Franklin coach Chris Coll saw some things to like about his defense Friday night. The offense was another story.
The result was Class 5A No. 4 Decatur Central cruising to a 35-3 victory over host Franklin in Mid-State Conference football action.
“We couldn’t get anything consistently going on offense,” said Coll, whose team finished the regular season 3-6 and 1-6 in the Mid-State. “I felt our defense battled all night long. We had some stops. They battled.”
The Hawks (6-2) earned a share of the Mid-State title with a 6-1 league record, tying Plainfield and Martinsville.
Trailing 15-0 late in the first quarter, the Grizzly Cubs stopped the Hawks at the 1-yard line on fourth down and 3, and Franklin running back Alex Leugers then broke loose for an 86-yard run to put the ball on the Decatur Central 13. However, the Grizzly Cubs had to settle for a 35-yard field goal by Matt Payne.
Leugers also had a 29-yard run, but those two runs were the bulk of his total as he finished with 151 yards on 17 carries.
“We couldn’t get him started at the line of scrimmage,” Coll said.
The lack of offense made things difficult on the defense.
“You give up that many points, but they were put in a lot of bad situations,” Coll said. “There were a number of things that stood out defensively that I thought were pretty good. We rallied to the ball, for the most part. We could have tackled better, but we had guys getting to the ball. We played physically. We had some good coverage.”
Decatur Central had to settle for four field goal attempts. Ashton Vogel hit field goals of 39 and 37 yards in the first half and missed a 39-yarder in the fourth quarter. He was setting up to attempt a 51-yard field goal at the end of the first half, but a bad snap kept him from attempting a kick.
The Hawks started with Bo Polston’s 36-yard TD pass to Hicks and a conversion run that made it 8-0 in the first minute and a half of the game. Decatur Central pushed the lead to 15-0 with an 11-yard touchdown run by N’Po Dodo with 6:56 left in the second quarter.
In addition to the field goals, Hicks had a 15-yard TD run to give the Hawks a 28-3 halftime lead. Hunter Harvey scored on a 15-yard run in the third quarter.
The Grizzly Cubs were driving late as sophomore Oscar Garcia gained 34 yards on seven carries, but lost a fumble in Hawks territory.
Franklin will now have the opportunity to get healthier and work on execution with a week off from competition. The Grizzly Cubs will play a sectional semifinal at Columbus East Nov. 1.
“It’s Week 9, so everyone is a little beat up,” Coll said. “We’ve just got to get better. We don’t execute consistently well enough to actually score. We just have to work to get better offensively and keep our defense going and keep making some plays and stops like they have been.”
