SHORT GAP, W.Va. — Controlling the clock and converting on third down is a great recipe for winning any football game.
On Friday night, the Falcons were cooking with fire, converting on 13 of 17 third-down attempts with three touchdowns from Braydn Tyler to spark top-ranked Frankfort over Herbert Hoover, 37-25.
“The coaches made great adjustments on both sides of the ball, and we were able to execute it,” Frankfort head coach Kevin Whiteman said. “We knew coming into it that they were gonna make big plays. We knew it. We just knew we had to not let them make a ton of them. They made several, but not enough to beat us.”
The Falcons kept the high-octane Huskies offense at bay through most of the first half, holding a 3-0 lead past the midway point in the second when Herbert Hoover quarterback Peyton Grigsby found KnoSean Hampton in traffic for a 34-yard touchdown.
Frankfort responded immediately with a 93-yard kickoff return for touchdown by Tyler.
Two plays later, the Huskies re-took the lead on an 85-yard catch-and-run from Grigsby to Blake Fisher. The point-after try failed and Hoover led 13-10 with 2:30 to go before the break.
Frankfort flexed their big-play muscle four plays later.
Following a four-yard run by Cole Shanholtz on third-and-three, quarterback Blake Jacobs hit Tyler on a wheel route in behind the secondary for a 45-yard touchdown. Rhett Sensabaugh’s PAT put Frankfort back in front, 17-13, with 1:15 to go and Hoover with still two timeouts to play with.
The Huskies marched down to the Frankfort 30, thanks in large part to pass gains of 25 to Fisher and 22 to Aiden Hernandez.
With three ticks left, the Falcons batted down a pass at the goal line to take a four-point lead into the break.
“I just told them they did a heck of a job in the first half,” Whiteman said of his halftime team talk. “Proud of their effort, proud of the battle. I reinforced the fact that it was gonna take 48 minutes of hard-nosed football, fighting through the waves of the ups and downs, and the back and forth, and not giving up.”
Trailing 19-17 after a nine-yard strike from Peyton Grigsby to Lance Williams for Grigsby’s ninth straight completion, Frankfort tested the Huskies’s patience as it went back to a slow-it-down mantra on offense.
After gains of one and five, Tyler took a sweep up the left side for 16 to move the sticks on third down.
The Falcons again faced a third down three plays later. Needing four yards, Keiton Nestor took a double handoff off right tackle and gained 15 yards.
Carder Shanholtz again moved the sticks three plays later with a four-yard run on third-and-two.
The Falcons looked like it would need four downs if they wanted to move the chains again, facing a third-and-nine. That’s when Jacobs again went to the air, and again on a wheel route, finding Carder Shanholtz for a 17-yard touchdown.
The drive went 73 yards on 12 plays and chewed up 8:40. The Falcons’ two-point run was stuffed, giving them a 23-19 advantage with 1:22 to go in the third.
Frankfort desperately needed to slow down the home run plays by the Huskies’ offense.
The Falcons did just that on the ensuing drive as a run for minus two yards by Grigsby was sandwiched between a pair of incomplete passes, forcing the Huskies to punt the ball back to the Falcons.
Frankfort converted two more third downs on the ensuing drive, with a six-yard run by Cole Shanholtz on third-and-four setting up a 36-yard touchdown strike from Jacobs to Tyler on third-and-12. Sensabaugh’s PAT stretched the Falcon lead to 11 at 30-19.
Sensing blood in the water, Jacobs quickly got the ball back to the Frankfort offense as he picked off a pass at the Herbert Hoover 35 on the first play from scrimmage.
The Falcons needed just one third-down conversion on the next drive, with Cole Shanholtz gaining three on third-and-one, before Carder Shanholtz scored on an 11-yard run. Sensabaugh’s PAT made it an 18-point ballgame, 37-19 with four minutes remaining.
The Huskies struck back on the ensuing drive, with Grigsby scoring from 28 yards out, but more than two minutes came off the clock. The two-point pass sailed out of the back of the end zone.
Frankfort wasn’t done converting third downs, with Hoover still possessing all of its timeouts with 1:45 to go after the Falcons recovered the onside kick.
On the third play from scrimmage, needing nine yards to ice the game, Tyler took a sweep and bolted 47 yards up the left side for a touchdown, but it was called back on a holding penalty.
On third-and-19 — the Falcons’ 17th third-down attempt — they went back to the well, running the same exact play with Tyler gaining 53 yards for Frankfort’s 13th third-down conversion as a shoestring tackle brought Tyler down at the Hoover 4, allowing the Falcons to run out the remaining clock.
“We talked all week about we couldn’t have turnovers, and we had to burn the clock a little bit,” Whiteman said. “We did a good job … just laying back in the huddle, letting the clock tick, that was our plan all week. Blake did a great job of running the offense.”
The Falcons had the edge in total offense, 386-376, but the defense came up huge in the second half.
After Grigsby went 7 of 11 for 231 yards in the first half, the Falcon pass defense limited the sophomore quarterback to 7 for 14 for 119.
Following the third-quarter TD pass to Williams for his ninth straight completion, the Falcon defense limited Grigsby to 4 of 11 for 56 yards the rest of the way.
Leading the Falcons’ 293-yard rushing attack was Tyler with 15 tries for 125 yards. Carder Shanholtz tacked on 68 yards on 11 tries and Cole Shanholtz had 50 yards on 14 rushes.
Jacobs finished 4 for 6 through the air for 94 yards, in addition to 10 carries for 34 yards, with Tyler hauling in a pair of passes for 81 yards and Carder Shanholtz catching the other two for 13 yards.
Frankfort has a bye before taking its 23-game win streak to Alumni and Friends Field at Tornado Alley for a Mineral Bowl matchup with Keyser.
“It’s (going to be) a big game,” Whiteman said of the Mineral Bowl. “What I’m gonna do first is I’m gonna celebrate and enjoy this until Sunday. And then we’ll get back to work.
“But they’re gonna be ready to play, and they’ve got a good football team. I watched them play last Saturday. They’re gonna be fired up (for the Mineral Bowl). I think it’s gonna be a dogfight.”