The old sport cliché, “It’s not how you start, its how you finish” rang true on Friday night for Franklin.
The Indians first quarter, on homecoming night in front of alumni, had their opening drive stopped with a sack on quarterback Joshua Turner. Then, Turner was intercepted later in the quarter, which led to then-undefeated Milford Mill to score its first touchdown to go up 6-0.
From that point for Franklin, fans seemed like it was going to be a long night. But The Indians started to click on offense to close the quarter. Turner and the offense moved the ball for positive yardage into Millers’ territory, setting up a 35-yard field goal for Indians kicker Gerson Soriano.
Franklin found momentum in the second quarter and posted 14 more points, propelling the Indians (4-1) to a 24-20 victory over Milford Mill (5-1).
Turner, who went 10-for-19 for 199 yards passing and three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing), hooked up with Andreus Price for a 28-yard strike to give the Indians their first lead of the night. Later in the quarter, Turner again threw a beauty to Justin Spence, who motored down the Franklin sidelines for a 55-yard touchdown.
“On offense, our job is to be athletes,” Turner said. “We have no returning starters, but we know we have a lot of athletes. We try to run the ball first. And we fed off the running game tonight. Justin Spence had a heck of a day running the ball and it helped us out a lot.”
After a scoreless third quarter, the Milford Mill defense had the Franklin offense pinned on the Franklin goal line and the Millers forced a fumble and recovered it for a touchdown.
The Indians responded and Turner ran it in from the goal line for a quarterback keeper to put Franklin ahead, 24-12.
Milford Mill still wasn’t letting up as the Millers would score again and convert a 2-point conversion to trail by four with five minutes left in the game. But after a failed onside kick by the Millers, Franklin was able to get a couple first downs and run out the clock to secure the victory at home.
“We know they are a big time opponent, they played tough today,” said Turner about Milford Mill. “We know big time players make big time plays in big games like this and our big time players showed up today.”
Franklin has now won six straight against Milford Mill.
“I think it was a great maturing process,” said Indians coach Anthony Burgos. “We’re a young team. We’re not the Franklin of the past as far as the personnel. I [think] there were a lot of learned lessons tonight.”
Milford Mill quarterback Kyrel Eley had a decent game, converting a 36-yard touchdown pass to Ugo Obasi for in the first quarter and then a 38-yard pass to Jawan Rabb in the fourth. But Eley was intercepted twice later in the game, on the 1-yard line and in the end zone, and fumbled the ball several times.
“Our defense has been the strength of the team…they’re [working] to keep us in the game,” Turner said. “When we got the chance [on offense], we made something happen.”
Up next for Franklin is a road game against Towson next Saturday and Milford Mill will host Catonsville on the same day.
Box score
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| FHS (4-1) | 3 | 14 | 0 | 7 | 24 |
| MM (5-1) | 6 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 20 |
Scoring summary
First quarter
MM — Ugo Obasi 36 pass from Kyrel Eley (kick failed)
FHS — Soriono 34-yard field goal
Second quarter
FHS — Andreus Price 29-yard pass from Joshua Turner (Hermann kick)
FHS — Justin Spence 55-yard pass from Joshua Turner (Hermann kick)
Third quarter
None
Fourth quarter
MM — Gray recovered fumbled snap in end zone (run failed)
FHS — Joshua Turner 2-yard run (Hermann kick)
MM — Jawan Rabb 38-yard pass from Kyrel Eley (Obasi pass from Eley)
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