Fulton takes control to top Aurora Christian in Class 1A first-round playoff game

FULTON – With the possibility of momentum shifting completely at halftime of Saturday’s Class 1A first-round playoff game between Fulton and Aurora Christian, the Steamers showed how key maturity can be in the postseason.

Fulton refused to let the Eagles’ long touchdown pass on the final play of the first half slow its roll, and the defense pitched a shutout in the second half in a 38-13 victory.

“We always talk about how these football games are two-and-a-half hours of a roller-coaster of emotions – good plays, bad plays, crazy plays, whatever – and you just have to stay even-keel through it and just keep playing,” Fulton coach Patrick Lower said. “And that adversity there at the end of the first half, I thought we handled it well, and that’s the sign of a maturing team, and a team playing pretty good football.”

The Steamers (8-2) looked like they had taken complete control in the final minute of the first half, as they took over on the Aurora Christian 42-yard line with 1:14 to go after a short punt. Facing third-and-6 from the 38, Brayden Dykstra lofted a perfectly placed pass to Baylen Damhoff, who ran under it and caught it in stride in the end zone for a 24-7 lead with 40 seconds left.

But Aurora Christian (5-5) answered, as Max Bray completed passes of 13 and 16 yards to get the Eagles to their own 47. On second-and-10, with just four seconds on the clock, Bray took the snap and threw a bomb down the right sideline to Owen Hampton, who caught it in the end zone after the halftime horn had sounded. That cut Fulton’s halftime lead to 24-13, and the Eagles were set to receive the second-half kickoff.

Instead of hanging their heads, the Steamers regrouped. Aurora Christian got one first down before punting on the opening series of the third quarter, then Lukas Schroeder broke off his second big touchdown run of the day on Fulton’s fifth play for a 31-13 margin.

“When you see that open field in front of you, your eyes get wide and all you can think about is just hold onto the ball and just keep running, It feels amazing,” Schroeder said. “We said we were going to get a stop and then go punch it in, and that’s exactly what we did.”

“That’s what we talked about at halftime. Nobody wanted that [touchdown] play to happen, but it happened, and you can’t go back and replay it,” Lower said. “I said the one thing we can do is get our defense out there, make them punt the ball to get the ball back to the offense, and go down and score, and we were able to do that.”

Aurora Christian answered with a 13-play drive into the red zone, but couldn’t capitalize. A holding penalty on first-and-goal from the 3-yard line negated a touchdown, and the Eagles ended up throwing an incomplete pass on fourth down.

Fulton then put the game on ice, embarking on a 12-play, 89-yard scoring drive that took 8:28 off the clock and ended with Joel Ford’s 3-yard touchdown plunge with 4:44 remaining. The drive was aided by two personal fouls and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Eagles, two of which occurred in the red zone.

“At halftime, we had a lot of positives and felt very good. And then we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Aurora Christian coach David Beebe said. “We’d get a penalty or we’d have a dropped pass, and we just couldn’t get going. I think our youth showed today, and they didn’t have the youth that we had. Give credit to them. They deserved to win. They were the better team today.”

“We took a big chunk of the fourth quarter on that final scoring drive, kind of put the nail in the coffin, and got it done,” Lower said. “After that score, we felt pretty comfortable there, then it’s just make tackles, make them work the ball down the field. We kind of played prevent, I guess, a little bit, then got a late turnover. Really proud of our kids the way they played.”

Aurora Christian got inside the Fulton 30 on its final drive, but Conner Sheridan hit Bray from behind on a 15-yard run and forced a fumble, which was recovered by Fulton’s QJ Mangelsen. The Steamers got two first downs and ran out the clock in victory formation.

Schroeder ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, with his two scoring runs covering 40 and 32 yards. Ryan Eads had 15 rushes for 66 yards, and Ford added 27 yards and the final TD on seven carries. Dykstra was 7 for 11 passing for 91 yards, with Damhoff (54 yards) and Eads (20 yards) both catching three passes and accounting for a touchdown.

“The game plan was amazing, both lines played amazing. I’ve got to give all my props to my offensive line, they played their heart out. And my backs blocked amazing, too,” Schroeder said. “We got the momentum right away, and you just can’t give it back up. When you’re pounding them like that, they’re going to get tired eventually, and we just kept going at them and wore them down.”

The Steamers wanted to set the tone form the start, and they did just that. Schroeder broke the third play of the game for a 40-yard touchdown, then Zane Pannell sacked Bray on the Eagles’ first play.

“That was really good. The whole week we’ve been working on some games on the line, and the first play I told my coach I thought we should run it, and he ended up calling it, and it results in a sack,” said Pannell, who had three sacks on the day. “They were definitely bigger than we thought up front. We watched film on them, and weren’t expecting them to be as big as they were, but we dominated. I feel like we stepped it up for sure this weekend. I think everybody did a wonderful job. Our line has been really good this year, and I think we’ll continue to play well in the playoffs.”

Fulton ran 38 times for 220 yards, while Aurora Christian managed just 83 yards on 21 carries. Bray had 69 yards on 17 rushes, and was 18 for 29 passing for 214 yards and two touchdowns, both to Hampton, who finished with six catches for 119 yards. Jalen Carter added six catches for 68 yards for the Eagles.

“We struggled offensively today. Give credit to Fulton, they did some nice things. They took it to us, and we didn’t handle it,” Beebe said. “It is good playoff experience for our young team, but I’ve got to be honest with you, this story’s getting old. Whatever we’ve got to do to change this, this formula doesn’t work. So we’ll be making changes.”

After Fulton’s first score, Aurora Christian punted and Fulton turned it over on downs. The Eagles then had a seven-play, 48-yard scoring drive, and Bray connected with Hampton from 16 yards out to tie the score 7-7.

After two kickoffs out of bounds, Fulton took over at the Aurora Christian 43 and scored in four plays, as Dykstra threw a swing pass to Eads, who broke a tackle and sprinted in from 16 yards for a 14-7 lead. The Steamers then forced a punt, and a 17-yard pass on third-and-11 set up Endi Qunaj’s 31-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead with 6:14 left in the second quarter.