Franklin's homecoming celebration was charred by the fiery breath of the Warren Dragons who came to town to feast, winning 35-12. Some fans were allowed to attend the game Saturday to watch the homecoming queen crowned before the game and many stayed for the clash.
​
More photographs by Sydney Herdle can be found here!

See more photographs from the homecoming court and who was crowned queen here.

​There is also a link to even more of Sydney Herdle's photographs on that page.

Franklin wins 21-0 over Titusville at Carter Field.
Aaron Burkhardt scored on a 1 yard run with 9:41 remaining in second quarter. It ended up being the only points the Knights needed as they visited Titusville. They added a field goal before the end of the half and two more touchdowns in the second half. They struggled getting an extra point having three blocked. Overall the Knights had a lot of penalties that hurt them, but Titusville appeared to be playing with a greased pigskin. The Rockets turned the ball over a half dozen times with three lost fumbles in the first half alone. The Knights moved to 1-1 on the season recording the first win for new coach Matt Turk. Titusville drops to 0-2 having lost the opener last week to Meadville.

See more photographs here tomorrow and check out explorevenango.com for another photo from the game.

Oil City hosted Meadville Friday night for their season home opener. Both teams easily won their first games last week. It took the Oilers till the 1:40 mark in the first quarter to score the first points of the game Meadville responded about 4 minutes later in the second quarter on a punt return for a TD. Oil City scored twice more and then had a big goal line stand to stop Meadville from scoring right before the half. Oil City never looked back from there.

At the end of the fourth quarter, Cam Russell, who had a monster game, broke away for what would've been another score but elected to fall down at the five so the Oilers could just run out the clock.

Sportsmanship.

Final score was Oil City 38, Meadville 14.

Editor's note:
More photos from this game will be posted this weekend.

Check out more photos and results from the game from our friends at The Meadville Tribune and Explore Venango.

It was also good to see Ryan Kunselman from The Derrick who was there writing a game story. Ryan and I worked together for five years and it is always good see good friends.

Had a busy day with sports today covering three Franklin events. I started with Cross Country out at Two Mile where the Knights took on the home team Rocky Grove (some photograph are displayed here.) Then I went to the boys Soccer game against Titusville before finishing up in the gymnasium where the girls volleyball team hosted Maplewood. More photos from all events will be posted tomorrow or over the weekend.

View more photos from Tuesday's action at ​sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p781860598

Meadville Hockey coach Jamie Plunkett used to say "you can't score if you don't shoot the puckl." The same can be said of the soccer ball if the goal is to find the back of the net.
​The Oilers' didn't really give the Cambridge Springs goal keeper much more to do than enjoy the beautiful end of summer day in Oil City. The Oil City tender however was pretty busy and managed several stops, but four did get passed her out stretched arms.

​More photos from Monday's game can be found at ​sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p1028815968

Franklin's Rylee Mattocks found the back of the net in overtime to lift the Lady Knights to a 2-1 victory over Maplewood Monday night. See more photos at ​https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p795428082

To say it was surreal might be an understatement.
At the beginning of Friday night's Route 8 rivalry game between the Franklin Knights and the Oil City Oilers it almost seemed like they didn't quite know how to start.
Announcer Brian Spaid got on the loud speaker and said he thought they were live streaming and tried to get the ball rolling. Then a bit of silence seemed awkward until the band kicked into gear and took the field. For a brief few moments as the drums beat loud and the trumpets dominated the air it sounded like the beginning of a typical Friday night football game.
​But the stands were empty and the crowd noise non-existent.

There were no cheers when the visiting Oilers came on to the field and made their way to the sidelines. No screaming super fans with body paint awaited them from the empty stands. There was no band playing them on or cheerleaders forming a runway for them to go through. They took to the empty sidelines and awaited the Knights.

The home team had a very similar experience. No crowd rahs and only the band played them onto the field through the traditional breaking of the banner the cheerleaders made and held for them. The only home field advantage they would have was their fellow students in the band and cheer corps.

