Fulton looks to reload with big senior class

FULTON – After a COVID-altered 2020 season, the Fulton football team resumed its winning ways as it returned to a full schedule in 2021, compiling a 9-3 record and reaching the IHSA Class 1A quarterfinals.

In 2022, the Steamers will try to replicate that success while relying heavily on a new crop of senior starters.

Although the roster features 18 seniors this year, it will be somewhat lacking in game experience. Just a handful of those seniors are returning starters, so Fulton will be looking to many of last year’s backups to fill in its vacated roles from a season ago.

“Roughly, we have three or four [returning starters]. Not very many,” Fulton coach Patrick Lower said. “We’ve been senior-dominated actually the last two years. We have 18 seniors, which is great, but a lot of them haven’t seen a ton of time, so there’s a big question mark there.

“We have senior offensive lineman Braiden Damhoff returning, and then we’ve got Ryan Eads, a running back for us. And those two guys played the majority of the time last year. Ethan Price as well, as a tight end. And then several guys that played hit-and-miss, here or there.”

One of the position groups hit hardest by this spring’s graduating class was the offensive line. Damhoff is the only returning starter in the trenches for Fulton this year.

Although the Steamers will be counting on many new starters in 2022, they still like their chances of performing well this season.

“I feel like we’ve got a lot of young guys here that can really help us, and I don’t think that losing our seniors is going to affect our progress this season,” Damhoff said. “I feel that we’re going to have a really good passing game this season with Brayden Dykstra back as our quarterback.”

“Our expectations are to pretty much just carry on what we did last year,” Eads said. “We had a lot of seniors that left us last year, but I think we have a lot of backups and a lot of juniors that are now seniors that can easily fill those roles. But I hope to do even better.”

Two games that stand out on the schedule this year are Week 4 against Muskegon (Michigan) Catholic Central and Week 5 against reigning Class 1A state champion Lena-Winslow. The Panthers handed Fulton its season-ending loss, 54-28, in the IHSA quarterfinals last year, and also won their Week 5 game, 54-7.

“The schedule really got a little tougher this year because you’ve not only got your teams that are really solid in the conference, but we’re also playing a non-conference team out of Michigan that’s a perennial powerhouse out of the Muskegon area,” Lower said. “So that’ll be our Week 4 game, and that’ll be a tough one. But each and every week, you’ve gotta be ready to play, so we’re gonna just take one game at a time.”

“I like our schedule,” Eads said. “We’ve got Muskegon coming in from Michigan. I think that’ll be a good game. Pretty much almost the same thing as last year, so we’ll just hope to get some wins.”

With so many starting positions to fill from last year, Lower is still getting a feel for this year’s team.

Early on, though, he’s been encouraged by what he’s seen in summer camp.

“A bunch of good kids, kids that work hard. When we have something [going on], they’re here, they’re getting better,” Lower said. “They talk, they listen. They want to be good, and that’s good. I think the classes over the last several years have kind of set the tone for what we expect from kids, and I think they just want to follow suit, and they’re going to do everything they can to do that.”

Fulton will open its season Aug. 26 at home against Galena at 7 p.m.