Sep. 3—ROMNEY, W.V.a. — Tyrique Powell had 140 rushing yards in the first half, leading the Frankfort Falcons to a 50-3 win over the Hampshire Trojans Friday at Rannells Field.
“I’m proud of the kids for their effort,” Frankfort head coach Kevin Whiteman said. “We minimized the mistakes that we made last week so that’s a good thing in the positive direction. I hate these kind of games, I despise them. Hampshire’s young and they’ll get better.”
Powell was the story of the first half. He had 80 yards in the first quarter and 140 by halftime with two touchdowns. His first came with 20 seconds remaining in the first quarter from 21 yards out. With 5:39 left before halftime he found a hole up the middle and took it 62 yards to the house.
“They did awesome,” Powell said on his offensive line. “Honestly, I might buy them donuts after this.”
Landen Kinser dropped the snap on the extra point but was able to throw a two-point conversion to Kaiden McKenzie.
“I would never go for two, it was a bad snap,” Whiteman said. “The kids are taught to pick it up and yell fire and that’s what we did. That was just a bad snap, we definitely weren’t going for two.”
The Falcons decided to try a 31-yard field goal on first down with 2:45 left. The kick went about halfway into the end zone. Whiteman said he did it out of sportsmanship.
“I’ve never coached to run the score up and embarrass another team,” he said. “I know some people probably don’t think that but that’s definitely the case.”
Parker VanMeter also made an impact for Frankfort. He scored two touchdowns in the first half, including a 21-yarder with 8:42 left in the half.
Luke Robinette got the scoring started for the Falcons. With 9:44 in the first quarter, he scored from a yard out on a quarterback sneak.
The Trojans couldn’t get much going on offense in the first half. Eversole was 7-for-13 for 23 yards and also threw an interception to Robinette. Their leading rusher was Brennan Bricker with five rushes for nine yards. Hampshire combined for 16 rushing yards in the first half while Frankfort piled up 201.
“We gotta get healthy, we gotta get better in preparing for next week,” Hampshire head coach Aaron Rule said. “Our guys gotta soak it in, they gotta watch game film to see what we were doing wrong and where they made their mistakes.”
The mistakes continued for the Trojans in the second half. On the opening kickoff, Hampshire let the ball bounce and Alex Smith recovered it for the Falcons at the 23. Two plays later, Kinser walked in from six yards out.
Eversole found Caleb Vandevander over the middle for 37 yards. It set up a 31-yard field goal by Bryson Richardson that prevented the shutout.
“We got a pretty good kicker and an excellent field goal team so we went with that,” Rule said. “We wanted to have a positive note to go out on.”
Smith added another touchdown for Frankfort in the fourth quarter as he ran 34 yards down the left sideline.
For Frankfort, Robinette went 3-for-3 for 96 yards. He also rushed three times for 27 yards and a touchdown. He also intercepted one pass on defense.
Rocky Fontenot had five rushes for 44 yards. Kinser had two rushes for 12 and a score. Smith had six carries for 50 yards and a score. Anderson III led the team with two catches for 76 yards. Powell also recovered a fumble on special teams.
“He works very hard in the weight room,” Whiteman said about Powell. “He loves football. I’m really proud of the way he runs.”
For Hampshire, Eversole, a freshman playing in his second varsity game, finished 10-for-15 with 86 yards and an interception. Zander Robinson had two rushes for 26 yards which led the team. Vandevander had four catches for 42 yards. On defense, Hayden Haslacker had one sack.
“I walked in the room and I took full blame,” Rule said. “I told them that I, as a head coach, I’d rather have them more prepared and I apologized to them and I told them I let them down. I just gotta get them better prepared week in and week out.”
Hampshire will face Rock Ridge from Ashburn, Virginia, at home in Romney, West Virginia while Frankfort visits Washington in Charles Town, West Virginia on Friday. Both games kick at 7 p.m.
“The road’s gonna get tough,” Whiteman said. “We got some tough games coming up and we’re not world beaters. We’re doing a good job and we’re working hard, but we’re definitely not world beaters.”
Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @JKendallCTN.
