By S. Thomas Coleman
For the AJC
Kennesaw State won’t play the school’s first game until Sept. 3, but the Owls could possibly already have their first recruiting issue.
One of the jewels of their 2016 commits, Kell's Bryson Armstrong, blew up at the Georgia Dome. The 5-11, 200-pound senior linebacker/receiver scored three touchdowns, and had a sack and a forced fumble en route to leading the Longhorns to a 35-0 throttling of Carrollton (0-1) Saturday morning in the first of five games in the 23rd edition of the Corky Kell Classic.
Kell, ranked No. 4 in Class AAAAA, already led 14-0 midway through the first quarter when Armstrong, who committed to KSU this summer, went to work. First, he returned a punt 64 yards for a touchdown. Midway through the second quarter, Armstrong scooped up a fumble and dashed 29 yards for another score to put the Longhorns up 28-0. His final touchdown of the day and the final points of the game came a little over a minute later when he returned another punt 66 yards for a touchdown.
Then early in the third quarter, just to remind everyone that he plays defense as well, Armstrong forced a fumble when he sacked Trojan quarterback DeMarcus Mitchell at midfield on Carrollton’s first possession of the second half. Defensive end recovered for the Longhorns and returned it to the Carrollton 23-yard line.
In all, Armstrong had three touchdowns, 3 ½ tackles, a sack and a forced fumble against a Trojan team ranked No. 8 in Class AAAA. More performances like this will most likely mean that larger schools, possibly those in the Power 5 conferences, will begin contacting Armstrong, who had 113 tackles last season. But Armstrong appears to be sticking with his commitment to KSU, for now anyway.
“I’m not worried about that. If some other schools want to contact me and talk to me that’s fine,” Armstrong said. “But I like Kennesaw State and I’m sticking with Kennesaw State.”
Kell head coach Derek Cook, now in his eighth season, said Armstrong’s success on game days is due to his work ethic in practice and during the off season.
“Bryson is so well prepared,” Cook said. “He never misses a practice, never misses a workout. And so in game situations when opportunities present themselves to him, he’s ready.”
The same could be said of the Longhorn team on Saturday. When opportunity knocked, Kell answered. The Longhorns marched 63 yards on just five plays to begin the game, as sophomore running back Josiah Futral scored on a 39-yard run to give Kell a 7-0 lead after Connor Mendleson’s successful point after kick. Then, on Carrollton’s first possession of the season, Mitchell and his running back fumbled a handoff on a zone-read running play and Kell linebacker Dequarius Manuel recovered at the Trojan 18-yard line. Three plays later, Futral scored his second touchdown of the game on a 2-yard run to make the score 14-0.
“Carrollton has a great team, it’s just that they made some mistakes that put them in a hole and we were able to capitalize on those mistakes,” Cook said. “We know Carrollton is a much better team than what the score said.”
Meanwhile, Carrollton’s attempt to rebound from a nightmarish season last year will have to wait at least another week. The Trojans finished 4-6 and missed the post season for the first time in 26 years. After being shut out the final two games of last season, Carrollton hasn’t scored a touchdown since a 35-22 win over Troup County on Oct. 24, 2014.
“We made too many mistakes and when we lost the momentum, we couldn’t get it back,” said Trojan head coach Ed Dudley, in his second season at Carrollton. With a career record of 187-82 after stints at Buford, Walton and Ware County – where he led the Gators to the Class AAAAA title game in 2012 – Dudley is not accustomed to losing. He hopes to get the Trojans on track.
“We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves because we have to face a good Newnan team next week,” he said. “I’ve won a lot of ball games and I know this just comes with the territory.
“These kids work hard and do everything we ask them to do,” Dudley said. “I really want them to have some success.”
K – Josiah Futral 39 run (Connor Mendelson kick)
K – Futral 2 run (Mendelson kick)
K – Bryson Armstrong 64 punt return (Mendelson kick)
K – Armstrong 26 fumble recovery (Mendelson kick)
K – Armstrong 66 punt return (Mendelson kick)
Kell 21 14 0 0 35
Carrollton 0 0 0 0 0
