SHORT GAP, W.Va. — On a night when Frankfort celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Ridgeley Blackhawks’ state title, the Falcons were a runaway train.
A balanced rushing attack provided the offense, a stout Frankfort defense line shut down the passing attack and the Falcons ran away with a 48-8 victory Friday night over Tucker County at Frankfort Stadium.
“We had a pretty good week of practice,” Frankfort head coach Kevin Whiteman said, “and challenged ourselves to come out and play like Ridgely Blackhawks with a lot of physicality, a lot of focus, to play as a team, and they did all that. I’m really happy about it.”
Kaiden McKenzie got Frankfort (4-0) going with an eight-yard touchdown run on its opening nine-play, 63-yard drive. McKenzie finished as the Falcons’ second-leading rusher with 66 yards on nine tries.
The Mountain Lions (3-1) fumbled the snap on their first play from scrimmage and turned it over, but the Falcons gave it right back on the next play with an interception by Reid Kisamore.
After forcing a punt, Braydn Tyler scored the first of his two 13-yard touchdown runs, with his second putting Frankfort ahead 21-0 at 7:50 in the second.
Gunnar Bradshaw capped off the first-half scoring with a 42-yard interception return with 1:21 to play before the break.
Carder Shanholtz scored the first of his pair of touchdowns with a five-yard run midway through the third, en route to finishing with 10 rushes for 105 yards.
Rhett Sensabaugh kicked the point-after and finished a perfect 5 for 5 on PATs.
Shanholtz capped off the scoring with a 90-yard kickoff return touchdown following Tucker County’s lone score on the night, a 23-yard pass from Sam Marks to Keelyn Eichelberger. Marks threw to Cayden Arnold on the two-point conversion.
The Falcons put the mercy rule into effect with a three-yard run by Cole Shanholtz early in the fourth. Jesus Perdew finished 1 of 2 on PATs.
The Falcons finished with 358 yards of offense to Tucker County’s 180 — they led 265-49 at halftime, with much of the Mountain Lions’ offensive production coming against Frankfort’s second string.
Frankfort limited Tucker’s passing attack to 7 of 17 for 95 yards and just 3 of 10 for 48 yards at halftime.
“They stepped in to play tonight much better than we did last week,” Whiteman said of his defense. “We also were able to put some pressure on the quarterback tonight. Last week everything was so quick, he was just dropping three steps, then throwing the ball. They were setting the gun, we were able to get a little bit more pressure, but our defensive backs did a much better job tonight and that was really good to see.”
Frankfort takes its school-record 18-game win streak on the road next week at Northern, who got its first win under new head coach Logan Stewart on Thursday over Hancock, 48-0.
“It’s gonna be a hard-nosed, physical football game,” Whiteman said. “I’ve watched them play against Fort Hill, and I was really impressed with how they battled against Fort Hill, and how they were physical with Fort Hill. And anytime we go to Northern, we know it’s gonna be a dogfight.”
Kyle Bennett is a freelance sportswriter for the Times-News. Email him at kbennett@times-news.com or follow him on Twitter @ByKyleBennett.