Youthful Fullerton looks Solid in a Hot 30-20 win over Central Valley.

FULLERTON, NE

Freshman quarterback Fletcher Dubas threw for 162 yards and 3 touchdowns in his varsity debut and junior All-State candidate Brady Cook added 113 yards and a score, as a youthful Fullerton squad knocked off pre-season #7 rated Central Valley 30-20, in a hot and steamy season opener.

The multi-talented Cook was also an even-steven 3 for 3 for 51 yards in the passing department, operating out of the Wildcat formation. Cook’s longest completion of the afternoon was a beautiful, tight-spiraled 33 yard connection back to QB Fletcher Dubas.

On the defensive side of the ball, Fullerton was even more impressive, registering 29 solo tackles out of a total 35 stops for the day. Many of the tackles were of the open field variety, demonstrating terrific football mechanics for a season opener.

Brady Cook led the way defensively for the Warriors, making 14 tackles, 12 of which were solo stops. Grant Pickrell, the lone senior on the squad, chipped in with 4 solo stops, while sophomore Brett Bridger matched that statistic.

Fletcher Dubas and junior Tyler Gochenour each had 3 solo stops in the game.

Now, keep in mind Central Valley lost some serious talent from last season’s sparkling 10-1 football team in the likes of Ty Nekoliczak, Jackson McIntyre, Morgan Behnk and Trevor Cargill, so this was a fresh start so to speak for Jess Rother’s forces, albeit with some nice returning talent to work with.

Fullerton had an impressive opening drive, chewing up 6 minutes, 37 seconds before coming up short at the Central Valley 17. A holding call on a 2nd and goal at the 10 yard line didn’t help matters any.

One play later, the Warriors had another opportunity when Grant Pickrell pirated Central Valley quarterback Carson Corman’s first pass of the day at the Cougar 30 yard line.

Fullerton failed to convert after taking over though, when the Warriors coughed up the ball back at Central Valley’s 34.

But...it didn’t take long for the home town Warriors to score after holding the Cougars to a minus 3 yards on three rushing attempts on their possession (following the Fullerton fumble)

After a fine punt to Fullerton’s 23 yard line, Warrior head coach Brandon Siegel opened the Fullerton trickery playbook that had Brady Cook lining up back in the Wildcat formation looking for a partially hidden Fletcher Dubas downfield on a pass pattern.

Worked like a charm to the tune of 33 yards, with Dubas slipping out of the Warrior backfield for a gain that carried all the way from the Fullerton 24 to the Central Valley 23 yard line.

Wasting NO time, Brady Cook then swept around his left end for a sparkling 23 yard TD scamper on the very next play and Fullerton had the 6-0 with 1:06 left in the opening stanza.

Central Valley quarterback Carson Corman then fired up the Cougar passing attack, hitting 7 of 9 passes, a streak that propelled the visitors to a 14-6 advantage with 3:37 left in the 2nd quarter.

During that passing outburst, Corman scored on a 3 yard run, then nailed All-State candidate Kyle Oakley for an 8 yard scoring strike.

Fullerton’s Brady Cook then went to work with just 3:32 to work with. The talented junior Swiss Army Knife reeled off tough, tackling breaking runs of 9, 15 and 6 yards before catching a perfectly executed screen pass from Dubas.

Cook had a three player escort down the Central Valley sidelines before cutting back against the grain to complete a 25 yard touchdown journey.

Fletcher Dubas then scrambled around in the Warrior backfield before finding 6-0, 160 pound junior Tyler Gochenour for the two point conversion.

That left the teams deadlocked at 14 going into the halftime break.

It didn’t take long for Fullerton to shock the Cougars in the 3rd quarter of play. After staging a courageous red zone stand at the Warrior 3 yard line, Fullerton quarterback Fletcher Dubas sent shockwaves through the crowd when he hit speedy sophomore TE Aiden Norman for a 73 yard touchdown strike.

Fullerton would strike again with 3:02 left in the 3rd when Dubas hooked up withTyler Gochenour for a 35 yard touchdown connection. Dubas nailed Grant Pickrell for the double extra point, and the Warriors had a 30-14 cushion going into the 4th quarter.

Central Valley did not quit though. The Carson Carman/Kyle Oakley connection sizzled for gains of 24, 15 and 8 yards, the latter going for a score with 7:37 remaining in the contest.

That touchdown pulled the Cougars to within 30-20, but Fullerton amazingly chewed up the remaining 7 minutes, 37 seconds of the football game with a time gobbling 11 play drive that saw the Warriors advance to the Central Valley 5 yard line when time ran out.

…………………………...1……..2…..3……..4…Final

Central Valley (0-1)..... .0…….14…….0……..6……..20

Fullerton (1-0)............ ..6……..8…….16……..0….…30

1st Qtr. ................................................................................................CV - Full.

Ful - Brady Cook 23 run…………………….....PAT-Run failed (1:06) 0……..6

2nd Qtr.

CV - Carson Corman 3 run……………………PAT-Run failed (10:34) 6……..6

CV - Kyle Oakley 8 pass from Kyle Corman..PAT-Corman run (3:37) 14…….6

Ful - Cook 25 pass from Fletcher Dubas…….PAT-Dubas to Gochenour (:58)..14-14

3rd Qtr

Ful - Aiden Norman 73 pass from Dubas…...PAT-Cook run (7:34)......14…….22

Ful - Gochenour 35 pass from Dubas……….PAT-Dubas to Pickrell (3:02)..14-30

4th Qtr

CV - Oakley 8 pass from Corman………….PAT-Pass failed (7:37)....20…….30

STATS: Rushing: Fullerton: Brady Cook-113-20, Max Voichahoske-10-3, Fletcher Dubas-15-13. Central Valley; Zander Wolf-28-5, Carson Corman-24-10

Passing: Fullerton: Dubas-7-12 for 162 yds/3 TDs, Cook-3-3 for 51 yds. Central Valley; Corman-14-19 for 136 yds/2 TDs/1 INT

Receiving: Fullerton; Aiden Norman-1 for 73 yds/TD, Brady Cook 4-47/TD, Tyler Gochenauer-1 35/TD, Fletcher Dubas-1 for 33, Max Voichahoske 3 for 27 yds. Central Valley; Kyle Oakley-7 for 89 yds/2 TDs, Zander Wolf-5 for 25, Tanner Landers-2 for 22.