HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL - WEEK 10 BACK TO THE SKIES FULMER GOES LONG, NITRO GOES TO 8-1 WITH WIN OVER WOODROW
Publication: THE
Published: 10/29/2005
Page: 1C
Headline: HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL - WEEK 10 BACK TO THE SKIES FULMER GOES LONG,
NITRO GOES TO 8-1 WITH WIN OVER WOODROW
Byline: RICK RYAN
rickryan@wvgazette.com
Woodrow Wilson was intent on not getting beat by Josh Culbertson, Nitro's
all-state running back. And the Flying Eagles really didn't, holding Culbertson
to a season-low in yards.
But they forgot about Chris Fulmer.
Fulmer, Nitro's all-state receiver, was the difference-maker Friday night,
hauling in three long passes - two of them for touchdowns - to spark the
Wildcats to a 32-21 victory over the previously unbeaten and top-ranked Eagles
(8-1).
The victory, accomplished before a near-capacity crowd at mud-caked Underwood
Field, could improve the playoff status for Nitro (8-1), which entered the game
holding down the fourth spot in Class AAA.
Fulmer caught seven passes for 158 yards, his third-best yardage figure of the
season, but the two higher than that came in blowouts against teams with losing
records.
"They trusted me to make big plays for them," Fulmer said.
"That's my job to make plays and that's what I did."
Fulmer and sophomore quarterback Michael Scott were on the same wavelength,
combining for pass plays of 60, 28 and 47 yards. The first two resulted in
touchdowns and the third set up the Wildcats' final score, a 4-yard run by
Culbertson with 3:36 left that effectively sealed the deal.
Culbertson's stat line didn't exactly go bare, as he finished with 155 yards
and three TDs on 30 carries. His 48-yard scoring
burst early in the third quarter gave Nitro the lead for good. But it was his
lowest single-game yardage figure this season and he managed only 32 yards by
halftime as the teams were tied at 14.
"We've said all along that we'll take what they give us," said Nitro
coach Scott Tinsley. "People have continuously doubled Chris
through the year and, well, when they do that, we're going to give it to Josh
and Chris might not have the numbers.
"But tonight they put everybody in the box and said to Chris, 'You're
one-on-one,' and we had to go there, even with the muddy ball and the muddy
field."
Fulmer, whose eclipsed a national high record Friday
by boosting his career total to 307 catches, appeared to beat single coverage
by Woodrow defensive back Marcus Manns on all three
of his big catches.
"Actually, that wasn't something we saw on film," Fulmer said.
"It's just what I did. I was doing little moves. That's my job to make
moves and get open. That's just what I do."
Eagles coach John H. Lilly, however, said his team never intended to line up
man-to-man with Fulmer.
"We were not doing that," he said. "That's the way it looked and
that's the way it turned out. We had a knucklehead in there who decided to do
his thing instead of what we wanted to do."
Lilly's team was set on its heels right from the start, as the game's first
play from scrimmage resulted in an Eagles fumble that Culbertson recovered on
the Woodrow 16.
Manns, the Eagles' top rusher, slipped on the muddy
track and wasn't there to catch quarterback Ian McCulloch's pitchout.
Culbertson scored four plays later.
On Nitro's next drive, it twice converted fourth-and-1 in its own end to set up
Scott's 60-yard TD heave to Fulmer, who beat Manns on
a post pattern.
"I think Manns is their best athlete," Tinsley
said. "It just shows you what a quality receiver Chris is. He runs the
nicest routes that I've seen for a high-school kid. He just runs precise
routes. It's hard to put a guy out there and say, 'You've got him without any
help.' Really, Chris doesn't get single coverage like that, so we have to take
advantage of it."
Woodrow rallied to tie the game by halftime, scoring on Mann's 2-yard run and
McCulloch's 29-yard pass to Tyler Coleman, the first of two TD hookups for that
pair.
"Even though they held Culbertson to 32 yards in the first half and it was
tied, we felt pretty good," Tinsley said, "because we felt we
did not play very good at all on offense. We knew the offense would come - at
least we felt like it would. What I was pleased with was our defensive effort,
though. We really did a nice job with their running game. They hurt us some
with the pass, but you've got to give up something."
Nitro held Woodrow to 62 yards on 31 rushing plays, although the Eagles lost 40
yards on a pair of bad snaps. The Eagles had been averaging 228 yards on the
ground.
"They do have some spunk on our line," Tinsley said.
"I'll still say they were outmanned because that was a big physical line
for
Nitro's offensive line gave Scott several opportunities to find the open man,
as he completed 11-of-15 attempts for 200 yards. He was not intercepted and
sacked just once.
"You can't say enough about our offensive line giving Mike time to throw
the ball," Tinsley said. "All the films we saw, [Woodrow]
blitzed linebackers and stuff and was able to get great pressure on the
quarterback. They did get pressure a couple times, but he had plenty of time to
throw it."
McCulloch, Woodrow's quarterback, also had a solid effort through the air,
hitting on 8-of-13 passes for a season-high 122 yards and the two TDs to Coleman. Manns was held to
58 yards on 11 carries.
"I tip my hat to them," Lilly said of Nitro's players. "They
showed up tonight, they made the plays and we didn't. Now I'll give our team
credit because every time we got down, we battled back and tied it. I think we
battled all the way until the end.
"But we did one or two things we could not do against a team like this and
that's give up big plays. We gave up big plays three times - on third-and-7,
third-and-8 and third-and-[3]. We gave up touchdown passes and you can't do
that and win against good teams."
To contact staff writer Rick Ryan, use e-mail or call 348-5175.