Pebble Hills came into Thursday's matchup looking for another win against Franklin, but Ernie Powers wouldn't allow it. The Franklin Cougars took down the Pebble Hills Spartans 49-35 on Thursday thanks in part to Powers, who rushed for 408 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 11.0 yards per carry. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 2.1 rushing touchdowns per game.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Franklin's defensive line and their five sacks. Leading the way was Dylan Contreras with three. He also forced afumble, which is notable because Franklin is undefeated when he posts at least one forced fumble, but 3-4 otherwise.
Franklin was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 489 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 184 rushing yards in 16 consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Despite the loss, Pebble Hills still got an impressive performance from Zereian Quarles, who rushed for 165 yards and two touchdowns while picking up 8.3 yards per carry. What's more, he's the contest marked his ninth straight with at least 127. The team also got some help courtesy of Joe Fernandez, who threw for 167 yards and three touchdowns.
Franklin is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 6-4 record this season. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 35.5 points per game. As for Pebble Hills, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 5-5.
Franklin and Pebble Hills could both be facing uphill battles in their next games considering their disadvantage in the MaxPreps Texas Rankings. Franklin (ranked 405th) will meet Midland Legacy (ranked 83rd) at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. Similarly, Pebble Hills (ranked 350th) will meet Midland (ranked 123rd) at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
