Jim Mashek

TURNOVERS, MISCUES DOOM GLASGOW; WILDCATS SAVOR THE MOMENT

GLASGOW — Glasgow High School’s football team was still within striking distance, gaining possession near midfield in the final moments of the third quarter.

A penalty for an illegal substitution, the sort of mistake that haunted the Scotties all night, presented an obstacle for Glasgow, but standout quarterback Easton Jessie was keeping his team in the game.

Until Franklin-Simpson’s Tytus Brown changed everything.

Glasgow’s Mason Arms took a handoff from Jessie and looked for some running room on the left side. The Scotties had been moving the ball, but they still trailed by a touchdown, and time was running short.

“We knew we had to lock in, we understood the task at hand,” Franklin-Simpson linebacker-fullback Hayden Satterly said.

Brown did more than lock in.

Brown squared up his opponent and literally ripped the ball out of Arms’ hands. The 5-foot-11, 220-pound F-S senior tucked it away and hit the right sideline in an instant, scoring on a 45-yard return to put the Wildcats comfortably ahead. Both teams got in the end zone once, in the fourth quarter, but it would get no closer as Franklin-Simpson cruised to a gritty 27-14 victory over the Scotties on a warm Friday night at Hank Royse Stadium.

Franklin-Simpson remained unbeaten in seven games while improving to 3-0 in KHSAA Class 3A, 2nd District play. Glasgow dropped to 6-1 and 1-1, respectively, but the Scotties will be a team to watch in the postseason and there’s a chance they could face the Wildcats again, down the road.

Brown was all smiles when it was over, and his teammates and coaches were pretty happy, too.

“I saw (Arms) coming around and I just tried to get in there to make a play,” Brown said. “I realized the ball was in his inside arm, and I pulled it out and started running for my life … I’m not sure I’ve ever run that fast before.

“It happened so fast.”

Brown had already given the Wildcats some big plays, including a couple sacks of Glasgow QB Easton Jessie in the game’s formative moments. But his bash-and-dash was the play that pretty much silenced the Scotties, heading into Fall Break and an open date for virtually all high school teams in South Central Kentucky.

“Tytus Brown was out there, playing like a man-child,” Franklin-Simpson coach Max Chaney said when it was over.

Wildcats quarterback Mathias Dickerson was more effusive.

“Big-time players step up in big-time situations and make big-time plays,” Dickerson said with a smile.

The tradition-rich Wildcats, moving down one classification this year to the Class 3A ranks, use a hard-hitting defense and an efficient Wing-T offensive attack to set the tone and dictate the pace.

“Obviously, Franklin-Simpson was the better team tonight,” Glasgow coach Jeff Garmon said. “What made the difference, if you look at it, is when you turn it over three times, and the other team doesn’t do it once. Then, we muff a punt, drop a TD pass in the end zone, get a penalty for roughing the punter on fourth-and-21 … and the scrum where their kid (Brown) got the ball.”

Glasgow wasted absolutely no time scoring first, striking on the second play from scrimmage.

Junior quarterback Easton Jessie used a deft play fake to freeze the Wildcats’ secondary, and he found freshman wideout Ryder Heller on the deep sideline pattern in front of the F-S bench. Heller hauled in the pass and beat the pursuit down the left sideline for a 68-yard touchdown reception, and Wes Travis’ extra point put the Scotties in front, 7-0, just 20 seconds into the game.

“We had some miscommunication on that play,” Satterly said. “We took responsibility for it, and moved on … We got back in it pretty quick.”

Like, the Wildcats’ first possession.

Senior quarterback Mathias Dickerson and the Wildcats punched out a couple first downs before fading into the pocket for his first pass of the night. He found sophomore F-S running back/safety Brady Delk in the middle of the field for a 32-yard touchdown pass, and Kody Alexander’s PAT tied the game at 7.

Franklin-Simpson missed a field-goal attempt in the final moments of the first quarter, but the Wildcats capitalized on a Glasgow turnover midway through the second period. F-S senior fullback Gavin Dickerson bolted through the teeth of the Scotties’ defense and found the end zone from 16 yards out with 4:42 left in the half, putting the Wildcats in front 14-7.

It would stay that way until Tytus Brown struck for the bash-and-dash that will go down in Franklin-Simpson football lore. The Wildcats have won four KHSAA state championships over the years, including back-to-back 4A titles in 2017 and ’18.

“Tytus Brown is what we call a ‘dawg,'” F-S sophomore free safety Brady Delk said. “I think we played with a lot of confidence tonight.”

Delk, Satterly and Brown are just a few of the Wildcats’ hard-hitting defenders, and fifth-year Franklin-Simpson head coach Max Chaney likes the way they work together.

“We don’t have a lot of kids, on our roster, so we don’t hit much in practice during the week,” Chaney said. “I tell ’em, ‘I’m gonna let you out, on Friday’ … We played complementary football tonight.”

Satterly noted that the Wildcats had several players miss practice this week, because of illness and/or injuries, and that the Joker Phillips Field House on the F-S campus flooded on Thursday morning.

“We had to practice after school, instead of in the morning,” Chaney said.

Glasgow had the aforementioned dropped pass in the end zone just before halftime, and Tytus Brown stopped one drive with a third-down sack of the Scotties’ Easton Jessie. Gavin Neal scored on a 4-yard TD run in the fourth quarter, with Wes Travis’ PAT pulling the Scotties to within 21-14.

The roughing-the-punter penalty, however, kept a Franklin-Simpson drive alive before the Wildcats’ Gavin Dickerson scored on a 7-yard run in the final minute of the game.

“Their kid fumbled the snap, like three times,” Garmon said, “and we had the block on … it was a perfect storm … We had opportunities to make a couple interceptions. We didn’t do the things we needed, to win a football game.”

Both teams will take a week off for Fall Break, with the Wildcats resuming non-district play with nearby rival Greenwood, a Class 5A opponent, while Glasgow will play host to unbeaten Hart County (7-0, 2-0 in KHSAA Class 3A, 2nd District play).

“We’ve got three pretty good teams in our district, three of the better 3A teams in the state, I believe,” Garmon said. “We’ll see how it goes, from here.”

Franklin-Simpson plays host to Hart County on October 20, after the quick trip to Greenwood.

Stay tuned.