Franklin 42, Pleasant Grove 0
Elk Grove 55, Sheldon 6
Cosumnes Oaks 42, Ponderosa 21
Grant 42, Jesuit 16
Monterey Trail 36, Davis 29
Valley 58, Florin 28
Bradshaw 58, San Juan 0
Ask any coach and they’ll tell you that their goal is to
have their team peaking going into the playoffs. That’s exactly what has
happened at Franklin High School.
“Talk about waiting to the last night to peak,” head coach
Mike Johnson remarked. “It’s a good time to be playing your best football.”
In defeating Pleasant Grove, 42-0, Friday, the Wildcats put
a hurt on an Eagle’s team that had solidified a playoff spot the week prior.
Franklin, on the other hand, knew they needed a win Friday – and win by two
points – to grab the third seed out of the Delta League going into this
weekend’s post-season play.
But, they won by forty more points than they really had to.
“It was pretty good,” Johnson said of the shutout win.
“(Pleasant Grove) got a bad start tonight with the turnover and that’s tough
way to start. The other thing was that this was our best offensive night as a
team. When you put your best offensive and defensive night together, this is
what is going to happen.”
On the other side of the ball, the evening belonged to
Franklin quarterback Lamar Jackson. He showed the week ten fans exactly why he
was an invitee to the nationally-televised Under Armour High School All-Star
Game in December.
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| Lamar Jackson who ran for 184 yards and passed for 121 more. |
“It was clicking tonight,” Jackson said.
Through the air Jackson was five-for-seven for 121 yards and
one TD.
“Our quarterback went down and me being the captain of this
team and the leader, I had to step up, bust my butt every week and give my team
the best chance to win,” Jackson added.
Tomorrow, Jackson will once again be making another college
visit, this one to Nebraska. He’s already visited Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Arizona
and Michigan.
He didn’t talk about that kind of attention, but rather, he
was more interested in talking about leading his club into, and hopefully,
through the playoffs.
“If I was the opponent, I would prepare for me the best I
can,” he chuckled. “If they key on me, there are a whole lot of others guys I
can go to. We’re going to be a threat in the playoffs.”
Johnson credited some of Jackson’s success Friday to the
play of the offensive line.
“They are a group of young kids and I thought they played
really well tonight,” he said.
Jackson’s first TD came only two minutes into the game. The
Eagles had the ball first and surprised Franklin by lining up in the Wildcat
formation. On the second play Darren Chism grabbed the snap and went around
right end for a 73-yard run, but a holding call brought the play back.
That was about as close as Pleasant Grove got to the end
zone the rest of the night.
Two plays later the Eagles’ Dawson Weber was hit hard by
Wayne Blocker, losing the ball on the three-yardline and it was recovered by
Franklin.
On the next play Jackson took the ball out of shotgun
formation and scored straight ahead.
From that point on, Franklin cruised to its sixth win of the
year against four losses, 4-3 in league action. Pleasant Grove completed its
regular season with a 5-5 record and went 4-3 in the Delta. The Eagles are
assured of a playoff spot because of its fourth place finish in the league.
Johnson thinks his team’s place in the standings could earn
them a seed somewhere right in the middle of the Division I brackets.
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| Former Franklin QB Jacob Lopez with his mother watching the game on the sidelines |
Sitting in his wheelchair on the sidelines Friday was
Franklin quarterback Jacob Lopez who is recovering from his second surgery on
his right leg, which was broken in the Wildcats’ loss to Jesuit.
Lopez says he has about six to eight more months of recovery
and treatments on his leg before he’ll be able to resume jogging or any
athletic activity. He said he’ll return to classes this week.
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