Titans win Class D clash over Warriors

FRANKLINVILLE — The Franklinville/Ellicottville football seniors have had a long time to ponder some unfinished business.

Ever since Nov. 9, 2019, when the Titans lost 22-0 at New Era Field to Clymer/Sherman/Panama, F/E wanted to finish what it couldn’t last season. Finally, the Titans got that chance Friday night, and they took advantage. F/E scored three second-quarter touchdowns, powered by hard-running senior quarterback Logan Frank, to lead 21-0 at halftime and held off a second-half fight from Salamanca to win, 21-7, in the Section 6 Class D championship.

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“It’s such a great feeling especially because we came up short in this game last year, and our seniors from that day said in their head that they weren’t going to let that happen again,” second-year F/E coach Jason Marsh said. “They really wanted to go out and win a championship, they didn’t like the way it felt last year. It’s a credit to those guys, a great bunch of kids. They set their goals. They fought through all the adversity through the pandemic, no weight room, no preseason training for us at all. It’s a great bunch of kids who just worked their tails off and they improved from day one until today.”

FRANK finished with 234 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 31 attempts, and was 6-of-12 passing for 75 yards and a score.

“It’s everything,” Frank said of winning a sectional title. “It was a heartbreak losing to CSP last year, obviously. We thought that was going to be our year. But with everything going on this year we were just blessed to play. This group of kids, we needed one, we deserved one. We worked so hard throughout the year and it means the world to me and the rest of our senior athletes.”

F/E (7-1) drove 13 plays on its opening drive, reaching the red zone before a holding penalty spoiled a chance at a touchdown. But that ball-possession approach set the table for much of what was to come, as F/E ran 55 plays to Salamanca’s 37, outgaining the Warriors 360-164 in total yardage and gaining 19 first downs to Salamanca’s seven.

“Even though we came up short on that drive, it gave us confidence,” Marsh said. “The things that we prepared for were working. Our offensive line was moving bodies, we got held back by a little (by a) penalty there but we knew it gave us confidence, it gave us at least an easy feeling that we could move the football.”