Disclaimer: As a Franklin College student and member of the cross country team, I am obviously biased. If that’s a problem, go read a different weekly roundup of FC sporting events.
Dear readers (I guess there are between two and six of you),
The week’s action was condensed to three days and featured plenty of intra-conference fighting, as many teams are in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference section of their schedules. Despite that, I have decided to procrastinate and save the weight of the writing for the last minute.
What can I say? Bring out the best in me. I think.
First conference game for football, also first win
Both teams won on Saturday morning. Bluffton correctly chose the side of the coin that would be face up on the ground after the coin toss and Franklin won the actual game, 37-27.
In fact, the Beavers played like they spent the week just guessing the coin tosses in practice. The Grizzlies took less than three minutes to score and then held the lead for the rest of the game.
Franklin scored on five of his eight first-half drives and took a two-touchdown lead with 1:29 left in the half when second-year running back Garrett Cora rushed 84 yards to the end zone, breaking free of four defenders and jumping to another in its path. Senior Dylan Boswell added the extra point to make it 27-14.
The Grizzlies stalled after halftime with their first five drives in the following order: punt, attempted turnover, attempted turnover, poor snap punt turned fumble and punt. The Beavers scored a touchdown in the midst of it all, but Franklin eventually pulled away again.
Cora rushed for 226 yards, averaging nearly four yards per rush not counting his 84-yard rush, while second-year gunslinger Kai Ross threw for 233 yards and two touchdowns. Senior wide receiver Jarrett Gibson caught nine passes (his third straight game doing so) for 125 yards and a TD.
On the defensive end, senior Kody Wilkerson recorded nine tackles and one forced fumble. Wilkerson is on track for 80 career tackles of his own on the season.
Football will face another winless team when they host Anderson for the homecoming. Look for the Grizzlies to put a 40 burger on the dying Ravens.
Women’s tennis now 1-4 against HCAC
In the span of five days, Franklin lost to Rose-Hulman, Hanover, and Anderson.
The Grizzlies lost all three doubles matches against the Fightin’ Engineers, but freshmen Emma Back and Bethany Burton and junior Samantha Schick won solo.
That respectable 3-6 loss was followed by an 0-9 performance against the Panthers. Hanoverian mascot can just be real on the road a deer with one horn is a Unicorn, but her women’s tennis team is not overwhelmed by such harsh truths. Backcourt and junior Maecee Terhune held the No. 1 doubles close and three singles went into a third set, but Hanover pulled off a clean sweep.
They didn’t fare much better against the Ravens, the Grizzlies’ only point in a 1-8 loss coming from Burton in No. 5 singles.
Burton is currently the only Grizzly with more wins than losses against conference teams, going 3-2.
Volleyball has successful week
Anderson entered Spurlock on Saturday with a better record than Franklin, but left with a loss. (They also walked away with a better record, but that kind of busts the myth I’m trying to create.)
Regardless, in the first set, Anderson won, taking a 10-3 lead and holding on 25-23. In the second set, the teams were evenly matched as the score stayed within two throughout, with Franklin taking the win. The Grizzlies won the third set handily, 25-20, and the final set semi-handily, 25-22.
On Wednesday, Franklin faced Transylvania (HCAC winner for the past three years), losing 3-0. The Pioneers posted streaks of at least four consecutive points on five different occasions and won 25-12, 25-14 and 25-16.
These were the Grizzlies’ first two conference tryouts and everything went as smoothly as you’d hope. Anderson made it to the conference tournament last year when Franklin didn’t, so this was a good pick for the home team.
They will then play Bluffton, a team that only went 2-7 in the HCAC last year but currently has an overall record of 13-6. A win for Franklin would be proof that the team can make some noise in the conference, but it won’t be easy: prepare for a longer match of four to five sets.
If a tie is like kissing your sister, what’s a loss?
Women’s football hosted a couple of games this week, losing to Bluffton and drawing with Manchester.
The game against the Beavers went goalless until the Grizzlies let in a goal during the 54th minute. Franklin managed to take two shots afterward, but neither hit the back of the net, leading to a 1–0 loss.
The Spartans and Grizzlies went scoreless for the full 90 minutes. The only goals came at halftime when fans kicked the ball past any student caught in the Griz costume, no doubt smelly. It had to be a frustrating game for Franklin because, despite the zeros on the scoreboard, they had 12 shots on goal, four of them by senior Elaina Page.
As of now, Franklin is 0-2-1 against the HCAC and is yet to score against any conference teams. His next opponent is Mount St. Joe, who beat Bluffton this week, 2-0. I’m going to go on record that I’m predicting a 2-1 loss for the Grizzlies.
“If a draw is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with no teeth.” -George Brett
Also playing at Bluffton and Manchester, men’s soccer failed to pick up even a draw.
It took Bluffton just under 20 minutes to score twice and take a 2-0 lead. Some nine minutes later, young Eddy Yousak took a shot that the Bluffton keeper slid to stop, but he was unable to corner the ball, leaving it close to the goal for young Dany Escamilla to hit.
In the second half, the Beavers scored, followed by a Grizzly goal via a Yousak penalty kick. It’s hard to tell if Yousak really got fouled or if he thought they were making a Blithe Spirit production, but a goal is a goal. Personally, I’m going to believe it failed, but that’s because I love the dive ploy and think athletes in all sports should fail more.
The score was 3-2 until the end and Franklin lost his fourth game by one goal. (Here is a abstract that gives a more detailed breakdown of events, including a Grizzly being ejected).
The match against Manchester was not so close. The Spartans scored eight minutes later, three minutes after the second half began, and then again with less than a minute remaining. Franklin had three shots on goal, compared to eight for Manchester.
Yousak is averaging a goal a game in the three conference games they’ve had and his six shots on goal are triple that of senior Chase Hartlage, who has the second most.
Junior goalie Ian Rowe and the defense are allowing fewer goals per game against HCAC competition, but Rowe’s save percentage has dropped from 70.8% overall to 65.0% in conference play.
Cross country kicks for conference competition in Kentucky
Women’s cross country held up perfect against HCAC on the season as they beat Hanover, Transylvania and Anderson on Saturday. In both matchups with Hanover this year, Franklin has narrowly come out on top. Sophomore Haley Makowski finished 63rd out of 363, good for the top 18%.
On the men’s side, Franklin outscored Transy by just four points, 687 to 691, and easily outmaneuvered Hanover, placing 12 teams higher. Sophomore John Asplund finished 24th and posted a new PR of 26:05.3 for the 8K. (I knew a kid in high school who took this long to run the mile in gym class.)
After a weekend off, the teams will head east across the state line to compete in the Inter-Region Rumble at Oberlin College for their final meeting before the conference championship.
Out of Season Summary
Men’s golf, led by top-20 finishes by junior Zayne Spangler and freshman Braxton Christie, ranked sixth out of nine teams. Christie’s second day was the best individual day of any golfer, as he only needed 72 strokes. The Grizzlies beat Hanover and Rose-Hulman but lost to Mount St. Joseph.
Men’s tennis lost to the University of Lourdes on Sunday, 5-2. Franklin earned wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles spots, but lost the top five singles games.
the end part
So maybe procrastination doesn’t get the best of me. But everyone has to have days off, right?
I will spend more time studying my thesaurus and playing typing games to increase my words per minute and come back stronger than ever.
See you next week.