Franklin football picks up first loss

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By Dexter Howard, September 13, 2009

The first half seemed to be a battle of field position in which Franklin struggled to contest Butler’s passing attack led by sophomore quarterback Andrew Huck. Huck amassed 316 yards and four touchdowns through the air, while completing 33 of his 48 passes. Top targets for the Bulldogs - Zach Watkins, Jordan Koopman, and Dan Bohrer - tallied up 240 yards and four touchdowns combined. 

 

The Bulldogs struck first early in the opening quarter with a 28-yard field goal by David Lang followed by a 3-yard touchdown strike to Watkins. Both scores came from Grizzly turnovers. The early turnovers committed by Franklin stopped the offense from producing scores as well as giving Butler prime field position, swaying momentum of the game from the get-go. 

 

At the end of the first quarter, the score was 10-0 in favor of Butler. Franklin had managed to get into Butler territory only once, the drive resulting in a punt for the Grizzlies. Despite getting called for their second personal foul of the game on the ensuing possession, the Bulldogs managed to tear away at the Grizzlies through short passes. Senior wide receiver Dan Bohrer would put another six on the board for Butler, scoring on an endzone fade route. The PAT would be no good and leave the score at 16-0 with 11:06 still remaining in the first half.

 

After a good kickoff return for the Grizzlies by freshman running back Ethan Cook, quarterback Nick Purichia and the rest of the offense couldn’t get going and would be forced to punt yet again. Big plays by senior linebacker Joe Rush and the rest of the defense would cause Butler to follow suite and give Franklin the ball on their own 37 yard-line. 

 

Franklin Coach Mike Leonard, said “The defense did a good job slowing down Butler’s running game. There were few long, gashing runs that you usually see in a football game.” 

 

Junior Kyle Ray would then reenter the game bringing with him a beautifully-orchestrated 63-yard touchdown drive, which included big grabs from Matt Zmich, Mitch Deffner, and Adam Mellencamp. 

“Offensively at times we didn’t do bad passing the ball around,” said Leonard. 

 

Ryan Momberger would score on the toss from Ray, helping to close the gap on the Bulldogs 7-16. 

 

Going back to its spread offense, Butler would score once again before the half ended as well as during its first drive of the second half. The scoreboard showed 30-7 in favor of the visitors with 10:21 left in the third quarter and the Bulldogs would score another two touchdowns before it winded down. Despite early touchdowns from both teams in the fourth, the latter part of the game mostly consisted of a defensive stalemate in which neither team gained much ground. 

 

“I think we realized how good of a football team Butler really is and how fortunate we were to beat them last season, Leonard said.

 

" We knew it would be a tough game because they had a lot of guys coming back, and we had a lot of new guys coming in. But it’s also very important to schedule good non-conference teams like Butler schedule so that we will be ready for our conference schedule in a few weeks. We need some work on our pass-defense and run-offense. But as a team we have a lot of little things to work on; too many to mention.”

 

Top all-purpose earners for the Grizzlies were Deffner with 183 yards, Mellencamp with 113 yards and Momberger with 49 yards. Ray would go 19-32 with 261 yards and a touchdown, Purichia would complete 6 of 16 with 98 yards and a touchdown. 

 

On the defensive side of the ball, Nick Cochran led the team in tackles with 11. He was followed by Adam Wheat and Sean Drake with 9 tackles a piece. Franklin will have a bye next week but will be playing in their last non-conference game against Trine on September 26 at home.