By Gene Schallenberg
NEW WAVERLY — The Bulldogs may have been depleted, but they weren’t about to give any excuses.
After suffering a rash of injuries in recent weeks, New Waverly knew that it had to step up its game. The Bulldogs had their chances, but couldn’t take advantage against a stout Franklin squad. In the end, the Dogs had the ball with a chance to win but fell short in the final minute in a 21-18 loss to the Lions on Friday.
“They outphysicaled us. They were in more shape than we were,” senior lineman Justin Ward said. “They saw that, took a hold of it and ran with it.”
The Bulldogs (2-2), who trailed most of the game, got within striking distance after senior running back Tyren Watts, who carried the ball 11 times for 149 yards, scored on a 28-yard counter run in the fourth quarter. The 2-point conversion failed to make the score 21-18 with a little less than 10 minutes remaining in the game.
But the Lions (3-1) put together a lengthy drive that took nearly all the time off the clock.
Franklin got six first downs on the 20-play, 58-yard drive and were in position to take a two-score lead with a third-and-2 from New Waverly’s 6-yard line. But a holding penalty pushed the Lions back 10 yards. Running back Darius Floyd could only gain one yard on a sweep. The Dogs (2-2) came up with the stop they needed when running back Scott Sanders dropped a pass from quarterback Jonathon Eiman on fourth down.
With no timeouts left, the Bulldogs had to drive 85 yards in 62 seconds. On the first play of the drive, quarterback X’Zavious Harrison completed a 12-yard pass to Watts, who ran out of bounds at the 27 to stop the clock. After two false starts, Harrison fumbled the snap and had to fall on the ball as the clock continued to tick.
New Waverly threw the ball three times downfield, but couldn’t connect with any receivers as it turned the ball over on downs, effectively ending the game.
The Bulldogs had a wealth of opportunities throughout the game but couldn’t convert when they needed.
New Waverly recovered three of Franklin’s fumbles and had first downs on the Lions’ 5-yard line twice, but could only convert on those chances for one touchdown.
“We had three chances to convert and we didn’t,” New Waverly head coach Ken Craig said. “At the end of the first half, we didn’t convert and another time in the first and in the second half. Three times we should’ve scored and we didn’t. We just needed one out of the three.
“It was the kind of game I thought it was going to be. I knew it was going to be close.”
With plenty of underclassmen on New Waverly’s defensive line and at linebacker, the Lions saw that they could take advantage of some mismatches and did just that. A trio of Franklin running backs rushed for more than 100 yards, including Sanders, who scored what proved to be the game-winning touchdown in the third quarter.
The Lions ended up gaining 420 yards on the ground and three scores.
“We just got a lot of heart on this team,” Sanders said. “We stayed after it and kept driving.”
The Bulldogs will head to Huntington next week for their final nondistrict game.
“A lot of positives can be taking from a loss like this with so many of our starters out,” Craig said. “I’m proud we stuck in there and didn’t lay down and let them run over us.
“This is just another step in the learning process.”
