Hornets fall short against No. 9 Indians

Fulton Hornets senior defensive lineman Matt Herigon tries to chase down Osage junior quarterback Zach Wheeler on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 during the season opener at Osage Beach, Mo. The ninth-ranked Indians held on for a 28-21 victory over the Hornets.
Fulton Hornets senior defensive lineman Matt Herigon tries to chase down Osage junior quarterback Zach Wheeler on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 during the season opener at Osage Beach, Mo. The ninth-ranked Indians held on for a 28-21 victory over the Hornets.

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. -The Fulton Hornets were not able to dictate the battle up front.

Despite forcing five turnovers, Fulton's defense had difficulty stopping Osage's run game - particularly junior running back Nick Riley - as the Hornets dropped their season opener to the state-ranked Indians 28-21 on Friday night.

"They wore us down. I think they just beat us off the ball," Fulton head coach Pat Kelley said. "We didn't control the line of scrimmage very well on either side."

"It's a tough loss but I'm proud of the effort from the kids. We had our shot right until the end. I've always said this, it's a game of 10 or 12 plays. Those are the plays that really decide a football game. You've got to win those plays and we just didn't tonight."

Fulton had a chance to tie the game late. After forcing a punt, the Hornets took over on their own 39-yard line with 1:47 left. Senior quarterback Devin Masek began the drive with gains of 9 and 5 yards. He then found junior wide receiver Makygh Galbreath on back-to-back passes for 8- and 7-yard pickups.

After an incompletion, Masek connected with Galbreath again on a 15-yard pass to take the Hornets down to the Osage 17 with 0:41 remaining. Masek was chased out of the pocket on the next play and sent a pass into the end zone that was intercepted by Riley from his linebacker spot.

"It's an 11-man game. That play isn't all on him (Masek)," Kelley said. "I think there probably should have been a receiver where he was throwing, but he was also pressured. We didn't block well up front and he was running for his life.

"He threw the ball up and thought somebody was going to be there. That play shouldn't be how he's looked at this game because he did a lot of good things tonight."

After Fulton stifled Osage's passing game in the first half and only trailed 14-7 at the half, the Indians - ranked No. 9 in Class 3 - responded by bullying the Hornets on the ground over the final two quarters. Osage finished with 324 yards rushing.

"You saw that with two minutes left in the third quarter and the rest of the game," Kelley said. "We had a hard time containing the run."

Riley - who had a 21-yard touchdown run in the second quarter - was Fulton's main antagonist in the second half, producing 148 of his game-high 212 yards rushing during that span. The Indians relied on Riley to kill time off the clock on two drives in the fourth quarter.

The first series came on a 12-play, 80-yard drive that lasted 4 minutes and ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by senior running back Dylan Riley with 7 minutes, 18 seconds remaining to extend Osage's lead to 28-14. The second possession was a six-play drive that lasted 3 minutes and ended with a punt at the 1:53 mark.

"He's a strong runner," Kelley said of Nick Riley. "They kept going to either the power off the outside or the counter and we just couldn't stop both of those plays. It's a horrible feeling as a coach to stay on the sideline because you know it's coming.

"You can see it, you can feel it, you're yelling at the kids and they know it's coming. You still have to stop it and we just didn't do a good job at that."

Meanwhile, the Hornets had trouble getting their running game going as they were limited to just 69 yards by the Indians' defense. To offset that issue, Masek was 25-of-42 passing for 308 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.

"What a gritty kid," Kelley said. "He's not very big and he was out there running for his life a couple of times and still making plays."

With the Hornets trailing by two scores, Masek was able to find holes in the Indians' defense on a seven-play drive. Fulton faced a third-and-14 when Masek unleashed a 48-yard bomb to senior wide receiver Alec Fleetwood and then came right back to Fleetwood on the next play for a 4-yard touchdown with 4:41 to go.

Junior kicker Jacob Kern tacked on the extra point to pull the Hornets within 28-21.

Fleetwood tallied a game-high 147 yards receiving on nine catches.

Kelley was impressed with the Hornets' receiving group.

"Alec made some great catches, (senior) Isaac Franklin made some huge catches to get first downs and move the chains, and (junior) Makygh Galbreath was up and down but came up big a couple of times," Kelley said. "We knew our receiving corps was strong coming into the game."

Franklin made six receptions for 84 yards and a 14-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter. Galbreath caught four passes for 39 yards and an 8-yard touchdown grab in the second quarter.

Overall, Kelley wasn't too distraught with a loss to a quality team like Osage this early in the season.

"We made a lot of mistakes, but all of our mistakes are correctable," Kelley said. "We just have to coach them a little bit harder to correct some things and come out again next week. An opening-night loss is not as devastating as your last loss. We've got a lot to build on.

" I thought it was two pretty evenly-matched football teams. I hope they deserved the ranking because that says a lot about us because we had our chances."

Fulton plays its home opener this week against Versailles. The Tigers launched their season Friday night with a 22-6 triumph at Knob Noster.

"I think we'll learn a lot from it (the loss)," Kelley said. "I think we set a tone tonight that we are not going to give up - we're going to keep fighting. We have the kids that are going to push each other to do that, and that's great.

"That's what we're going to have to keep doing as we go through the season."

Ryan Shiner can be reached at (573) 826-2423, or by email at [email protected].