Gleason rolls to big win at Fulton County

By JIM STEELE

Sports Writer

Gleason surged to a 16-0 lead in the first quarter, expanded it to 40-14 by halftime and rolled to a 60-34 victory at Fulton County, Ky. Friday night.

The Bulldogs enjoyed a diversified offense, took advantage of some defensive breaks and were able to play a lot of players.

"We didn't play well defensively, but part of that, I think, is the fact that we haven't played anybody else for two weeks," said Gleason coach Noah Lampkins. "We didn't tackle well."

The Bulldogs had a scrimmage scheduled, but that was washed out by weather two weeks ago.

Drake Lovell ran for a pair of touchdowns and had over 175 rushing yards. Kurstin Gustafston had two touchdown catches, one for 50, the other for 35, then ran in an 8-yard score. Garrett Pinkston had eight catches for nearly 100 yards.

“Kaiser Crochet had a good game at quarterback and our line blocked pretty well," Lampkins said. "When you score 60 points, you are doing something right."

A trio of freshmen earned their baptism in fire. Trey Mayo, filling in for injured players, was able to keep pace and played well. Aiden Legens worked at inside linebacker and made some tackles. Drak Lehmkuhl made a catch over the middle and recovered a fumble that set up Gleason's second touchdown. Eierson Hilby strip sacked the Fulton County quarterback, and Lehmkuhl scooped it up and raced 35 yards to the Pilot 4.

Lampkins said he was glad his team was able to deal with game-one adversity.

"It was good seeing how our kids would respond to an hour road trip," he said. "Fulton County was big and physical and had some athletes, but we controlled the line of scrimmage pretty well."

The Bulldogs will face an old, familiar foe when West Carroll visits Parks-Edwards Field this Friday night. The War Eagles defeated Hollow Rock-Bruceton Central 50-20 at Atwood this past Friday night.

Often, when Gleason and West Carroll meet, it's a wild game.

"We have a lot of work to do on defense, a lot of things to fix," Lampkins said. "We won't be able to make all those mistakes we made last week against them."