By PATRICK CASEY
The Walton Braves earned their first regular season victory since November of 2010 with a convincing shutout in a 41-0 decision over Tallahassee FAMU High on Friday night at Everette Yates Memorial Stadium.
The Walton County squad pounded out 354 yards on the ground as junior running back Amos Williams ran for 110 yards and four touchdowns to help the Braves even their record at 1-1 on the year.
The Braves scored on their first possession of the night as Williams took the opening play from scrimmage 48 yards for a score into the north endzone as he swept towards the visiting sideline and turned on the jets for a 7-0 Walton lead.
FAMU marched into Walton territory on their next two possessions but a punt and fumble kept the Baby Rattlers out of the endzone.
The Braves increased the lead to 14-0 as the only completed pass of the night by either team was turned into a 17-yard scoring strike from Chris Kelly to Daiquan Brown.
Walton senior Ken Randolph set up the Braves’ final score of the first half as he returned a punt 33 yards to the FAMU 36-yard line. After a penalty, Amos Williams struck again with a 41-yard scoring run to give the host squad a 21-0 lead at intermission.
Walton took the second half kickoff and marched in for another score as the Braves needed only six plays to go 63 yards with Williams scoring from seven yards out for a 28-0 advantage.
The Braves took advantage of a short FAMU punt to strike early in the fourth quarter as Williams capped off his scoring for the night with a 6-yard run for a 34-0 lead.
Azende Rey ran in from 29 yards out with just over five minutes left in the game to account for the final score of the night and trigger a running clock for the visiting team.
The Braves defense held FAMU to 114 total yards on the night, all on the ground, and harassed starting quarterback Carlton McWhite into an 0-for-5 passing outing as he was sacked four times while Walton also recovered three fumbles. Junior Jordan Bishop tallied 2.5 tackles for loss in the contest as Walton posted 12 defensive plays that resulted in a loss behind the line of scrimmage, a solid total as the Rattlers only took 44 snaps on offense in the game. Freshman Jalen Jones also contributed 1.5 quarterback sacks and had a fumble recovery. The defense allowed only six first downs and held the Leon County school to 1-of-10 on third down conversions.
Walton did struggle with the pigskin at times as the Braves put the football on the turf seven times, losing only two fumbles on a very humid evening.
Walton (1-1) will host Panama City Bay High School (2-0) on Friday night with kickoff set for 7 p.m. at Everette Yates Memorial Stadium. Bay has posted victories over Jefferson County and Liberty County in their first two games of the year.