Over the course of football history, there have been teams that have executed a ‘ground and pound’ offense to great efficiency, running the ball effectively and wearing down the defense of the opponent as a game goes on. The Franklin-Simpson Wildcats, with their T formation, did much the same thing to the Christian County Colonels Friday night in the season opener for both teams in the J Allen Builders Bowl at Warren East.
Franklin-Simpson rushed the ball for more than 300 yards and kept the ball for a large chunk of the night on their way to a 40-28 win over Christian County on the famous blue turf just off Louisville Road.
The evening started off promisingly for the Colonels. Franklin-Simpson fumbled the opening kickoff and gave Christian County great field position. The Colonels would score the first points of the game on a six-yard run from Jordan Miles to take a 6-0 lead with 6:52 left in the first.
On the ensuing possession, the Wildcats ‘ran’ the ball down the field and capped off the drive with a 2-yard run from Gavin Dickerson with 3:23 left in the first, taking their first lead of the night at 7-6. Every yard gained on the drive came on the ground.
Christian County responded on the very next drive. The big play was a 47-yard touchdown pass from Miles to JaSean Riley with 49.1 seconds left in the opening quarter. The two-point conversion gave the Colonels a 14-7 lead.
The Franklin-Simpson ground attack was on full display as the Wildcats got the ball back. The Wildcats chewed up over 8 minutes on a long, physically taxing drive, capped off by a 6-yard touchdown run from LaynecAlford to make it 14-14 with 4:26 left in the half.
The momentum swing of the game came on the next possession for the Christian County Colonels. The Colonels found themselves with a fourth down on their own 36-yard line in the waning moments of the half and elected to go for the first down. The Franklin-Simpson defense held and the Wildcats got the ball back on a short field. Layne Alford scored his second touchdown of the night with 41.4 seconds left in the half giving Franklin-Simpson a 21-14 lead going into the break.
The Wildcats built on that momentum as the second half got rolling. Their defense shut down the Colonel attack, while their offense kept on keeping on. Hayden Satterly scored a pair of touchdowns and the Wildcats completed their only pass of the night for a 32-yard score, and the lead was up to 40-14 with just 4:28 to go.
But give the Colonels credit. Instead of packing it in and getting ready to load up the bus, they decided to make it interesting. Jordan Miles scored on a 9-yard run with 2:02 left to cut the lead to 40-20. On the kickoff, the Colonels recovered Gage Montes pooch kick. The very next play, Miles and JaSean Riley hooked up for the second time in the game, this time a 22-yard touchdown score, and the lead was down to 40-28.
The Christian County defense then got one of its few stops against the Wildcat running game and got the offense the ball back with still more than a minute and a half to go in the game. But with no times outs, the Colonels had to hurry and the Wildcats intercepted a Jordan Miles pass to end the threat.
Franklin-Simpson ended up with 380 yards of offense on the night, 348 of those yards on the ground. Christian County finished with 256 yards of offense, only 18 of that on the ground. The Wildcats won the first down numbers 15 to 8.
For Christian County, Jordan Miles was the leading rusher with 25 yards and two touchdowns. Miles was 18-29-1 through the air with a pair of touchdown passes to JaSean Riley. Riley was also the Colonels’ leading receiver in the game with 7 catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns. Prince Northington caught four passes for 53 yards.
The game was cleanly played. Christian County had five penalties for 23 yards while Franklin-Simpson had three for 24 yards.
Christian County opens the season at 0-1 with the loss. The Colonels are back in action September 1 when they take on Hopkinsville at the Stadium of Champions.
