Indians Scorched on the Ground, Fall to Wise in I-95 Classic (PHOTO GALLERY)

With how much success Dr. Henry A. Wise High School enjoyed running the football in the first two quarters Friday night, no one could have foreseen the Pumas’ passing attack burning Franklin early on in quarter number three.

Gashed early by the ground game and trailing 16-0 at the break, the Indians surrendered back-to-back third-and-long conversions via the air—Wise’s only two pass completions of the game—as the Pumas marched down the field for a 12-play, 85-yard scoring drive that put Franklin in a 22-0 hole and burned almost seven minutes off the clock. 

Led by running back Uriah Bethea (174 yards, two touchdowns), Wise accounted for 320 total yards on the ground and scored once in each quarter en route to a relatively dominating 30-7 win over Franklin at Morgan State as a part of the I-95 Kickoff Classic, which pits Baltimore and D.C-area schools against one another.

“They live off running the ball,” Franklin head coach Anthony Burgos said of Wise, who, like the Indians, lost in its state championship (Class 4A) last season.

“They did a tremendous job of just running straight at us. We’re going to sit back, watch the film and kind of evaluate what we’re going to do. You’ve got to move forward. It was a great opportunity, a great experience.”

To their credit, the Indians never quit on either side of the ball as quarterback Jackson Thornton connected with fellow junior Devin Gibbs-Wagner for a 45-yard strike to get on the board with less than 30 seconds to play.  

However, along with their inability to slow down the run game throughout, twice in the first half the Indians found themselves deep in the red zone offensively, but could not come away with points.

Down 8-0, Franklin drove down to the Pumas’ four yard-line, but Thornton’s fourth down pass attempt to Marquis Ellis (7 catches, 62 yards) was batted away.

Midway through the second quarter, still down by just one score, the Indians couldn’t take advantage of a short field as Thornton (17 for 30, 197 yards) was picked off in the end zone trying to hit wide receiver Ian Thomas (8 catches, 81 yards) on a fade route.

“When you’re playing a great team, things can fall apart real quick when you aren’t taking advantage of opportunities,” Burgos said after the game. 

In contrast, Wise (Prince George’s County) made the most of its scoring chances.

Set to boot the ball away with a minute to play in the second quarter, Franklin punter Sean Myers couldn’t handle a high snap and, unable to make his kick, threw a desperation pass that would have been nullified by a penalty even if it had gone for a first down.

Awarded the short field, it took Bethea runs of 26, 6 and 4 yards to cross the end zone and put Wise ahead by 16.

Although Franklin appeared to be undersized defensively compared to the Pumas’ massive offensive line, linebacker Dondre Randall wasn’t about to use that as an excuse. Instead, the senior pointed to his defense’s inability to fill their gap responsibilities and plug the holes up front.

“They did [have the size advantage], but they still they weren’t stronger than us up front,” Randall said. “We have some strong guys up front. We should have been able to stop them. It was mostly not filling the holes like we were supposed to.”

In spite of the result, Randall liked what he saw out of his teammates and is already looking ahead to next week.

“We didn’t quit. I liked that,” Randall said. “Nobody quit on each other, nobody pointed fingers, nobody gave up. We just got to dig more. We really got to dig.

“Tomorrow morning is when it starts. We’ll be back at it tomorrow for practice, 8 a.m.”  

The Indians will look to rebound next week at home against Eastern Tech, Friday at 7 p.m.