Published: October 24, 2009 01:13 am      

Kings crush Eagles

Fast-starting Cass puts Frankton away early

WALTON — Prior to Friday, the Frankton Eagles had never set foot on Owens Memorial Field, nor had they ever faced Lewis Cass on any gridiron.

Chances are, they won’t be in a hurry to do either again any time soon.

The Kings’ Derrick Worden returned the Class 2A Sectional 28 opening kickoff 85 yards to paydirt and set the tone here on Friday night, as Cass rolled to a 31-0 whitewashing of the Eagles.

No. 9-ranked Cass (7-3) advances to the sectional semifinal round with the win, where it will host Tipton (8-2).

“It was big to take the opening kickoff in for a score,” said Cass coach Scott Mannering. “When we needed to get things done [Friday], we did. I thought that we beat a team that we were probably superior to. We did a good job of putting them away early, because the second half was kind of ragged.”

The Kings’ play before intermission was anything but ragged. Worden followed up his kickoff return with a seven-yard touchdown scamper that put Cass up 14-0 just three minutes into the contest, and Josh Knutson’s 55-yard romp early in the second period staked the Kings to a 21-0 lead. Worden added an interception, one of three defensively on the evening for Cass, later in quarter two to pad his box score. Knutson finished the game with 96 total yards on just seven touches.

“They jumped on us quick and we couldn’t recover,” said Frankton coach Otis Cress. “We fought and I thought our kids played hard, but we were shorthanded and playing a lot of guys both ways. We were on the short end of the field position battle most of the night and that makes it tough. [Cass] is a good team and I can see why they were runner-up in the state last year.”

The Kings, who compiled all of their 31 markers in the first half of play, made the score 28-0 at 4:13 of the second quarter on Damon Foreman’s nine-yard touchdown strike to Cody Larimore in the north end zone. David Watterson’s 28-yard field goal with less than a minute remaining was the final Cass tally.

Frankton punted eight times in the game while Cass didn’t once kick the ball away until the 3:42 mark of the third quarter. Frankton penetrated as far as the Kings’ 35-yard line in the final period but could get no farther. The Eagles rushed the ball 30 times for a total of negative three yards on the night.

Mannering’s club, which earned a share of its second consecutive Mid-Indiana Conference title last week and also seeks a third straight sectional crown, now turns its attention to Tipton.

“The last time we played [Tipton] was in 1997,” Mannering said. “They were good then and they’re solid now. They are battle-tested and are traditionally a physical football team. We’re going to have to play our best.”

Frankton finished the season at 3-7.