FRANKLIN –Franklin-Simpson senior running back Tre Bass imposed his will on Logan County from the very beginning of Friday night’s Class 4A second-round playoff game.
Bass returned the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown to complement 133 rushing yards and four total touchdowns in the first half alone as the Wildcats comfortably coasted to a 55-19 victory over the Cougars at James “Shadetree” Mathews Stadium.
Overall Bass finished with 191 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries on top of his big kickoff return. The Wildcat senior surpassed the Franklin-Simpson single-season record for total touchdowns in a season, and he has also now tied the single-season record for rushing touchdowns.
“I just want to thank (Coach Doug Preston) for giving me the opportunity to do it,” Bass said. “I know I have the skills to do it, and my lineman gave me the chance so I took advantage of it.”
“Tre is just a tremendous competitor,” Preston said. “When he talks at practice he talks like ‘we’re going to do it all, we’re going to do whatever it takes to win the ballgame. It’s never about him, and it’s not a surprise when he plays like that…and I think he’s one of the best players in Kentucky.”
Carlos McKinney finished with 118 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries for the Wildcats, who totaled 411 rushing yards and averaged 12.5 yards per carry.
“We know it starts with us up front,” Franklin-Simpson senior offensive lineman Jack Randolph said. “It starts from the beginning for us every game. For Tre, Carlos, and anybody else we have to block our butts off every game. I thought we really showed it (Friday night). Our offensive line handled (Logan County) pretty easily, and I thought we proved a point.”
Leandre Strutzman added 55 yards and a score while Tedric Partinger had 47 yards on the ground.
Franklin-Simpson will now host District One champion Madisonville-North Hopkins as the Wildcats are back in the region title game for a fourth consecutive season. The Maroons advanced with a 20-0 victory over Hopkinsville.
The Wildcats played like they were the defending state champions from the start.
After Bass took the opening kickoff 88 yards to the house, the Wildcat defense forced a three-and-out before Traevon Goodnight blocked the Cougars’ punt and pounced on the ball at the Logan County 24-yard line.
The Wildcats (11-1) were forced into a fourth-down situation, but Stutzman ran all the way to the Cougar 5-yard line to set up McKinney’s touchdown run that gave Franklin a 13-0 lead at the 6:43 mark of the first quarter.
Logan County (10-2) promptly answered with an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Maurice Gordon—the Cougars’ first score on special teams this season.
Franklin-Simpson then raised the stakes in the high-scoring affair as Bass exploded with a 74-yard touchdown run to push the Wildcats’ lead to 20-7.
The Cougars proceeded to fumble on the ensuing drive, and the Wildcats converted that miscue into points— Bass evading several Logan County defenders and rumbling in from 20 yards out to give Franklin-Simpson a 27-7 lead after one.
Logan County whittled into its deficit when quarterback Tyler Ezell executed a quarterback sneak for a touchdown, but Bass answered with his third score of the night just over a minute later to extend the Wildcats’ advantage to three scores yet again.
Franklin then recovered an onside kick before Stutzman’s 41-yard scoring scamper made it 41-13. McKinney tallied his second touchdown run of the night to make it 47-13 with 46 seconds left before the intermission, but the Wildcats were unable to force the running clock at that moment as the pass on the two-point-conversion fell incomplete.
But Franklin-Simpson still found a way to force the running clock for the entire second half.
With Logan County pinned back way deep in its own territory, Wildcat junior Connor Rogers broke through the line and blocked the Cougar punt out of the back of the end zone for a safety that gave the Wildcats the necessary 36-point advantage at the break.
“We went for the two-point conversion to get the running clock and we didn’t get it,” Rogers said. “Our offense had been working so hard all game, and our defense had to do something good to help them out. So I thought ‘we have to get back there and get this punt and running clock.”
Logan County received the kickoff to start the second half, and the Cougars added some points to their side of scoreboard with a 23-yard touchdown strike from Ezell to Chandler Silvey. Ezell finished the game with 192 yards and one touchdown on 9-of-14 passing to complement his rushing touchdown while Silvey topped the receiving corps with four receptions for 97 yards and a score as Logan County’s season came to an end in the second round of the playoffs for a second straight season.
Bass added one more touchdown run late in the fourth quarter for Franklin-Simpson, and the Wildcats will look to keep that positive momentum rolling when Madisonville comes into Shadetree Stadium on Friday night.
“This group (of seniors) has had a phenomenal run, and we’d like to keep that going,” Preston said. “We could see that coming when they were sixth graders, and I could say the same thing about last year’s group and the group before. We’ve had a great group of football players come through, Franklin-Simpson has a great tradition, and our kids understand that and respect it.”
Franklin-Simpson 55, Logan County 19
Logan Co. – 7 6 6 0 –19
Franklin — 27 22 0 6 –55
FS—88 yd kickoff return Bass (kick blocked)
FS—5 yd run McKinney (Cole Hollingsworth kick)
LC—82 yd kickoff return Maurice Gordon (Lucas Arevalo kick)
FS—74 yd run Bass (Hollingsworth kick)
FS—20 yd run Bass (Hollingsworth kick)
LC—1 yd run Ezell (kick failed)
FS—14 yd run Bass (Hollingsworth kick)
FS—41 yd run Stutzman (Hollingsworth kick)
FS—1 yd run McKinney (pass failed)
FS-Safety: Punt blocked by Rogers
LC—23 yd pass Ezell to Silvey (pass failed)
FS—44 yd run Bass (kick failed)
