Their backs were against the wall.
A defending state champion was at their 4-yard line with 18 seconds left in the game. The Franklin defense needed one more big play.
They got it.
The Grizzly Cubs’ fifth sack of the game forced Class 4A No. 6 Mt. Vernon into a fourth-down scramble, resulting in a miscommunication, a spiked ball and a turnover on downs.
After one kneeldown, Franklin had escaped a back-and-forth slugfest with a 20-17 home win Friday night.
“The defense has been giving it to us every day in practice,” Franklin coach Chris Coll said. “It’s got the chance to be a really good defense. We’ve got some really good players over there.”
Every time the Grizzly Cubs needed it, the defense stepped up. The five sacks were key drive-killers for the visitors. A big interception was a major momentum shifter.
With less than five minutes remaining and trailing by three, Mt. Vernon drove deep into Franklin territory looking to either tie the game or take the lead late.
Franklin senior Nate Owens had other ideas and saw what was coming.
“We knew they had no timeouts, so they were going to try to get out of bounds and stop the clock, do out routes, flats, stuff like that,” Owens said. “I saw it coming and I took it.”
Owens picked off Mt. Vernon freshman quarterback Luke Ertel and returned the ball over 50 yards, flipping the field and giving his team a chance to eat up valuable clock and put the game away.
It wouldn’t be that easy, though. The Marauders stopped the Grizzly Cubs a yard short on fourth down, forcing a turnover and getting the ball back with 2:14 left and a chance to at least tie.
They converted a fourth and 14 to get into Franklin territory. A 32-yard pass completion from Ertel to George Burhenn got the Marauders inside the 5. A false start, a short run and a spiked ball left the defending Class 4A champions with third and goal from the 4. The Grizzly Cubs’ defense then sealed the game with another sack, leaving the Marauders left to make a split-second decision. A fourth-down spike to stop the clock effectively ended the game, handing the ball back to Franklin with seconds left on the clock.
The Franklin defense got more aggressive in the second half, getting after Ertel and the Marauders in hopes of forcing a mistake. They forced two big ones when it mattered most.
“In the first half, their running plays were not working,” Franklin senior Gabe Delgado said. “We knew they were going to come out here and start throwing. It was just pass rush. We knew what was happening.”
It was a tight game from the start, with no team ever holding more than an eight-point lead, and the big plays kept on coming in the first half.
Every time the visiting Marauders hit big in the first half, the hosts countered. Nobody held momentum for long.
“A lot of big plays from both teams,” Coll said. “Special teams, defense, offense for both teams. To gut it out here on defense, and come up big like that, it’s huge.”
Franklin took momentum with the second-half kickoff, trailing 17-10. The Grizzly Cubs came out and controlled the ball for more than nine minutes in the third quarter, grinding away and steadily moving the ball down the field before tying the game on a 19-yard run by quarterback Clay Pinnick. They held the ball for much of the final quarter, too, eating away at precious clock against a Mt. Vernon team with no timeouts left and going ahead to stay Patrick Fancher’s second field goal of the night with 5:22 remaining.
Franklin ran the ball 40 times for 212 yards. John Shepard led the way with 14 carries for 89 yards. Pinnick added 11 carries for 60 yards and had 98 yards passing, with Max Clark catching two passes for 63 yards.
Mt. Vernon racked up nearly 300 yards through the air, with Ertel completing 15 of 21 passes for 284 yards. Eli Bridenthal caught six passes for 120 yards, Burhenn caught four for 75, and Tre Jones caught four for 88 yards.
Franklin held the Marauders to 58 yards on the ground, though.
“I think it builds more confidence,” Owens said of a win against a defending state champion. “Everything that we worked for is finally coming together.
“We’re just getting started.”
Franklin (2-0) hosts Perry Meridian on Friday. Mt. Vernon (0-2) is at home against Greenfield-Central.
