Sept. 17, 2014 By Andrea Sidlauskas
The Warhawks’ quest for perfection continues, as they maintain an unblemished record with a victory against Franklin College Sept. 13, extending their win streak to 19 games.
The first-ranked ’Hawks, according to d3football.com, faced the Grizzlies on the road for their second-consecutive non-conference game of the season, scoring 35 unanswered points on their way to a 45-13 victory.
“It’s a good road win,” head coach Lance Leipold said. “As we’ve said all along, [Franklin is] a well-coached football team. I’m awfully proud of the way we played in the second half.”
Defensively, the ’Hawks shut out the Grizzlies and held them to just 70 yards of offense after halftime. Senior defensive back Brady Grayvold and junior linebacker Justin Dischler each recorded an interception following the break as well.
Senior defensive back Zach Nellis and senior defensive lineman Mykaell Bratchett led the ’Hawks’ defense with seven and eight tackles, respectively.
“It was an exciting time to play against a team who is known to make the playoffs,” Bratchett said. “I think I did a good job of executing the game plan and applying techniques to do what I needed to for the defense.”
On the offensive side of things, senior quarterback Matt Behrendt connected with senior wide receiver Jake Kumerow for three touchdowns.
Despite the fact that he played only six minutes during last week’s game, Behrendt totaled 224 passing yards and four touchdowns against the Grizzlies, and Kumerow grabbed nine receptions for 128 yards, tying a career-high record of three scores.
Junior running backs Nick Patterson and Dennis Moore led the ’Hawks on the ground, adding to the team’s total of 298 rushing yards, averaging 8.5 yards per carry, and 548 yards of combined offense.
“Offensively, I thought we were very aggressive today and did a lot of good things,” Leipold said. “We like our weapons, and we’ve got to continue to build on it.”
Going into halftime, the ’Hawks’ yardage was outnumbered by the Grizzlies’, totaling 217 compared to Franklin’s 232, but the ’Hawks held on to a 14-13 lead at the end of the second quarter.
“Those are the games that I enjoy the most because it’s a real football game,” Bratchett said. “[Franklin] actually came to play, and we just had to go through having a game that close at the half, which makes it more fun.”
The ’Hawks scored on their first four possessions of the third quarter, which propelled them to a dominant second half, scoring 35 unanswered points and outrushing the Grizzlies by more than 200 yards.
Up next, the ’Hawks will travel to the College of New Jersey in Ewing to matchup against a team they have yet to face. The Lions are 1-1 so far this season and rank fourth out of eight teams in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, most recently defeating FDU-Florham University, a team that went 1-9 overall last season.
“It’s a new team, so it’s exciting to play somebody new,” Bratchett said, adding that he doesn’t know what to expect from the Lions yet. “It’ll be some fresh stuff hopefully, maybe some stuff we’ve seen. So it’ll be exciting.”
