Randall hits 270 yards as Vidalia hammers Dragons

Published 12:00 am Friday, October 31, 2003

VIDALIA, La. &045; In this offense, there’s no telling who’s going to shine.

After C.J. Williams lit it up two weeks ago, this time Michael Randall stepped into the spotlight to lead a Vidalia offense that scored on every possession en route to a 54-20 win over McCall Friday night.

Randall finished with 270 yards, but it was the Vikings’ 526 yards rushing and 30 first downs that pounded away at the Dragons.

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&uot;We kind of looked at this like a district championship right here,&uot; said fullback Chris Williams, who was just five yards shy of the century mark. &uot;We wanted to send a message to the district and the entire state. McCall has always been a real good challenge for us. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do. We’re trying to pick up where we left off last year.&uot;

The Vikings (7-0, 2-0) made another push to be one of the highest-scoring teams in the state by cracking the 50-point barrier for the third straight game and fourth time this season. Randall had 202 yards by the end of the first half against a McCall defense that lacked size, and he finished the game with four of the team’s eight touchdowns.

&uot;The offensive line was doing pretty well,&uot; Randall said. &uot;They opened the holes, and we were running through them. My fullback blocked well, but the offensive line really opened holes up for me. I don’t know what it was, but one man can’t take me down.&uot;

The ground game allowed the Vikings to take a 34-0 halftime lead and 54-12 margin late in the game before the Dragons scored just before the final horn sounded. The Vikings never had a play for minus yards, and they got two big runs from Randall to finish up their first two drives to take the early lead.

The first one came with 9:13 left from 14 yards out, and an interception by Rodney Washington gave the Vikings the ball at their 44 to start a drive Randall finished with a 14-yard run for a 12-0 lead with 5:54 left in the first.

McCall was held to punt its next drive, and the Vikings drove 78 yards on 10 plays with Randall finishing it with a 13-yard run for a 20-0 lead with 11:41 left in the second.

&uot;We looked at them, and they were looking for our passing game,&uot; Vidalia head coach Dee Faircloth said. &uot;So we figured if they were going to play pass defense, we’ll run it right at them. That’s what we were doing. The offensive line was doing well. That’s the smallest McCall team I’ve seen in years. They usually come in here as big as a house. I think (head coach) Levi (Washington) said he was down in his numbers.&uot;

The Vikings were able to start at their own 37 on their next drive after holding McCall a punt, and six plays later they got into the end zone when Williams scored from 11 yards out for a 26-0 lead with 6:21 left. Tony Hawkins put in a 1-yard touchdown run to finish up the next drive for the 34-0 halftime lead.

The Dragons, however, couldn’t get the offense rolling early with quarterback Brandon Gultrey and the passing game being unable to find a rhythm. Early on the Vikings brought pressure and kept him from getting a solid throw off, and the Dragons had just two first downs the entire first half.

But in the third quarter he hit Cody Atkins on a 19-yard pass to get down to the Vidalia 6, and Gultrey ran it in on the next play for a score. After Vidalia got a score from Randall on a 24-yard run, Gultrey hit Donald Hardy on a little screen pass, and Hardy took it 70 yards to the house to cut the lead to 42-12 with 6:04 left in the third.

&uot;We never could get him,&uot; Faircloth said. &uot;We knew he couldn’t sit in there and throw one because he’d eat us up. I told our kids we were going with a four-man rush and they had to play big tonight. We’re disappointed we didn’t get any sacks. He had a quick release.&uot;