By Maurice Patton

As a longtime Chicago Cubs fan, Donnie Webb can afford to look at things a bit more from a ‘glass-half-full’ perspective these days…So the veteran Franklin coach was disappointed, but not despondent, over his team’s 42-35 overtime loss Friday at Mt. Juliet in the de facto Region 3-6A championship game.

Barring a Golden Bear loss in their regular-season finale Thursday at McGavock, Mt. Juliet (7-2, 5-1) will be the No. 1 seed heading into the Class 6A playoffs. Franklin (7-2, 5-1) will wrap up the No. 2 seed with a victory Friday over visiting Lebanon. “Trying to look at it in a positive way … we lost a ballgame and then ran off seven straight,” Webb said, referring to the season-opening 28-24 loss to Centennial. “If we can learn from this one and stay the course and get tougher from it, (six) more straight would have us in Cookeville.

“I still think we are what we are, we’re still a good football team. Our goal is to finish up the season on a positive note. We’re still going to make the playoffs, still going to have a good seed. We want to make the best of it and see what we can do.” That said, the Rebels may have let one get away Friday after rallying from an early 10-7 deficit. Franklin put together a productive offensive performance despite getting just 88 rushing yards from Mitch Rossi, as quarterback Carter Hendry ran and threw for a combined 265 yards with four touchdowns, and Wes Patterson connected with J.P. Batarseh for a 28-yard fourth-quarter TD that put the visitors up 35-27 with 2:47 remaining in regulation.

From there, Mt. Juliet was able to score on a 14-yard run by quarterback Mason Earls – his second TD of the night – add the tying two-point conversion, then get another Earls TD from seven yards out for the gamewinner.                 The loss came in spite of Franklin outgaining the Golden Bears by 159 offensive yards.

 “The biggest difference in the game was field position, and their kicking game was the difference in making that field position possible,” Webb said. “We started every kickoff on the 20-yard line, they were averaging close to the 30. We shanked a punt, and we had a turnover, so they started on the 30 once and on the 15 once. Field position and kicking game.” Kicker of the year candidate Jacob Bailey connected on a pair of field goals for Mt. Juliet, from 21 and 49 yards, to salvage a couple of possessions for the hosts.

Despite the loss, Webb was pleased with the play of linebacker Conner Palk and defensive tackle Adam Sirface, while receiver Alex Gaca finished with five catches for 114 yards and a score. “They willed one more play than us down at the end,” Webb said.

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By Maurice Patton

Any possibility of Franklin looking past McGavock to a potential Region 3-6A ‘championship game’ the following weekend was laid to rest about as decisively as the host Raiders were Friday night.

The visiting Rebels grabbed a two-touchdown lead less than five minutes into an eventual 48-21 victory, one in which Franklin scored all its points in the opening two quarters. “I’m proud we came out, especially offensively, and did some things well from the get-go,” Rebels coach Donnie Webb said after his team went to 7-1 (5-0). “In the second half, when we were playing a lot of young kids, I thought we were looking at the clock to see how quickly we could get back to Franklin. “I told these guys since the beginning of the year we were going to be a team that would be part of the region (title) talk. We knew once we won that game, a region championship game was going to be right around the corner.” 

Wes Patterson’s 22-yard pass to Gentry Neese put the Rebels up 7-0 at the 9:05 mark of the first period, and Mitch Rossi’s 22-yard run doubled that margin with 7:01 to go in the quarter. After the Raiders’ Cornelius Smith took the ensuing kickoff 93 yards for a score, Patterson and Max Page hooked up for an 18-yard touchdown with 4½ minutes remaining. Carter Hendry broke a 54-yard run to paydirt on the next possession, and Patterson scored from 13 yards out with one second left in the quarter to make it a 34-7 game.

“Two of our first three touchdowns were passes,” Webb said. “McGavock, right off the bat their game plan was to try to bring pressure to stop our option. They were determined to take away the inside option, and that opened up the passing game. “From there, things balanced back out to where Rossi was able to get going.” Rossi finished with 143 rushing yards and a touchdown on 14 carries, leading a ground attack that accounted for 298 of Franklin’s 426 yards. Collin Saulters added a rushing TD and Alex Gaca caught a 54-yard scoring pass from Hendry to push the lead to 48-7 by halftime. “I didn’t think our practices (prior to the game) were going that well,” Webb said. “I think (our performance) was a factor of having 24 seniors, and many of them key players in our game plan weekly.” 

With McGavock (1-7, 1-4) in the rearview mirror, Webb and the Rebels turned their attention to their upcoming matchup with Mt. Juliet. The Golden Bears dropped back-to-back games at home against Cane Ridge and region foe Ravenwood in a 1-2 start, but have since run off five straight wins – four in league play. The method in which Mt. Juliet has managed its success looks familiar to Webb. “Even in our one loss, I’ve felt like all year we’ve been the more physical team, that our offensive and defensive fronts have controlled the line of scrimmage for the most part,” he said. “The first thing that jumps out, seeing Mt. Juliet live and turning on the film, is that they’re doing the same thing, trying to be physical and come off the ball and block people. “I’m really impressed with their offensive line. In all our games, even against Wilson Central, our offensive line — it may take them a bit, but as the game goes on, I feel they’ve worn people down. Where I think that’s been our ‘M.O.’, we’re going to be challenged from that aspect.”