​There was no meeting at the 50 yard line of the team captains for a coin toss. That was handled before hand with social distancing rules in place.

​It was weird.

When the kickoff was sent into the air you could hear the crickets in the nearby woods. This wasn't your typical start to the high school football season. 

​But they played.

It was evident early on that the Oilers were looking exactly like the back-to-back District 10 champions they are and Franklin, who lost the all-time leading passer to graduation and has a new coach with a new program were... well looking like they lost their star passer and the new coach hasn't had enough time  with the small squad to have them quite ready for this level of play.
Franklin has 31 players, which is half the number of the Oilers' squad.

It didn't take long for the game to be decided. Franklin went three and out. A bad punt put the Oilers in striking distance, which happened immediately. In fact less than four minutes into the game, a bad punt, a fumble deep in their own territory and an interception returned for a touchdown left the Knights down 24-0. And it just got uglier from there.

This isn't to say anything bad about the Knights' effort. They never quit. They are just working in a new system and happened to draw their first game against a very tough and an established system, a very established system, a proven, established system.
​When coach Dan York came into Oil City his first year was rough as well. It takes a little time to get a plan in place and a team that trusts the plan. Since then the team improved each year to to point not too many teams, certainly not ones around here, can beat them. Some of the Oilers have had three years learning the system. The Knights have had only a couple weeks really.

​This was a tough game out of the blocks for the young Knights' program.

It took Franklin nearly nine minutes to get its first first down. They had a decent run to end the quarter but failed to convert a fourth and short to start the second quarter. It was evident that it wasn't Franklin's night when even broken plays netted plus yardage for the Oilers.
Then the long plays for touchdowns became routine. Cam Russell had a couple, so did Zac Kiefer and Sean Stack. Even the onside kicks were working for the Oilers. By halftime the Oilers eclipsed the half century mark and the game was all but over.

The second half started out with more of the same as Oil City put up another couple of scores before sending in the reserve players and the mercy rule took affect allowing the clock to run continuously. Franklin, who in the last few seasons were known to air it out with plenty of completions didn't complete a pass against the tough Oiler defense until the fourth quarter. Then with about three minutes left Franklin finally scored a touchdown.... well almost. There was some yellow laundry on the field as the player crossed the goal line.
A holding call brought it back.
​But the Knights didn't give up and a few plays later, including another completed pass, quarterback Aaron Burkhardt crossed the goal line erasing that goose egg from the scoreboard with 40 seconds left.

Coach Matt Turk was happy his team didn't quit playing, found a way to sustain a fourth quarter drive and persevered through penalty set backs to come out of the game with something to build on next week.

Next week the Knights travel to Titusville who suffered a similar opening round fate finding the end zone only once while losing to Meadville 45-6. That game will be Saturday night at Carter Field in Titusville.

​Oil City will host Meadville next Friday. Both games kickoff at 7 p.m.

At the end of the 68-6 game there was a moment each team gathered near the center of the field to face each other. They applauded each other and the fact they were able to play the game at all. This was in place of the traditional handshake at the end of the game in order to keep social distance. A few players broke ranks to shake hands or fist bump showing their opponents respect.

Despite the one-sided competition each team showed the other the respect that youth sports teaches.

​It was a beautiful end to the evening.

To view more photos from tonights game visit https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p150570641

To read more about the game, our good friend Ed Brannon was there and will have a story in tomorrow's Derrick and News-Herald with photographs by our other good friend Eric Elliott photography.

​Due to difficulties with the Wi-Fi the live streaming didn't work well. It appears the game was taped and the Franklin School District hopes to be able to post it for people to see. During these tough times and new frontiers the district asks for patience and understanding as they work out the bugs.

Some fans were allowed in to watch the Titusville Rockets take on the Meadville Bulldogs Friday night. But the stands at Carter field by no means resembled the usual fare for typical match up between the old  Route 27 rivals. Meadville dominated the game winning it 45-6. To see more check out The Titusville Herald for Sydney Herdle's photographs and story by Zack Borland.

Click here to check out more photographs from the game by Sydney Herdle.