Ryan Halliday, King Philip defense come up big to beat Franklin

FRANKLIN — While King Philip tries to add a new dimension to its offense, the Warriors still seem to come back to their formula for success.

And that includes making game-changing plays defensively and leaning heavily on senior running back Ryan Halliday, both of which fifth-ranked King Philip did Friday night against No. 14 Franklin.

The Warriors forced three first-half turnovers and Halliday carried the ball 33 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns as King Philip earned its 16th consecutive win over Franklin with a 26-14 victory at Pisini Field.

“We switched up the offense a little bit this year. We’ve been passing a lot,” Halliday said. “But at the end we just played old KP football. Played some nice defense and ran the ball.”

Franklin (2-1) hung around, though, and got within 20-14 late in the third quarter on a 1-yard run by Mack Gulla, but KP (3-0) then turned to its workhorse back to close things out.

On a 74-yard scoring drive that lasted over eight minutes and bridged the third and fourth quarters, Halliday took a handoff on 12 out of 13 plays and capped it off with an 11-yard touchdown run to give KP a 26-14 advantage.

“When you see Ryan going, I don’t really want to switch up anything,” KP coach Brian Lee said.

KP’s defense forced three fumbles in the first half and cashed in on the second one it recovered when Robbie Jarest connected with Brian Wassersug on a 25-yard touchdown to open the scoring.

On the first play of the ensuing series, Franklin’s Thomas Gasbarro (16-for-23, 178 yards) found Cole Lakatos on a 53-yard score, but KP regained the lead with an 11-play, 91-yard drive that ended with Halliday plunging in from the one.

In the final seconds of the second quarter, KP came up with its biggest turnover when Nick Viscusi recovered a fumble on a strip-sack at the Franklin 21.

Then with eight seconds left before the half, Lee entrusted Jarest to have a quick trigger and the senior quarterback did, hitting Andrew McKinney for an 11-yard touchdown and a 20-7 halftime lead.

“(Franklin) had some momentum and that turnover really shifted it and got us going in the right direction,” Halliday said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2mwn8LI