BY ANDREW FAISON/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
andrew.faison@yahoo.com

FRANKLIN—The Franklin Broncos defeated the Covington Cougars 48-10 in the second round of the Virginia High School League Group A Division 1 Eastern section playoffs.

“We beat a great team tonight,” said Franklin Head Coach Darren Parker. “My hats off to Covington, but we have to go back to work now.”

The Broncos are the No. 1 seed for the Eastern section playoffs and improve to 12-0 overall while the Cougars end their season at 6-6.

Leaders for the Broncos were senior Travis Brown who had 12 carries for 141 yards. Junior Latrell Lane had seven carries for 88 yards and sophomore Marcus Stephens added nine rushes for 77 yards and caught an interception. Sophomore Dominique Gainey had six tackles and senior Javontae Blacknall added five.

“Every week is a working process,” said Parker. “I am so proud of the guys. The kids hung in there; they played hard. Coaches coached hard and we have three more weeks, and we have to take it one week at a time.”

The Broncos will next host Altavista Combined School, who defeated William Campbell High School 55-22.

“We gotta go back to work Sunday as coaches and pick the tape and look at our mistakes and look at what we need to improve on, then come out Monday and get ready to go to work again,” Parker said.

Leaders for the Cougars were senior Troy Helton who went 1-of-5 for 31 yards passing with an interception and had 22 carries for 69 yards. Junior Brandon Phillips added four rushes for 16 yards. Sophomore Raquann Matthews had 10 tackles and junior Mikey Woodson added six tackles.

With 9:41 in the first quarter, Franklin senior Xavier Freeman blocked Cougar punter sophomore Trever Jack’s punt. Junior Malcolm Walker picked up the blocked punt on the 16-yard line but was tripped up at the 10-yard line.

“It was big play for our momentum,” Parker said.

With 8:52 in the first quarter, Brown punched the ball into the end zone from 3 yards out to cap off a three-play, 10-yard drive. The extra point by junior Angel Padilla was good making the score 7-0.

Parker noted that there are three phases of a football game, offense, defense and special teams.

“We put the same amount of time in all three phases of the game, and big plays were made tonight,” Parker said.

The Cougars began their second drive on the Franklin 15-yard line after Phillips caught the ensuing kickoff at the 9-yard line and broke three tackles at his own 20-yard line, which allowed him to make a 65-yard run. The Broncos’ defense held the Cougars to a three and out situation and with 7:04 left in the first quarter. Sophomore Derek Dressier kicked a 40-yard field goal making the score 7-3.

The end of the first quarter saw the Cougars suffer an 18-yard loss off a bad snap over Helton’s head dropping the Cougars back to a second and long situation from the Franklin 44-yard line.

On the next play, the first of the second quarter, Helton hit a 31-yard pass to Colton Howard to the Franklin 13-yard line. The Cougars attempted the same play but senior Devon Stewart sacked Helton for a loss.

On the next play Helton pitched an option to sophomore Luke Moye who picked up the first down for the Cougars putting the ball on the 4-yard line. With 10:45 in the second quarter, Moye hit Matthews for a four-yard pass in the end zone to cap off the 62-yard drive.

The extra point by Dressier was good making the score 10-7.

The Broncos began their next drive from their own 43-yard line. Sophomore Corey Porter caught the kickoff at the 15-yard line. On the first play of the drive, Lane broke a run to the outside and was tackled at the 12-yard line. Brown rushed 9 yards to the 3-yard line for the second play of the drive.

With 10:05 in the second quarter, Brown punched into the end zone from 3 yards out to cap off a 3-play 40-second possession drive. The 2-point conversion by Brown was good making the score 15-10.

The Broncos began their next scoring drive at their own 46-yard line. On the first play of the drive, Brown broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and bounced to the outside and was able to barely stay in bounds after being shoved from behind to complete the 54-yard touchdown run. The extra point by Padilla was good making the score 22-10.

The Broncos held the Cougars to a three and out after Franklin senior Raequan Wright sacked Helton for a 13-yard loss. The Broncos took over at their own 21-yard line after a block in the back call brought back a 65-yard return by Stephens. On the first play of the drive Stephens broke several tackles on the far sideline to bring the ball out the Cougar 45-yard line.

Later in the drive with 3:41 in the second quarter, Blacknall broke a 34-yard run up the middle to cap off a 6-play 79-yard drive. The extra point by Padilla was good making the score 29-10.

Franklin’s Porter returned the opening kickoff of the second half 80 yards after breaking two tackles to score a touchdown with 11:45 in the third quarter. The extra point was no good making the score 35-10.

With 7:50 left in the third quarter Stephens intercepted a pass on the 3-yard line from Helton that was intended for Covington junior Colton Howard. With 3:57 left in the quarter, on a fourth and 1 Brown broke a 15-yard run up the middle to cap off a 9-play, 97-yard drive. The extra point by Padilla was good making the score 42-10.

With 2:36 in the third quarter, Franklin sophomore Tyree Jones recovered a fumble when Helton’s option fell short at the 50-yard line. During the drive on a second and 7 situation, Pittman hit Stewart for a 38-yard pass that put the Broncos on the 9-yard line. On second and goal with 35 seconds left in the third quarter, Stephens broke an 8-yard run to find the end zone to cap off a 5-play, 50-yard drive. The extra point was no good making the score 48-10.