Indians ‘don’t know how to lose’
With no returning offensive starters, No. 4 Franklin climbed back to title game
Franklin seniors Michael Gibson and Josh Turner knew when the season started that most outsiders didn’t believe the Indians football team could win their region, much less go all the way to the state final.
A strong senior class had graduated, including three-time Baltimore Sun AllMetro athlete Steven Smothers, a big playmaker now at West Virginia. Not a single starter returned on offense and only four linebackers, including Gibson and Turner, returned on defense. From the outside, the forecast for December seemed bleak.
“The key thing was to take the doubt and use it, people hating on us, saying we’re not going to make it, saying we don’t have Steven so we’re not going to win anymore,” Gibson said. “After the loss to Dundalk [in last year’s region final], we were so happy to beat them. That was our first goal. The big goal was to get here.”
Now, the No. 4 Indians (11-1) are right back where they want to be, playing defending champion Damascus (13-0) for the Class 3A state championship tonight at 7 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Franklin’s Michael Gibson scores against Glenelg in the Class 3A semifinal. The Indians will face Damascus tonight in Annapolis for the state title. GAME PREVIEW, PG 4 in Annapolis. After falling to then-No. 1 McDonogh in the season opener, Franklin has won 11 straight games, including back-to-back — the regular-season finale and region semifinal — over 2015 state finalist Dundalk by a combined 72-7.
“The kids here don’t know how to lose, really,” Turner said. “Ever since everybody’s been on this team at Franklin, we have not had a losing season, so it’s championship or bust, basically. Every- body’s goal is to win one game each week. We don’t expect to lose much, so the mindset is just to come out and win every weekend.”
Even with all that motivation, it was an uphill climb for the Indians to post their11th straight winning season and get back to the state final for the fourth time since 2010.
Early on, everything that could go wrong seemed to.
The Indians had expected one starter to return on offense: senior running back Sam Botchway. But in summer 7-on-7, he suffered a severe ankle injury and was lost for the season. Then in the first scrimmage, junior quarterback Larry Smith broke the index finger on his throwing hand.
In late August, Franklin lost two days of practice because Baltimore County officials began closing the county’s non-airconditioned schools, including Franklin, on hot days. Teams at seven non-airconditioned schools weren’t allowed to practice on those days. Two weeks later, on Sept. 8 and 9, schools were again closed because of heat and the Indians had to cancel their Week 2 game, dropping to a nine-game regular-season schedule.
All the while, however, coach Anthony Burgos and his staff were assembling the engine that would allow only one team to score more than one touchdown through the Indians’ past 11 games. They won their three playoff games by a combined 97-14.
Although inexperienced, this Indians team retained one critical Franklin trademark: team speed.
“You can’t coach speed,” Burgos said, “so having guys who can really run and can fly around the field is always a great thing to have. That’s kind of what we’ve started here is we have speed on top of speed. When you have guys who can be difference-makers right away, that’s special.”
Another key was plugging Turner in at quarterback. While he didn’t have the arm for the long ball that Smith has, he could run and he could pass. Another was using Gibson, an All-Metro linebacker last season, in as many ways as possible on offense.
In the 34-14 loss to McDonogh, the potential was already evident.
“We left the McDonogh game feeling from an offensive standpoint and a defensive standpoint that we held our own,” said Burgos, in his 15th season. “We really saw we could do some special things offensively. We felt Josh was doing some good things. He was able to extend some plays; he was able to move and run with the ball. At that point, we just said, ‘OK, let’s just figure out the pieces that we have and we can maximize getting Michael the ball as much as possible.’ ”
Gibson ran, caught and returned for 1,436 all-purpose yards and19 touchdowns.
“Mike takes a lot of pressure off everybody else,” Turner said. “He makes everybody very comfortable, because you know he can make something happen.”
Perhaps the game that showed the Indians hadn’t lost any ground was their 24-20 win over Baltimore County rival Milford Mill, the favorite to win the county’s Division I and the Class 3A North region, on Oct. 7.
Franklin got off to a slow start, but Turner threw for 199 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for the winner — a 2-yard burst — with 2:32 left in the game.
The Indians were growing up fast, especially freshman offensive linemen Shawan Lewis and Isaiah Lewis (no relation) and senior running back Justin Spence, who stepped into Botchway’s role and ran for nearly 500 yards.
Smith returned. He and Turner began sharing time. While Turner has thrown for 1,385 yards and 19 touchdowns, Smith has thrown for 598 and nine touchdowns in seven games. Turner has also gained 538 rushing yards and scored 10 touchdowns.
“It makes us much more dynamic,” said Turner, who was happy to see Smith return. “He can sling the ball deep and that makes a team have to really game-plan against us. Put me in, and I can run. Put Larry in, and he can throw deep.”
They have plenty of receivers, too, as 16 players have caught passes and eight have scored touchdowns. Gibson leads the way with 33 catches and 10 touchdowns while A’ssanti Kearney has caught 27 passes with five touchdowns and Andreus Price has caught 21 passes with four touchdowns.
The veteran linebackers — Gibson, Price, Aaron Webb and Jay Thompson — with defensive lineman Antonio McNeely, who played a lot last season, led a defense that has allowed just three rushing touchdowns all season while making 48 sacks, intercepting 19 passes, deflecting 28 passes and recovering 16 fumbles.
Now, the Indians face their most formidable challenge of the season in Damascus, a team they beat in the 2014 championship game. But only two players — Gibson and reserve senior linebacker Ryan Claggett — were on that team that rallied from 21 points down to win, 35-21. In last year’s final, the Hornets rolled over Dundalk, 55-14.
“The biggest challenge for our defense is to stop their run game,” said Gibson, whose team shut out Glenelg’s 2,400-yard rusher, Wande Owens, and held the Gladiators to 38 rushing yards until the final drive of the 30-7 state semifinal win.
“We want [Damascus] to throw and we can stop that, too,” Gibson added. “They’ve got a lot of counters and stuff, but we’ve just got to believe in each other and everybody do their part.”