Franklin-Simpson may have received a bit of a wake up call when faced off against South Warren in Week 3.
The Wildcats were loud and awake against Greenwood, especially the backfield.
Behind five total touchdowns between the running back duo of Tre Bass and Carlos McKinney, Franklin-Simpson (3-1) got back to its winning ways with a 50-7 win over the Gators (1-3).
Bass ran for more yards than his backfield teammate in McKinney, gunning for 189 yards and two visits to the end-zone. McKinney managed to find more appearances for pay dirt, however, gashing the Greenwood defense 164 yards and three touchdowns.
The Spartans held the Wildcats in check a week ago, holding Franklin-Simpson under 90 yards through the ground game.
It wasn’t going to happen for a second straight week.
“I think our guys were still shaking off a little of the rust,” Franklin-Simpson coach Doug Preston said after the win. “I thought we came out flat and I thought they came to play. I’m really proud of my guys for stepping their game up and playing with emotion in the second half.”
The offensive line, a unit that has been touted as one of the best in the region, were on point, giving Bass and McKinney running lanes through the Greenwood interior front.
“We wouldn’t be able to do all of that without the (offensive) line,” McKinney said. “It feels real good (to get this victory over Greenwood). We just have to keep doing this every week.”
When the offensive provides running lanes, watch out.
“If you give them a seam they can get up in there,” Preston said. “Carlos (McKinney) is so big and physical with pretty good speed. He’s a little faster than he was last year. Of course Tre (Bass) is so explosive, you know he can make a big play at any time.”
The Franklin-Simpson offense generated 510 yards of total offense — 353 of which came from Bass and McKinney alone on the ground.
The Wildcats didn’t waste anytime on their opening possession, going 82 yards for a 10-play drive that was capped off by a 24-yard run by Bass.
McKinney followed that up with his first rushing touchdown of the night, running in for a one-yard run and giving Franklin-Simpson a 14-0 lead just before the first quarter concluded. The Wildcats weren’t done adding points in the first 12 minutes, as Cole Hollingsworth knocked in a 30-yard field goal just before the quarter concluded.
Greenwood found some life after Samuel McNabb intercepted a pass from Luke Richardson, giving the Gators solid field position after a 34-yard return. Greenwood took advantage with a one-yard score from Zach Langevin on a fourth and goal.
Those sequences gave Greenwood a glimpse of momentum.
“We knew we had to come out and dominate (the second half) from the jump.”
Indeed Franklin-Simpson did.
The Wildcats responded with back-to-back scores from Bass and McKinney. McKinney found the end-zone from 39 yards away, giving his team a 31-7 advantage and ultimately putting the game out of reach.
“They’ve got some talented players,” Greenwood coach William Howard said. “We played an extremely good first half of football and then we didn’t get it done in the trenches. We didn’t move people around well enough to move the ball and they pushed us around a little bit defensively, too.”
