Route 8 still belongs to Oil City

“Franklin’s good,” Oil City head coach Dan York said after his Oilers held off the Knights for a 36-15 win Saturday night. “Franklin’s going to win some games if they play like that, I mean they’re tough. They gave us all we wanted. Hats off to them, they played real well.”

In their last four meetings under Turk, the Knights have only managed to score 14 points while giving up a whopping 261. But Franklin came out and stopped Oil City on their first three processions. They then struck pay dirt first halfway through the second quarter to take an 8-0 lead. "It’s a rivalry game, so all bets are off," said Franklin head coach Matt Turk. "Take care of the little things and the big things take care of themselves."

The game started as expected, Oil City’s Ethen Knox got a hand off and nearly broke one around the corner, finally pushed out of bounds after 14 yards.

But then nothing.

The Knights met Knox and other runners at the line of scrimmage or in the backfield throughout the first half.

The first quarter ended with the Oilers only getting one first down. Franklin had a penalty-riddled quarter and neither team scored. 

Trying to get something going in the second, the Oilers attempted a couple of fourth-down conversions, despite being in their own territory, only getting one of them. This gave Franklin good field position and the Knights took advantage.

The Knights started on their own 35 after taking over on downs. After a couple of plays and a penalty, they found themselves facing third and 10. Franklin sophomore quarterback Jason Carey scrambled around to avoid a sack and fired a strike to Trystin Boocks who took it 33 yards to the 2. After another penalty put them at the 7, Bryson Watson plowed his way into the end zone for the first score of the game with six and a half minutes left in the half. Cole Buckley, in to hold for the extra point, took the snap on a fake and ran around the end for two points.

Not to be outdone by a big pass play, Oil City just couldn't let the Knights take control of the game. On the next possession and from their own 24 they decided to try something different. Quarterback Cole Findlay heaved one over the middle toward a sprinting De’Vaughn Griffin. He caught it and took off for the goal line only to be caught from behind by Boocks at the 15 after a 61-yard gain.

​A couple plays later Knox found the end zone to answer. He also took a pitch for the two-point conversion.

Things looked like they were unraveling a little for the Knights when a pass by Carey was tipped and intercepted by the Oilers, but Franklin got it right back on an inception of their own.

The Knights moved the ball again but penalties twarted their momentum forcing them to punt with about a minute to go in the half. Nathan Pfennigwerth's punt was fielded at the 22 by Sean Alexander who cut it back across the field with a wall of blockers and ran it down to the Franklin 22.

A couple good runs for Knox set up a 10-yard pass from Findlay to Justen Dunkle for the touchdown, and the Oliers took a 14-8 lead into the half.

“We gave up that touchdown, but the difference between that and last year is that we knew we were getting the ball back, we were very comfortable,” Turk said. “We made some great adjustments and came back fired up.”

Franklin did come out pumped up and ready, but the opening drive was again crippled by a couple more penalties followed by a Findlay interception on defense, which set the Oilers up at the Franklin 41. ​

York's Oilers also made some adjustments at halftime, mostly on blocking assignments. This resulted in Knox runs of 13 and 24 yards that eventually set him up for a six-yard touchdown with 8:21 left in the third. A two-point conversion by the Oilers put them two scores ahead at 22-8. 

Franklin was undaunted and put together a 62-yard drive with sophomore Watson doing much of the work, including a 34-yard scamper to set up an Alex Wible bulldozing 12-yard touchdown. After Pfennigwerth’s extra point, the Knights were again only a touchdown away at 22-15.

But those York adjustments were just too much.

The Knights held Knox to under 70 yards in the first half but couldn’t contain him in the second. Knox ended with over 230 on the night including two more long touchdown runs of 19 and 60 yards to put the game out of reach. Oil City was able to convert one of two attempts at an extra two points to make the score 36-15 by the end of the third quarter. 

There was little action by either team in the fourth quarter and the game ended with the same totals as the third - 36-15. "Mad respect to the Oil City staff, they literally kneeled on the ball with plenty of time left, but that’s mad respect to us, we have the utmost respect for them."

Knox was kept out of the defensive scheme for the Oilers to help him get back after an ankle injury sidelined from last week's loss to North East.

Franklin’s Watson nearly hit the century mark running the football against Oil City. "Bryson had a great game, I’m very proud of him," said Turk.

Franklin heads north next week to face a tough Mercyhurst Lakers squad who are 4-0 after shutting out Northwestern 72-0 Saturday night. "(Mercyhurst is) one of the best in our region and we’re going to have our hands full. We wipe the slate clean and we get back to work on Monday," Turk said. 
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Oil City will host Northwestern, a team that has scored only 34 on the season and has yet to win.