It was tough week for Panther football.
After a one-point home loss to Smoky Mountain the previous week, on Oct. 20 the team traveled to West Henderson for a difficult matchup with the 8-0 Falcons. Despite some promising signs early, Franklin couldn’t keep pace with their Mountain Seven Conference rivals, falling 41-0 with just one more game to play this regular-season.
“West Henderson is the conference champion for a reason. They’ve got the best team that we’ve played to this point,” said head coach Josh Brooks of the trip to Henderson County. “They’re very, very physical on both sides, very fast, very aggressive, very senior-laden. ... We had a chance early on in the game after a blocked punt by Kaden Martini to capitalize and get some points on the board. We had the ball at the 37 yard-line going in, but unfortunately we missed a couple of opportunities there and ended up turning the ball over for a touchdown, and it kind of escalated from there.”
Despite Martini’s blocked punt giving his team some early momentum, Franklin couldn’t gain any traction against the conference champions. As has been the case all season, the injury bug also didn’t do the Panthers any favors.
“We had a number of guys that got dinged up in that game,” said Brooks. “Reed Raby, Ashton Shope, Aiden Sizemore and Brock Bradley all got banged up, so we turned to those younger guys to make some plays on offense, defense and special teams. I felt like all of them – Anderson Terrell, Damion Bowles, Lance Parker, Payton King – went in there and gave us some very quality minutes, so that was positive. It was really good to see that, and they didn’t hesitate. They just went and did it, so that was good.”
Between injuries, inexperience and several tough matchups both in and outside the conference, fortune hasn’t been kind to a young Panther team this year. While the fruits of their labor have rarely shown up in the team’s win-loss record this year, Brooks said the experience gained this season will come in handy down the road.
“I know our team has continued to improve, and I’m very pleased with our guys in regard to that,” he said. “We haven’t done enough to win more games, and that’s always unfortunate because we’d all like to. It’s one of those things where you’re not satisfied, but you are pleased with the continued improvement, and some of the attitude and work ethic and understanding has continued to improve on a weekly basis. That’s been very positive, so we’ll keep working on that and get back to practice this week.”
After falling to West, the Panthers had just one game remaining this regular season, a non-conference matchup with T.C. Roberson in Asheville. There, Brooks said the team is in for another tough fight.
“T.C. is probably the best team that we’re gonna play; I feel like they’re every bit as good as West,” he said. “They play with a lot of confidence, they’ve got a lot of team speed, they run the double-slot offense and they’re really good at it. And then on defense they’re just really aggressive, their safeties are very fast and aggressive, so we’ve got our work cut out for us to say the least.”