Meadville — Franklin County High School head coach Trent Hammond said he’s pleased with the improvement he saw in last Friday’s 35-14 win over McComb.

The Bulldogs (1-2) held McComb to just two second quarter touchdowns, while scoring on four rushing touchdowns and a kickoff return.

Franklin County’s Darnell Ford led in rushing with 125 yards on 15 carries and one touchdown against McComb. Hammond said his offense was able to fix mistakes that were made in the team’s first two games.

“We played hard, executed better and did things we needed to do in order to win,” Hammond said.

“On offense, we ran the ball hard, stayed with our blocks and eliminated all the pre-snap penalties.”

On defense, the Bulldogs forced three fumbles, recovering two. Hammond said their ability to get the ball back was a key in their win last Friday.

“Our players ran to the ball really well and were able to create some turnovers,” Hammond said.

Win or lose, Hammond said the morale and performance of his players during practice is not dictated by what happened the previous Friday.

“This group has been a really good practicing group,” Hammond said. “They’re a blue-collar team that just shows up to work and learn.”

Up next on the Bulldogs’ schedule is South Pike (1-1), which Franklin County will host Friday. Hammond said the thing he’s most wary about from the Eagles is their team size.

“They’re a big, physical team,” Hammond said. “They average about 300 pounds on the offensive line, and they’ve got a big 220-pound running back.

“We’ll be playing with our 180-pounders, so hopefully we’ll be able to do what we need to in order to win.”

Hammond said his focal point in practice this week is working out the game plan and getting fundamentals down.

“We’ve got to tackle and continue to run at the football,” Hammond said. “This leads to turnovers and fewer broken tackles, because you get more people on the pile.”

Gang tackling is one of the main things Hammond said he was pleased about with his team last Friday.

“We had a whole lot better of a night tackling on Friday than in previous nights,” Hammond said. “Gang tackling is better than one-on-one tackling.”

Kickoff for Franklin County’s game against Pike County is 7:30 p.m. Friday.