Lexington 8th grader, Alberto Lara, is headed to the end zone. PHOTO BY MARK STRAIN. The 8th grade Lexington Eagles kicked off to the Franklin Lions to start the game. Franklin took the ball and ran, ran, ran, until they finally scored. Another run and the Lions were up 8-0 with 5:26 in the first. Lexington took the kick off and took two plays before #8 QB Alberto Lara went left for 75 yards to score for the Eagles. The extra point conversion pass attempt was dropped and Franklin still led 8-6. Lexington kicked off and Franklin took over on their own 35 yard line. After Lexington scoring in just two plays, Franklin decided to do it in one. They pitched the ball left and the back fled 65 yards to score again. However, it all came back for a holding call against Franklin. They set up on Lexington’s 42 yard line and this time they pitched it to the back going right and he took it all the way to score. Another 2 point conversion and the Lions were up 16-6 with 2:33 in the first. Franklin kicked off to Lexington, who started out on the Franklin 46 yard line. The Lion defense held and Lexington set up to punt; instead, #8 Lara pulled the punt down and threw the pass to a streaking open wide receiver. The ball was dropped and the Lions took over on downs. The first quarter ended with Franklin in control of the ball.

Franklin started the second quarter with a 42 yard reverse that was called back for holding. Eventually with a fourth and one, Franklin ran 44 yards to score for their third time of the night. With a good 2 point conversion, the new score was 24-6. At this point, the clock was running almost non-stop regardless of down, pass or out of bounds. Lexington took over at their own 48 yard line. #8 Lara ran the ball for 33 yards, setting up a first and 10 on the Franklin 15 yard line. After a few more plays #8 Lara punched the ball across again, changing the score to 24-12. Lara went up the middle for the 2 point conversion to make the score 24-14 with 1:06 left in the half. After Franklin got the ball back, they began running the ball and capped the drive with a nice long run to score again with 36 seconds left in the half. The extra point conversion failed. During the ensuing kick off, apparently the Franklin coaches instructed the kicker to kick the ball away from Lexington’s #8 Alberto Lara. The Lion kicker lined up to kick to the left since Lara was on the right. Lara quickly moved to the right. The Lion kicker hesitated, readjusted and lined up to kick it to the left. Lara quickly moved left and this stymied the Lion kicker again. Eventually, the ball was kicked and the half ended with Lexington in control.

Lexington took the opening kick off and the Lions chose to kick it shallow instead of kicking it to #8 Lara. #10 Jay Cooper covered the ball on the 35 Lexington’s 35 yard line. Lexington used most of the third period to drive the ball down the field with combination runs between #8 Lara and #10 Cooper. Lexington stalled and the ball went back to Franklin on their own 10 yard line. Franklin held the ball for 1:13 seconds to end the third quarter.

First play of the fourth quarter Franklin took the ball and ran 97 yards to score again making the new score 36- 14 after a failed extra point attempt. The Franklin kicker decided to kick it deep where #8 Lara caught the ball and returned it all the way back to the Franklin 34 yard line to start the next possession. Lexington was held on three and punted the ball all the way to the Franklin 5 yard line. The Lion back caught the ball, started right, went back to his left, went back to the right before he finally took off and went 95 yards to score on a punt return. However, there was a FLAG on the field. It was holding against Franklin, but that didn’t stop Franklin from going 91 yards to score again and make the final score 42-14, with the 2 point conversion.