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By Maurice Patton

Pending the outcome of their next contest, the Franklin Rebels took a big step toward setting up a Region 3-6A title game with their 42-35 homefield win Thursday over Wilson Central. 

Improving to 6-1 overall and 4-0 in league play with their sixth consecutive victory, the Rebels need a win this weekend at McGavock to go into their Oct. 21 game at Mt. Juliet undefeated. The host Golden Bears, meanwhile, are the No. 2 team in the region at 6-2 (4-1) following their 45-0 win Thursday over Antioch. Mt. Juliet has an open date this week. “Our goal is to win this week and set up a championship game with us and Mt. Juliet,” Franklin coach Donnie Webb said after the shootout victory over Wilson Central (6-2, 3-2) – a game in which the Rebels never trailed, but never led comfortably, either.

“Wilson Central was better offensively than I gave them credit for,” Webb said. “I thought we’d get more pressure on the quarterback. I thought we’d take the running game away. We didn’t, and that’s what turned it into a shootout. I felt we’d score, but I thought we’d get more stops than we did.”

Indeed, Franklin scored 40-plus points for the third time in its last four games. However, the Rebels allowed a season high in points and the most they’d given up since their 28-24 loss to Centennial in the season opener. The Wildcats put up 470 offensive yards and rallied from a 21-7 first-quarter deficit behind running back Tyler Bowes (182 rushing yards, two touchdowns) and quarterback Blake Meadors (299 passing yards, three touchdowns). Meadors threw a 32-yard scoring pass to Bowes with 5:11 remaining to tie the game at 35-all.

Franklin QB Wes Patterson drove his team back downfield and scored on a 14-yard run with 24 seconds remaining for the gamewinner. “I can’t say enough about Wes,” Webb said. “He took too much of that playoff game (last year’s 21-20 second-round loss to Wilson Central) on his own shoulders. I was really proud for him to be able to have such a big game.” Patterson threw for 160 yards and three TDs – two to Alex Gaca, who finished with 118 receiving yards on seven catches, and a 50-yarder to Mitch Rossi to break a 28-28 halftime deadlock. Rossi rushed for 104 yards and a score.

As Franklin comes down the stretch and contemplates postseason play, Webb said the Wilson Central contest gives his team some things to work on. “We think offensively we can score some points, we can play with anybody,” he said. “Obviously we want to run the football, but we do have some threats on the outside. We think the better part of our football team is our offense. We want them to be on the field.

“I’m as happy as anybody (with the win), but when we turn the film on and it’s time to go back to work – we’ve got some problems. We’ve got to get better in coverage. In Class 6A, everybody’s in the playoffs. Everybody in the Memphis region (Region 4-6A) except one team is some sort of spread offense. We’re going to have to be able to go out and stop those type offenses. I’m glad we found it now. Some of it is schematic, but the rest is working on us and getting better. “We have some things to go back to the chalkboard on.”

                For more from veteran Midstate sports writer Maurice Patton….

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By Maurice Patton

Opening with 24 unanswered points, Franklin made sure homecoming festivities would be enjoyable with Friday’s 45-7 victory over Antioch. With the win, the Rebels improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in Region 3-6A play heading into a Thursday night league matchup with visiting Wilson Central.

Christopher Miller-Hill put the hosts on the scoreboard with a 39-yard field goal less than four minutes into the contest, and Mitch Rossi followed with touchdown runs of 29 yards, 40 yards and 1 yard – the last with 9:53 left in the second period to make it a 24-0 game.

Rossi wound up rushing for a game-high 136 yards on 16 carries, giving him 667 yards and eight touchdowns through Franklin’s six games. Antioch (1-5, 0-3) scored on a 76-yard Noah Scales pass to Donald Weakley and cut the Rebel cushion to 24-7, but the hosts answered with an 11-yard Carter Hendry run for a touchdown and a 14-yard Wes Patterson pass to J.P. Batarseh for another TD.

Leading 38-7 at halftime, the Rebels added another score a minute into the third quarter as Hendry broke loose for a 49-yarder. Hendry finished with 77 rushing yards on five carries as Franklin rushed for 252 yards and finished with 311 total – more than double Antioch’s 152-yard output.

Price
Wynn had a team-high six total tackles for Franklin, which has won five straight since its season-opening loss to Centennial. Wilson Central (6-1, 3-1) comes to Franklin following a 62-26 region win over county rival Lebanon. The Wildcats suffered their only loss at the hands of Mt. Juliet, a 39-32 overtime defeat in Week 6.

                For more from veteran Midstate sports writer Maurice Patton….

go to mopattonsports.com.