By Quentin Smith
Special to The Dispatch
After defeating the defending national champion Evangel Christian a week ago, many wondered how Victory Christian Academy would come out and respond Friday night against Tabernacle High School.
The trio of Reed Fulgham, Anthony Sharp, and Cody Bolton wasted no time answering those questions. On their first possession, Fulgham opened the game up with a 22 yard pass to Anthony Sharp, and seven plays later, Bolton capped the drive off with an 8-yard touchdown run, and that was only the beginning.
The Eagles never trailed once in the game, as they rolled to a 64-20 win over Tabernacle. The trio combined for a total of nine touchdowns and accounted for 58 of the team’s 64 points which is the most they’ve scored all season.
“We weren’t trying to run the score up,” said Victory Christian coach Chris Hamm.
“The reason this is kind of success is happening is because this team has worked hard, they practice well, they pay attention and they know what they have to do.”
Junior quarterback Reed Fulgham had the hot hand all game long. Fulgham was 6-for-7 on the night for 193 yards and three touchdowns. It wasn’t until after the game that when he realized he had only thrown one incomplete pass.
“I did a pretty good job on offense. We had a good start coming out, we made a statement by scoring on the first drive, and we never let up during the game,” Fulgham said.
Friday night was a career night for Fulgham. The three touchdowns and 193 passing yards are the most that Fulgham has thrown for this season. The career night by the junior had his head coach raving about his potential.
“Reed had his best night throwing the ball” Hamm said. “He’s thrown the ball well in the earlier games this season, but tonight he was on target, the offensive line gave him time and I was just extremely pleased with his play.”
On the receiving end on half of Fulgham’s passes was senior cornerback and running back Cody Bolton. On the night, Bolton hauled in three catches for 66 yards and a touchdown, while also managing to rack up 59 yards on the ground for two touchdowns. When asked about his performance, Bolton didn’t want to be praised for his individual efforts, but instead wanted the team as a whole to be praised.
“I’m glad we were able to spread everything around,” he said. “I don’t want it to be an individual performance because we all work together as a team. Team chemistry is the one thing we all worked on this offseason and it’s showing on the field.”
The Eagles had no problem moving the ball throughout the game. The team scored four times on opening possessions, and three of those four scores came from senior linebacker and running back Sharp. Sharp, the third wheel of the trio scored the game’s opening touchdown on an eight yard handoff.
“Whenever I ran the ball the line did a good job of giving me holes, and Cody (Bolton) made some good blocks on the edges and I was just reading my blocks and running,” Sharp said.
Sharp was the most dominant player on the field all game long. He had a total of five touchdowns on the night, one receiving, three rushing, and a 45 yard fumble recovery that he took to the house to seal the game.
“I first of all have to give credit to God and my coaches and teammates for putting me in a good position to score. The coach drew up a good play and everyone did a good job of blocking for me once I got the ball, so I have to give all of the credit to them” Sharp said.
Tabernacle High School head coach Keith Dabbs said his team was simply out played Friday night and it was the play of Sharp that hurt his team the most.
“Tonight they had better athletes, but we just couldn’t seem to tackle number 21 (Sharp) in the open field, and if you can’t make stops then that leaves you no chance.”
The Eagles have been soaring high thus far in the season and have an undefeated record of 4-0. As they look to keep building and getting better each week, coach Hamm said the play dominant play of Bolton, Fulgham, and Sharp is beneficial to how well his team does throughout the remainder of the season.
“It’s all about us working together and doing our jobs,” Sharp said. “We don’t want to get the big head, we just play it one game at a time.”
Our main goal is to win a championship, so we’re going to take it one game at a time and make sure we do what we need to do each week.”
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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