The Fuqua School football team survived a scare on the road at Brunswick Academy last Friday night, but was able to overcome some opening night mistakes and take advantage of one by the Vikings to come away with a 20-7 victory in Lawrenceville.

“We had to battle all the way,” said FS head coach Lewis “Skeeter” Fore. “You have to give Brunswick a lot of credit. They lost a lot from last year's team, and this was basically last year's JV team, but they came to play.”

Fuqua (1-0, 1-0 VCC) scored first on a 28-yard touchdown run by Charles Williams, but Brunswick Academy (0-1, 0-1 VCC) answered with a drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown by Dylan Allen.

Fuqua retook the lead at 12-7 in the second quarter on a one-yard touchdown leap over the pile by Williams on fourth down.

The Falcons missed on a few chances to break the game open in the red zone, and Brunswick managed to hang around long enough to give themselves a chance at the end.

With about five minutes to go, and with Brunswick driving for a potential go-ahead score, the Vikings fumbled and Clayton Worrell recovered just before diving out of bounds.

“It was close,” said Fore, who had a good look at the play. “Worrell was right by the sideline and fell out of bounds, but he got control and had his feet in bounds before he fell. The referee was right on top of the play. That's one you think you might not get on the road, but I'm glad he made the right call.”

The sudden change in momentum was all the Falcons needed. Williams and tailback Larry Haskins moved the Falcons back down the field and scored with about three-and-a-half minutes to play. Williams converted the two-point attempt to push its lead to 13-points.

“We had some chances to put the game out of reach earlier, and didn't cash in on them,” said Fore. “We had a touchdown called back on a hold, and it was clearly a hold, and another one was called back as well. We scored on one of those and didn't on the other. And we had some turnovers in the red zone that hurt us as well, but Brunswick played well too.”

Haskins led the Falcons with 114 yards on 15 carries, while Willliams had 110 yards on 13 carries, three touchdowns and a two-point conversion. He was 2-5 passing for 24 yards and an interception. Haskins had one catch for six yards, and Jai Jamerson had one catch for 18 yards before having to leave the game in the third quarter due to a rather serious injury.

“He's going to be okay,” said Fore of Jamerson, whose injury stopped play for a considerable amount of time while paramedics arrived. Fore added that after talking to him, Jamerson should be back to school, but he sounded doubtful about his return to football. “I don't want to comment too much, but there are things more important in life than football.”

Defensively, Haskins and Williams led the Falcons with identical stat lines of four tackles, three assists and a forced fumble.

Worrell had five tackles, one assist and the key fumble recovery late in the game. Kenston Fields and Jacob Epps had five tackles apiece.

The game was probably tougher for the Falcons than many would have thought, but the end result pleased Fore.

“You're always happy with a win, but we have some things we need to address. This close game may have done us a lot of good. You can't look past anybody.”

Fuqua will travel to Kenston Forest on Friday night for a 7 p.m. VCC contest.

The Falcons, who were hampered by injury in the season-opener, hope to get some players back in time.

“It probably won't be until after our open week that we're back where we should be, barring any more injuries. Hopefully, we can get a couple back for this Friday, have the open week, and have everybody back for the game after that.”