Red Bank's Keon Williams went from averaging less than 2 yards per carry on his first-half touchdown runs to averaging 44 on his second-half TD runs. In all there were six -- the key reason the Lions are advancing to a Class 4A high school football state quarterfinal.
Williams rushed 24 times for 250 yards as Red Bank defeated visiting Fulton 55-22 on Friday.
Williams has had a slight shoulder problem that kept him out of last week's game, although Red Bank coach Tim Daniels said he could've played. He was more than ready to go against the Falcons, running 65 yards on the Lions' first play of the night before being knocked out of bounds at the 4-yard line.
"That boosted the whole momentum of the game," Williams said. "That took everything to another level. After that, I really never felt they could stop us."
That long run set up the first of Williams' four short touchdown runs in the first half. His long among them -- from the 3 -- required second effort. It came 2:30 before halftime and put Red Bank ahead 27-10. Williams had 141 rushing yards in the first half, and it didn't help the Falcons that they were penalized eight times in the first half to the Lions' three.
"We knew how good he was. He was no secret," Fulton coach Buck Coatney said. "He was no secret. We arm-tackled a lot. We knew we were going to have to execute well and basically play a perfect game in order to beat them. I was disappointed in our effort and our tackling."
Williams' scoring runs in the second half covered 68 and 20 yards. The last made it 48-16 with 10:07 to play.
"We hoped we were going to be able to run the ball," Daniels said. "We started hitting it a little bit, and it worked out good for us."
Kelvin Clay got into the scoring act for Red Bank (12-0) with a 37-yard reception from Andy Christopher and a 28-yard return of an interception for Red Bank's last TD. Christopher went 5-for-6 through the air for 124 yards.
"He didn't throw a lot," Daniels said, "but he executed well when he did."
Micah Pitchford had seven catches for 129 yards and two TDs for Fulton (8-4). Dametrius Thomas carried 14 times for 72 yards.
Kelley Smiddie is a sports writer who has worked at the Times Free Press for 12 years. He covers high school sports and softball. Kelley’s hometown is Chattanooga, and he graduated from Brainerd High School and graduated Chattanooga State and UTC. Contact Kelley at 423-757-6653 or ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com.
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