58 am Saturday, September 5, 2015

After a disastrous first-week outing, Fultondale rebounded with lots of offense, and a 56-42 win over visiting Central-Coosa to open regional play at home Friday night.

With all-state playmaker Jared Stewart sidelined for the rest of the year after tearing an ACL last week at Fairfield, Walter Blair took up the challenge and ran for 242 yards and four touchdowns on just 14 carries — that’s 17.3 yards every time he ran with the football. The 5-foot-6, 130-pound sophomore scored on runs of 61, 47, 35 and 21 yards.

Derrick Moore scored on a 61-yard kickoff return, and also grabbed an interception for the Wildcats.

Fultondale racked up a 35-0 lead in the first half, with the Cougars scoring a touchdown plus a 2-point conversion with 93 seconds to go before halftime.

Central put up numbers on the stat sheet that normally would have indicated a victory, with 447 yards total offense and 17 first downs (compared to 14 for Fultondale). But six fumbles, two of them turned over, plus more than 100 yards in penalties contributed to their downfall.

Bryan Navarette set a new school record by converting all eight of his extra-point kicks.

Ja’Len Sims led the Cats’ offense with six solo tackles and 11 assists.

Fultondale (2-1, 1-0 region) travels to Prattville Christian next week.