IS FRANKLIN BACK IN THE HUNT? |
Even at 3-4, an explosive and dangerous Indians’ football team signals its intent to return to the Class 3A North Region playoffs following Friday night’s upset of Parkville. |
| by Lem Satterfield Just when you thought they were out, the Franklin Indians could be back in. Down by six points in the first quarter following a 63-yard touchdown run by Parkville’s Ian Sadan, the Indians scored the next 23 points and gave up only eight more in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s 23-14 upset of Parkville in Baltimore County 4A-3A League action. Carl Fleming rushed for 110 yards and a 41-yard touchdown, and Keith Ford threw for 157 yards, mostly on a fourth-quarter, 91-yard scoring pass to Ryan Mays (three receptions, 119 yards). Also playing well was Ron Greene with a 5-yard scoring run, 12 tackles, and a half of a sack; Leo Roberts with 54 rushing yards, 13 receiving yards, 10 tackles and a forced fumble; Jamal Jones (four receptions, 25 yards); and Emery Pressman with a sack and a fumble recovery. The Indians are coming off of their best season ever at 10-3, when their best player, Scott Noble, was named Baltimore County’s Offensive Player of The Year as well as a first-team All-Metro selection. Last year, the Indians upset defending county 4A-3A League champ, Perry Hall, and handed two-time Baltimore City champion, City, its lone loss on the way to winning the Class 3A North Region crown. Until Friday night, however, it appeard that the Indians wouldn’t get a chance to defend their region title. But now, the Indians (3-4, 2-4) are back in the hunt for a playoff berth, with games remaining against Milford Mill, Woodlawn and Dulaney. “Our focus is to come out every week and try to play Franklin’s best football. We demonstrated that we can do that against Parkville,” said Franklin coach Anthony Burgos, whose Indians entered last week trailing Hereford, Patapsco, Milford Mill, Catonsville and Mervo in the chase for one of the top four qualifying seeds in the chase for a regional berth. “If we can focus one week at a time for the next three weeks on how great we can be, teams will need to watch out for Franklin,” said Burgos. “We are a very talented team with many big playmakers.” The most talened of the Indians may well be Fleming, whom Burgos calls, “one of the most explosive players in the Baltimore metro area.” A 6-foot-1, 190-pound junior, Fleming sees action as a running back, quarterback and defensive back. So far this season, he has completed seven passes for 45 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Fleming also has rushed for 861 yards and 10 touchdowns, and, defensively, has two interceptions. Fleming had his best game in a 20-13 victory over Kenwood, during which he rushed for 190 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries. “Carl has great size and speed and can play many positions,” said Burgos, whose Indians “are very young,” starting three sophomores and 11 juniors. “Despite our youth, we’ve given teams fits, losing three games by a total of less than 10 points,” Burgos said. “We gave Hereford all they could handle in the first half, but our inexperience and depth has hurt us in the second half.” The Indians, for example, lost to Catonsville after leading, 28-6, at halftime. They lost a five-point lead to Perry Hall with two minutes left to play, and, said Burgos, “didn’t show up to play” for another loss to Towson. “Our inexperience has hurt us tremendously this year. Since last season we lost 19 seniors,” Burgos said. “But on top of that, we lost a lot of leadership and players who had a great knowledge for the game.” “I tell my guys all the time that we have the personnel on this team who could make this team better than last year’s team,” Burgos said. “We have more big play-makers who can go the distance in a hurry.” Franklin 23, Parkville 14 |
Processing your request, Please wait....
