The regular season begins for the Panthers and the Wildcats on the Smurf Turf at Warren East in the opener of the J. Allen Builders Bowl Friday night at 6:00. The Class 6A Daviess County Panthers are coming off a 6-6 campaign last season which ended with a 36-6 loss to Central Hardin in the second round of the playoffs. Franklin-Simpson finished 9-3 last year with a heartbreaking 23-22 loss in the second round of the 3A playoffs at Union County. The Wildcats went for two and the win after a late TD against the Braves but their pass was batted away. 
 

Franklin-Simpson returns most of their core from last season.  Two-year starting QB Mathias Dickerson graduated and he will be replaced by Junior Brady Delk. Brady made a couple of starts his freshman year when Mathias missed a couple of games and Brady played very well. He has been very impressive in the scrimmages so far, as he really threw only one bad pass in each outing. He does not have the size and strength as a runner that Mathias had, but he seems to be a more consistently accurate passer. Wingbacks Senior Colin Anderson and Junior Blake McPherson return as does Senior fullback Layne Alford. All three have seen significant playing time since their freshman seasons. FS will continue to use its Wing-T attack. The Wildcats handled Ohio County eight TDs to none in their first scrimmage, and the varsity beat Green County’s varsity 28-0 counting all varsity action in last night’s scrimmage. 
 

I don’t know much at all about Daviess County this season. Going only by comparative scores from last season leads me to expect FS to be the favorite in this game. The Panthers won the only matchup between these two teams, at least since 1998, with a 25-20 victory in 2008. I think FS will win by about two touchdowns. 

Pulling for the Wildcats in this one!

This will now be the second game of the night after the Warren East-Christian County game which will kickoff at 6:00. FS and DC will start around 8:30 or so. 

I think we are going to have a stream too:

https://stfanclub.com/live/

fschannel9.com will have a livestream with WFKN radio audio for the FS commentary. 

FS is a very solid team. They have some really good athletes and the QB throws a very good and accurate ball.
They swarm the football on defense and run the offense very efficiently. I don’t know much about Davies’s County, but give me FS by 1-2 scores. 

Daviess County wins the toss and defers. FS to receive. 

Blake McPherson takes the opening kickoff back to the DC 25 and a few plays later Layne Alford dives in from the 1. FS 7-0 at 9:48 in first. 

After trading punts, Jaxon Gass intercepts a DC pass and takes it to the Panthers 4. 

Layne Alford with his second 1 yard TD run. FS 14-0 at 3:06 in first. 

After several punts back and forth FS will start at its own 11 leading 14-0 at 4:42 in second. 

Daviess County picks off an FS pass in the end zone just before the half. 
 

Halftime FS leads 14-0. 

FS defense is playing very well, they’ve given up maybe 50 yards in the first half, mostly on one running play with some missed tackles. FS passing game has not been very good at all, some overthrows and some drops. Running game is solid but no big plays yet. First game jitters hopefully. Daviess County’s defense has played pretty good as they’ve haven’t given up many big plays. 

McPherson intercepts the Panther pass and returns it to the DC 39. 

Alford with his third 1 yard TD run of the night. FS 21-0 at 7:02 in third.