Franklin-Simpson POUNDS the Panthers!
It may have been the season opener for both teams and last year’s game between the two teams didn’t end well for the Wildcats, but one thing is for sure in that Franklin-Simpson may be thinking about putting another State Championship trophy on their mantle if last night’s game was any indication of what to expect.
The Wildcats did pretty much everything they wanted to do which was run the ball, take advantage of opportunities and were even able to overcome three turnovers and committing more penalties than Elizabethtown in winning 44-20 on the road. Last season’s game between the two ended in a 55-23 Panther win, but that wasn’t going to happen this time around as Franklin-Simpson decided to use their big offensive line to pound away at the young Panther defense piling up over 501-yards on the ground and never putting their quarterback in a position where he had to go to the air as the Wildcats didn’t have to complete a pass or attempt one in the second half.
Running backs Tre Bass and Carlos McKinney had over 400-yards running together and were instrumental in continuously pounding away at Head Coach Mark Brown’s running defense as the Wildcats built a 27-7 halftime lead. Elizabethtown responded by putting together a nice opening drive to start the second half aided by a personal foul penalty that kept the drive alive and set up running back Trayjan Bradley for his second rushing touchdown (he had three) cutting the deficit to 27-13, but the PAT was missed.
Franklin-Simpson went right back to work running the ball successfully on their first drive of the third quarter, which ended in a short field goal to add on to the lead at 30-13. Another Panther drive ended in an interception, but the Wildcats gave it right back on a fumble (one of two), but Elizabethtown eventually turned the ball over on downs as Elizabethtown.
This was also the debut of two new quarterbacks for both teams in freshman Luke Richardson for the Wildcats and sophomore Clay Games for the Panthers. Unfortunately for Games, it wasn’t a great opening game, but he did attempt 39-passes completing 14 for 137-yards in a losing effort. Their were some bright spots in Bradley’s 119-yards running, but Brown knew this could be a tough matchup at the wrong time with so many new starters in key positions for the Panthers after losing multiple starters from last season’s veteran team.
All this added up to a 24-point loss for Elizabethtown, which was the worse since Brown came to Elizabethtown since their 41-13 loss in 2014 to Louisville Central on October 10th his first season with the Panthers.
On the other hand, Franklin-Simpson needed to find out where they stood after losing to the Panthers badly in their season opener last season. Still, their season ended in a 4-A State Title and hopefully that’s where it will end again for Wildcat coach Doug Preston.
