Bi-District, Nov. 10, 2022:
Franklin 33, Hallettsville 7
By Douglas Pils
Story originally ran in the Franklin News Weekly
WALLER – The Franklin Lions entered the playoffs on a 26-game winning streak and high hopes of winning a second straight Class 3A state championship.
They opened that chase with a 33-7 bi-district victory over Hallettsville, the fourth-place team from District 12-3A. It wasn’t a dominating 50-point blowout like first-round playoff games from the past couple of years, and coach Mark Fannin likes having things to work on.
“I tell this group of kids all of the time to be humble,” Fannin said after improving to 39-3 as the Franklin head coach. “Don’t ever take anything for granted. There’s always room for improvement. As soon as they think they’re good, then that’s when it’s going to bite them in the butt. Be humble and be great. You can do both at the same time. I just told them to come to practice and to work hard and get better each week.”
There will be plenty of hard work this week as the Lions prepare to face District 10-3A runner-up Anahuac in the area playoff round back at Waller ISD Stadium on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Panthers (9-2) took down Palestine Westwood 42-14 on Friday night.
Anahuac will face a defense that never allowed Hallettsville to get anything going. The Brahmas were held to 158 yards, seven first downs and they punted five times and were stopped twice on fourth down. They gained half of those yards, 79 of them, on their lone touchdown when a Lions defender slipped as the pass was thrown midway through the fourth quarter.
“I thought our defense overall played outstanding tonight,” Fannin said. “As a whole, we were flying around to the ball, reading our keys and getting to where we needed to be. I was very proud of those guys.”
And while the Lions’ offense showed off its typical devastating ground game, they displayed more passing and Devyn Hidrogo turned a quick sideline pass into one missed tackle and a 58-yard sprint to the end zone for a 19-0 halftime lead that made the outcome all but certain.
“I feel like we kind of got out a little slow, but in the second quarter we picked it up and we started playing Franklin football,” said Bryson Washington, who scored the first two touchdowns on runs of 17 and 7 yards. “Once we got that going, it was hard to stop us honestly.”
It was a scoreless first quarter, as the Lions were forced to punt on their first possession, just the season’s seventh punt. Franklin got things rolling on the second drive, as four backs helped put together a 10-play, 79-yard drive capped off by Washington’s 17-yard run up the middle on the second play of the second quarter.
The defense forced another punt and then the Lions put together another 10-play drive, this one covering 67 yards before Washington’s 7-yard run. Cort Lowry attempted two passes on the drive and Bo Jimenez wisely came back for the second one and drew a pass interference call on the Brahmas.
The Franklin defense gave up a couple of first downs on the next Hallettsville drive, but then senior linebacker Landen Lorenz stopped it on fourth down from the Lions 41 with his fourth interception of the season.
Two plays later Hidrogo was sprinting down the sideline for the 19-0 halftime lead. At that point, the Brahmas had 59 yards and four first downs, one after a Franklin penalty.
“I think we played a great game,” said junior linebacker Colby Smith, who had a team-high 12 tackles and shared a sack with lineman Major Kimbrough. “The defense came out and stood our ground. We gave up that last touchdown and that hurt pretty bad, but we came up with a good win. I’m proud of this team.
“We all know how to work together to help each person make a big play. When we work together like we do, no one is stopping us. Only we can stop ourselves.”
Franklin opened the second half with the ball and needed five plays before Jayden Jackson found the end zone on a 2-yard run. The big play was a 36-yard pass from Lowry to Hidrogo, who started the half with a 36-yard kickoff return.
Overall, Lowry was 2-of-6 passing for 93 yards, the most since the second game of the season. He was hit from behind on one throw and he and Jimenez also drew the interference call. It’s something the offense will need to do more as the playoffs go on.
“We need to work on passing the ball and there are some different formations we threw up that we’ve been working on all year long,” Fannin said. “I thought they came in handy tonight.”
The Lions capped their scoring in the fourth quarter when Jackson’s 7-yard run ended another 10-play, 65-yard drive. They nearly drove for another with much of the second offense in the game, but the drive was stopped at the Brahmas 1 with 43 seconds left in the game.
Washington led the offense with 110 yards on 14 carries, while Jackson had 74 on 13 carries. Hidrogo had 165 all-purpose yards, while Ike Eaton added 51 yards on six carries.
Kimbrough had 11 tackles, while Brayden Youree had 10.
After the game, Fannin made a point of telling the team at midfield that “they can always get better.” It’s a message that resonates with the team’s leaders.
“We’ve got the best team in the state right now, honestly,” Washingtons said. “But we always have room for improvement. LIke he said, we can’t get complacent with ourselves and think we’re above everybody. We have to work hard, grind every week like we’ve been doing.”
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