Healthy Pike too much for Franklin Central

By Mark Ambrogi
mark.ambrogi@indystar.com

When Pike High School's receivers were hit hard by injuries early in the season, Red Devils football coach Derek Moyers told the defensive players the team had to rely on them.

"They took that to heart," Moyers said.

Again Friday night the defense was the difference as the hosts topped Franklin Central 17-7 in Conference Indiana action.

"We knew we had eight starters coming back and we were going to be a good strong unit," said Moyers, whose Class 5A No. 8 Red Devils improved to 8-1 and 7-0 in conference. "And they haven't disappointed. Even in the loss to Center Grove, they played really well. The offense put them in the bad spots. You can't say enough about Blake Riley, Evan Moncrief, D.J. Lawson and Steffon Martin. Those are our leaders on defense."

Franklin Central closed the regular season with a 4-5 record and 3-4 mark.

The Red Devils, who led 7-0 at halftime, started slowly offensively with no first downs on their first two possessions.

"We had to hold some guys out for discipline issues for the first quarter so that held us at bay a little bit," Moyers said. "But we felt if we took care of responsibilities and did our job, we'd be able to function efficiently and effectively.

"We maybe could have gotten more (points) in the second half, but we played conservatively. Injuries have been huge for us this year and we wanted to come out OK."

Junior running back Cameron Crabtree appeared healthier after seeing limited action due to ankle injury the past two games. Crabtree led the Red Devils with 111 yards on 21 carries.

"We got him back this week and he still isn't full strength, but he wanted to go and we said OK," Moyers said. "When he gets full strength, we'll be rolling."

Crabtree had consecutive runs of 13, 12 and 9 yards to help Pike to a 26-yard field goal by Taylor Kerr in the fourth quarter. That made it 17-0.

"We saw something we liked and we kept going to it and going to it until they stopped it," Crabtree said. "Overall, we did pretty good (offensively). We had a slow start but then picked it up at the end."

Pike junior quarterback Grant Kitcoff had touchdown passes of 13 yards to Dyuan Lewis in the second quarter and 30 yards to Anthony McClung in the third.

"Coach Moyers just called the right play at the right time and I just came through for my team," McClung said.

Franklin Central didn't score until late in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run by Brett Massengale.

The Flashes did make the Red Devils sweat a bit after they recovered the onside kick. But linebacker Riley intercepted a pass.

Pike moved backward, thanks to a huge sack. A short punt gave the Flashes the ball back on the Red Devils 22 with less than seconds left. But time ran out with the Flashes on the 5-yard line.

[chart]
||||||||
|Franklin Central|0|0|0|7|--|7|
|Pike|0|7|7|3|--|17|
[end chart]

P -- Dyjuan Lews 13 pass from Grant Kitcoff (Taylor Kerr kick)

P -- Anthony McClung 30 pass from Kitcoff (Kerr kick)

P -- FG Kerr 26

FC -- Brett Massengale 1 run (Phillip Reynolds kick)

[chart]
||FC|Pike|
|First Downs|16|14|
|Rushes-Yards|35-114|27-109|
|Passing Yards|111|144|
|Comp-Att-Int|13-22-1|12-23-0|
|Fumbles-Lost|1-0|3-1|
|Penalties-Yards|5-49|9-85|
|Punts-Avg.|6-25.8|6-29.8|
[end chart]

Rushing -- Franklin Central: C.J. Williams 28-86, Massengale 5-21, Mark Schroeder 3-7. Pike: Cameron Crabtree 21-111, Steffon Martin 1-40, McClung 1-5, Andre Moore 1-3, Kitcoff 3-(-50).

Passing -- Franklin Central: Massengale 13-22-1, 111 yards. Pike: Kitcoff 12-23-0, 144.

Receiving -- Franklin Central: Damon Smith 6-79, Nate Odle 4- 23, Scroeder 3-9. Pike: Jeffrey Harmon 4-44, McClung 3-43, Lewis 3-30, Crabtree 2-27.

Missed Field Goals -- Frankin Central: Reynolds, 29.