A Tough Loss
A Tough Loss
F-E Titans fall to Randolph in Class D Championship game at Highmark Stadium
Pictured: Franklinville-Ellicottville Titans quarterback Lucas Marsh (#3) attempts a pass during last Friday’s Class D Championship game at Highmark Stadium.
High school players and coaches describe the opportunity to play for the Section VI football championship at the Buffalo Bills’ stadium as, “like playing in the Super Bowl.”
As a fan of a sports team that was unsuccessful in four consecutive Super Bowls, it’s easy to imagine the heartache that the fans of the Franklinville-Ellicottville Titans must have felt last Friday evening after their team dropped a tough 26-0 loss to their perennial rival, the Randolph Cardinals, in the Class D ‘super bowl’ at the house that Ralph built.
The Cardinals entered the championship contest the heavily-favored and undefeated (9-0) No. 1 seed in the Class D playoff field, while the (7-2) Titans came in as the No. 2 seed. It was the second meeting this season for the two teams, with the Titans having lost the first go-round, 36-26, at Randolph in a fiercely-contested matchup back in mid-September. The F-E team led 20-14 at halftime of that game, but ultimately gave back the lead and became the second notch on the Cardinals’ 2021 to-do list.
Understandably, the Titans defense began last Friday’s game heavily focused on Randolph junior running back Xander Hind. The 4th-leading rusher in Western New York high school football this season, Hind has racked up 1,745 yards on the ground and scored two dozen rushing touchdowns to go along with all those yards.
For the first couple of Randolph possessions however, Titans defenders Caleb Ploetz and Ben Brol led the F-E defense in completely shutting down Hind, who ended up gaining only 39 yards on 12 first-half carries.
Unfortunately for F-E fans, the Cardinals soon adjusted to the Titans’ heat on Hind and they began racking up huge gains on the ground by faking the ball to their star running back and having the quarterback, Carson Conley, keep it himself.
Titans defenders Blake Frank (#26) and Braylon Wyatt (#28) defend against a Randolph pass during last Friday’s Class D Championship game at Highmark Stadium.
Oddly enough, it was a rare pass play by Randolph that broke a scoreless tie and opened the floodgates for the Cardinals scoring machine.
Conley put it in the air only three times during the entire game - one pass fell incomplete, one pass was intercepted by Titan Beau Bielecki, but Conley’s very first pass attempt found a wide-open Hind in the middle of the Titans’ secondary for a 29-yard touchdown play just 12 seconds into the second quarter.
It was the first of Hind’s three touchdowns of the night and from there, the Cardinals went on to build an 18-0 halftime lead. He later closed out the scoring in the game in the middle of the fourth quarter on a 15-yard touchdown run.
Offensively for the Titans, every time the team scratched out a play for positive yardage or a first down, the joy ultimately was short-lived, as penalties and/or big plays by the Randolph defense immediately erased every threat that the F-E team could muster.
Titans quarterback Lucas Marsh spent the entire evening either wearing the Cardinals defense on his back, or trying to get out of the way of its relentless pursuit. The Randolph defense was so dominant in the second half that the Titans offense managed to run only 11 plays - and one of those was a punt.
To be sure, it was a tough day at the office for the senior signal-caller Marsh, and a tough way to finish an otherwise stellar senior campaign for the F-E team.
If the Titans won seven games this year (and they did), then seven times Marsh played an instrumental role in bringing home the “W” for the team - either with his arm or his legs, or often times, both. He completed 82 passes for 1,267 yards and 23 touchdowns this season.
Marsh was also the leading rusher for his team. On the ground, he gained 294 yards on 80 carries and chipped in with three touchdowns.
When Marsh put the ball in the air this season, his favorite target was senior receiver Logan Grinols, who led the team in receptions (34), receiving yards (595) and receiving touchdowns (10). Grinols also carried the ball 22 times for 168 yards and scored one rushing touchdown.
Senior receiver Blake Frank made 22 catches over the course of the season and it seems like every single one of them was huge. His touchdown catch against C-S-P two weeks ago in the playoffs gave his team the come-from-behind, 6-3 victory and a trip to the high school super bowl at the stadium.
Defensively, Ploetz was the standout on a very good defensive team. The senior lineman led the team with 59 tackles, including four sacks and 12 tackles for a loss of yards - also team bests.