Bulldogs hit the road in district play

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Meadville — The Franklin County seniors had one last chance to soak in the home-game atmosphere last week before heading out on the road to finish up the 2011 regular season.

The Bulldogs cruised to a 42-15 homecoming win over Crystal Springs last Friday, and head coach Rickey O’Quinn said he liked what he saw from his team.

“It was a good win and for the seniors it was one last homecoming game,” he said. “It was a district win, and I thought we played well on both sides of the football. I don’t know if we played a complete game, but we were close to it.”

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The win put the Bulldogs at 6-3 overall and 2-1 in Region 7-3A, with the one loss coming at the hands of first-place Hazlehurst (7-1, 3-0).

Franklin County will try to improve its playoff prospects even more this week as it travels to play Prentiss in the first of two district road games to finish the regular season.

“(Prentiss) plays extremely hard,” O’Quinn said. “They have a balanced attack, they run it and throw it and they have a bunch of kids that really play hard. Every division game means we will get each team’s best shot.”

Despite the Bulldogs good performance last week, O’Quinn said he did see some things they did not do well.

“We left some points on the field,” he said. “We definitely have some things to work on.”

Franklin County also accumulated 15 penalties for 105 yards in the game, and O’Quinn said that was something his team had limited when it was playing its best ball at the end of September.

“We had our share of penalties,” he said. “It was the most we’ve had this season. During our three-game winning streak we averaged only six to eight penalties a game.”

O’Quinn said the Bulldogs will have to win the battle in the trenches Friday against Prentiss if they want to come out on top. Also, they must force turnovers and take care of the ball themselves, he said.

O’Quinn said the last two games would be critical in setting themselves up for success in the playoffs.

“It would be great to be 3-1 (in the region) and 7-3 overall,” he said. “It would set ourselves up going into the last game with the potential chance of having a home playoff game in the first round. That’s what we are shooting for.”

Franklin County will travel to Prentiss (1-8, 0-3), and kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday.