After two straight losses in the Battle of Cowee Mountain, many Panther fans circled April 9’s game with Smoky Mountain as one of Franklin’s toughest tests of the year. In a Senior Night game at the Panther Pit in the final week of the 2020-21 season, Franklin’s seniors laid those fears to rest by ending their careers with a big win over their Mountain Six rivals.
The Panthers kicked off to Smoky Mountain to start the game, gaining some traction with a defensive stop on the Mustangs’ first possession. Franklin’s offense got going in a hurry after the punt, when on the first play from scrimmage quarterback Chris McGuire shook a defender for 15-yard scamper to Franklin’s 36. Senior fullback Evan Klatt kept the ball rolling on the very next play with a 22-yard rumble to the Mustang 42, getting Franklin’s offense into a solid early rhythm. The Panthers’ offensive line continued to open up running lanes on the drive, eventually punching it in with a Klatt 5-yard touchdown. Franklin couldn’t convert the extra point though, and kicked off to Smoky up just 6-0.
The Mustangs rolled the dice on their first play after the touchdown, calling a deep pass from their own 24 with two receivers streaking near midfield. The Panthers made their own luck on the play however, when McGuire kept his eyes on the quarterback and picked off the pass at the Franklin 46.
Franklin’s offense kept rolling after the interception, again riding its offensive line on a run-heavy drive into Mustang territory. Facing fourth-and1 from the Smoky 35, head coach Josh Brooks called a “no-play”, in which the offense attempts to draw the defense offsides by calling for the snap but not actually hiking the ball. The call worked beautifully, tricking Smoky Mountain into jumping offsides and giving the Panthers a fresh set of downs. Franklin continued rolling down to the Mustang goal line and punched it in with Klatt’s second touchdown of the night. McGuire found the end zone on a quarterback run for the two-point conversion, and Franklin kicked off up 14-0 with 11:46 left in the half.
After an all-Franklin first quarter, the game tightened up in the second period. Both teams traded defensive stops to send Franklin to the locker room still up 14.
After kicking away to Smoky to start the game, Franklin received the second-half kickoff and began a good-looking drive to near midfield. On fourth-and-2 from the Franklin 43, Brooks rolled the dice on a run by senior Braden Cody, but Smokey’s defense held firm and took over in Panther territory.
Franklin got the ball back quickly however, when on the ensuing series Smokey’s quarterback overshot his receiver right into the arms of junior Grant Adams near midfield. Adams got a nice return back to the Mustang 25 to give Franklin the ball with excellent field position. Klatt found a running lane on the very next play and rumbled for a 25-yard score.
Down 20-0 after the Panther touchdown, Smoky Mountain came out fighting on the ensuing drive. After taking over on their own 27, the Mustangs authored a long drive down to the Panther goal line and punched it in to cut the score to 20-7 with 2:50 left in the third.
Franklin keyed a good-looking drive of its own after the Smoky score, getting a 25-yard screen pass from junior Keagan Pollock out past the Smoky 45. Franklin couldn’t convert a third-and-long on the next series however, and were forced to punt with 11:55 left in the fourth.
Both teams traded defensive stops to kick off the quarter, leading to a Franklin punt with roughly seven minutes remaining. On the first play of the Mustangs’ drive, disaster struck for Franklin when the Smoky running back broke a tackle and got loose for an 80-yard touchdown. What had looked like a comfortable Panther lead was suddenly turned into a 20-14 nail-biter.
With Smoky Mountain a touchdown away from tying the game however, Klatt refused to let the lead slip away in the final drive of his Franklin career. Brooks leaned on his bellcow one more time to close out the game, with the senior carrying on six out of seven plays to bring Franklin deep inside Mustang territory. On third-and-2 from the Smoky 33, Klatt put the game on ice with a long touchdown rumble for his fourth score of the game and a 26-14 Panther lead. McGuire found fullback Ty Handley in the flat for two to put Franklin up 28-14, and the Panthers carried that score to the end of regulation.
After a 1-win season in 2019, a 2020 full of uncertainty and a six-month delay to begin the season, Panther football exceed the expectations of many this season. While the team’s 4-3 overall record and 3-2 mark in the Mountain Six fell just short of qualifying for the playoffs, a roster that was heavy on sophomores and juniors this year now has some valuable experience under its belt. After the game Brooks said he wished to thank everyone that everyone that allowed Franklin football to play this year, from assistant coaches to staff to those who organize the team’s pregame meals, and that he was happy to get his seniors a win in their final game.
“It started with the energy last night in our JV game, and we just played harder than we’d been playing,” said Brooks, referring to the Jv team’s 20-0 win over the Mustangs the previous night. “I felt like we played harder than them, and before the game it was pretty emotional in the locker room talking about our seniors. I told them ‘We’ve got to somehow bottle this up and take it to the field,’ and it by far was the most emotion that I’ve ever seen one of our teams come out of the locker room with. They couldn’t block us, and we could block them, and the first two drives changed the game. … Their attitude every single day was that of a winner. and it transferred to the field. I’m so thankful for that, and they were an extreme pleasure to coach.”