TURNERS FALLS — The Franklin Tech football team capped a festive and joyous day on campus with a 42-0 win over Frontier Regional on Saturday night. The game was the sixth and final contest of the day celebrating the school’s 50th anniversary.
Franklin Tech forced two turnovers in the opening frame and turned the first takeaway into points immediately. The Eagles also overcame not having starting running back Brady Gancarz.
“We feel like that’s a position where we have some depth,” Franklin Tech coach Joe Gamache said. “We don’t have a ton of depth throughout the team but we have some depth there. Justin (Lent) and Wyatt (Whitman) definitely stepped up.”
Lent scored two touchdowns for the Eagles. His 12-yard touchdown run was the final play from scrimmage with the clock running due to the mercy rule in the fourth quarter. Lent also scored on a 10-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Whitman had 14 carries for 55 yards.
“I thought Justin (Lent) made some great cuts,” Gamache said. “We made some nice blocks for him. Wyatt had a huge night for us. Wyatt is a four year starter for us…sometimes you have to rely on your leaders.”
Whitman scored on a 37-yard fumble return in the first quarter. The play gave the Eagles a 14-0 led in the first quarter.
The first touchdown of the game was an improbable by nature. Franklin Tech drove seven plays down to Frontier’s 1-yard line. Whitman pounded through the line but lost the football. Offensive lineman Ben Baker scooped up the ball for the first touchdown of his football career.
“It’s definitely awesome because I have always been a lineman,” Baker said. “It was first my first touchdown ever.
Frontier had a gameplan to take some shots down the field early in the game. A couple deep balls missed went incomplete and the turnovers were tough to overcome. Some early completions and maybe the Frontier offense opens things up for the rest of the game. A bad snap on a punt set up Franklin Tech’s third touchdown.
“That’s why were trying it,” Frontier coach Scott Dredge said. “I thought we could take some shots. If we connected we would have been on a good rhythm there. We could not overcome those critical mistakes we made.”
Hunter Donahue had an effective game for the Eagles. Donahue caught two touchdown passes from Mason Bassett. The first was a 7-yarder with 7:51 left in the first half.
Donahue caught a 32-yard touchdown from Bassett in the fourth quarter. Landon Smead had an interception for the Franklin Tech defense.
Frontier had a third quarter drive that lasted nearly 10 minutes of game clock. Konnor James had completions to Levi Pickert, Landon Lavallee and Chase Green on the drive. The drive faltered at Franklin Tech’s 30-yard line.
Noah Poreda had nine carries for 13 yards for Frontier. The Redhawks’ longest play from scrimmage was 17 yard reception from Pickert
