When Owings Mills hosted Franklin on Friday night, it marked the first such occasion on the football field in more than 20 years. In a game that had more late twists and turns than an afternoon soap opera, maybe the schedule makers should keep this renewed rivalry going for at least another year.
“It’s a crosstown team,” said Franklin coach Randy Johnson, whose squad held on for a 14-6 victory to improve to 3-0 on the season. “Ten minutes to get over here. I don’t mind playing them. I don’t mind a 10-minute drive. That was nice.”
Owings Mills nearly turned that easy commute into a nightmarish finish as the Eagles (1-2) rallied to within six points in the fourth quarter and moved the ball to within 4 yards of the end zone in the waning seconds before falling short on back-to-back incompletions that sealed the road win for the Indians.
“Talk about nerve-racking,” Johnson said. “That’s an understatement, but that’s what we do. We play defense. We hang our hat on our defense being fundamentally sound — and making tackles, and making plays when they count, and that’s what we did at the end of the game.”
That defensive stand came after what looked like a comfortable 14-0 lead, built on a pair of James Joseph touchdown runs, was whittled down to eight with 5:05 left in the contest. That’s when Eagles defender Ashton Allen recovered a fumble by Indians quarterback Tanner Hutchins into his own end zone after taking a big hit shortly following the snap.
Allen’s timely score came after Owings Mills had a drive stall right at the goal line on fourth down when NoQueze Branch bobbled a pass from Anthony Bland that was eventually caught out of bounds by Franklin linebacker Nathan Damiano to turn the ball over on downs. Two players later, Allen pounced on the fumble. The ensuing two-point pass, however, fell incomplete to retain Franklin’s 8-point lead.
Franklin responded with a long drive to Owings Mills’ 10-yard line to burn most of the fourth quarter clock, force the Eagles to use all three of their timeouts, and set up a 27-yard field goal by Evan Dell. However, Dell’s attempt was blocked with 1:31 remaining in the game.
The Eagles, largely on the playmaking of Bland, moved the ball to the Franklin 4-yard line, but Bland’s first attempt with about four seconds remaining was batted down by Chichee Duru. Then, with 0.7 seconds on the clock, Bland’s final attempt sailed over the intended receiver’s head to end the contest. Bland accounted for all 66 yards on the drive, including throws of 25 and 17 yards to Rashad Williams.
“We’ve got a tough group,” Eagles coach Josh Leese said. “We’ve got like 26 guys on the roster, so we need every person, every play. When we hit that fourth quarter … they knew it was time to battle. I think they did well defensively getting us the touchdown, forcing the fumble, and offensively … just ending a yard short.”
Owings Mills came up just short on fourth down on its first offensive drive of the contest, leading to Joseph’s first touchdown, a 4-yard run that capped a short 5-play, 34-yard drive with 6:14 left in the first quarter.
“It seemed at the beginning of the game, we came out strong,” Joseph said. “The holes were opening. Everything was there. It was definitely a team effort. They open up the holes for me.”
Good defense on both sides and numerous costly penalties, largely committed by the Indians, made Joseph’s run the only score of the first half.
Joseph added another scoring run, a 6-yard scamper, late in the third after a near disaster for Franklin turned into a first down as Waters picked off Hutchins, but fumbled on the return, giving the Indians a fresh set of downs on the 38-yard line. Hutchins then raced down to the 10 on the next play, and two runs later, Joseph found the end zone running right to his sideline for a 14-0 lead with 12.2 seconds left in the third quarter.
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