The Panther Pit’s final season has kicked off in style.
After a dominant win at Murphy to start the year, on Aug. 30 Franklin hosted Robbinsville in the Pit’s 75th home opener. With a 30-7 drubbing of the Black Knights, the upstart Panthers improved to 2-0.
In front of a packed house at the Pit, the first half was mostly a defensive struggle, with both teams trading punts despite several strong runs from senior Braydon Hervey. Linebackers Garrett Young and Avery Carpenter stonewalled back-to-back run plays to put the Knights behind the chains midway through the second.
After an incomplete pass on third-and-14 the Knights punted from the Panther 41, but senior Josh McGaha broke free up the middle and blocked the punt. Franklin took over with prime field position at the Knight 38.
Hervey put Franklin’s offense on his back from there, bulldozing defenders for runs of 14 and 29 yards including a 29-yard romp to the end zone. Senior Daniel Riddle added the extra point to put Franklin up 7-0 with three minutes left in the half.
Carpenter continued to dominate on the Knights’ next drive, shedding blockers for a quarterback hurry, a tackle for no gain and a tackle for loss.
Robbinsville got the ball back at their own 44 with just 24 seconds, and quickly advanced into the Panther half. With time for one last play from Franklin’s 22 the Knights heaved a throw into the end zone, but Hervey intercepted the pass as the half expired.
The game’s most memorable play took place before some fans returned to their seats, as Will Sinclair’s second-half kickoff shot straight into the chest plate of a Robbinsville blocker. The ball fell to the feet of a streaking Carpenter, who recovered it at midfield to give his team a surprise extra possession.
Hervey immediately took advantage of the sudden swing in momentum, breaking loose up the right side for 22 yards on the first play from scrimmage. The senior continued churning out yards from there, finding the end zone on second-and-goal from the 3 to double Franklin’s lead.
Both teams traded defensive stops for the next few possessions, with Franklin forcing a Robbinsville punt on fourth-and-2 from their own 21. When a personal foul penalty forced the Knights to re-punt from their own 11, the snap flew over the punter’s head through the back of the end zone for a safety.
Up 16-0 with four minutes left in the third, Hervey received the ensuing kickoff near the left sideline at his own 32, and weaved his way clear across the field to the opposite sideline at the Knight 41. From there Panther blockers continued to clear running lanes for the senior, who found the end zone four plays later to put his team up 23-0.
Franklin received the ball again in the waning seconds of the quarter, riding runs of 11 and 12 yards from Young across midfield. On third-and-5 from the Knight 45 sophomore quarterback Anderson Terrell found Hervey with blockers in front of him on a screen pass to the left side. Hervey evaded multiple defenders en route to his fourth score of the night.
Down 30-0, the Knights received the ensuing kickoff with 10 minutes to play, and broke multiple Panther tackles for a 25-yard return. On their first play from scrimmage from their own 44, the Knights’ quarterback found room to run up the middle for a 56-yard score. The extra point gave Robbinsville a faint glimmer of hope, down 30-7.
Despite the sudden shift in momentum, Franklin’s defense held firm from there, forcing a three-and-out on the Knights’ next drive with a strong open-field tackle from Aiden Pitts and a third-down pass defensed from Damion Bowles. With three minutes left junior Mark Vanhook put the game on ice, both forcing and recovering a Black Knight fumble at the Knight 22. Franklin’s offense ran out the clock to preserve a 30-7 win.
For the second straight week Hervey filled up the stat sheet in a blowout win, racking up 134 yards and three touchdowns in 21 carries on the ground, and three receptions for 63 yards and another touchdown through the air. The senior added 52 punt return yards for 249 total on the night, and now sits at a whopping 517 total yards and seven scores through the first two games.
In addition to Hervey, Terrell continues to look right at home as Franklin’s starting quarterback, completing seven of his 15 attempts for 98 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The sophomore’s statistics belied his performance in the game, as he made multiple accurate throws that were dropped by receivers or negated by penalties. Meanwhile Franklin’s defense has also looked rock-solid through the first two weeks, racking up three interceptions, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a blocked punt.
“I saw a group of fighters – a group of guys that have bought into the tough, hard-nosed, physical football that it’s gonna take to be successful,” said longtime head coach Josh Brooks of his team’s efforts. “We’ve got the right guys doing the right things, and I think everybody’s playing for the name on the front of the shirt. Robbinsville gave us a great fight out there – it was a heck of a struggle in the first half, and we just kept battling. We played unbelievable on defense again – that’s two weeks on defense that we’ve basically given up two plays. Both of them resulted in touchdowns, but [that’s] two plays out of however many plays that is, and we’re just playing outstanding on defense. The effort is really good, the physicality is really good, the effort to the ball is really good.”
“It felt good. Last year me and Hervey both got hurt and got put out for the game, so it felt good to come back and beat them,” said senior wide receiver/cornerback Braylon Dezarn of avenging Franklin’s 26-0 loss at Robbinsville last fall. “I feel like we’ve been working since last season to prepare for this season, so it’s like, ‘Why not us?’ There’s no reason why it can’t be us, so we came here to do it.”