FRANKFORT — Led by a pair of sophomores, North Montgomery scored 22 unanswered points on Friday night to win 22-12 at Frankfort.
Ross Dyson and Austin Sulc were a pair of work-horses for a Charger offense that sputtered out of the gate, but tallied 290 rushing yards on 58 carries. Dyson led the way with 155 yards on 25 carries, while Sulc added 149 on 25 rushes.
“I thought our offensive line did great, especially in the second half I thought we did great at owning the line of scrimmage,” North Montgomery coach Josh Thompson said. “But our backs were running hard too, and when we are able to get multiple people the ball, I think good things are going to happen.”
The offensive success came after the Chargers had dug a 12-0 hole.
Frankfort senior Vlad Carreras recovered a fumble and returned it 35 yards for a score on the second play of the game to make it 6-0. The Hot Dogs added a touchdown on a Sam Michael 6-yard touchdown run that made it 12-0 with 3:25 left in the first quarter.
After a lost fumble for the Chargers on their final possession of the first quarter, Dyson entered the game at quarterback and the sophomore tandem in the backfield took over the game.
North Montgomery drove 63 yards in 3:55 that led to a 14-yard touchdown pass from Dyson to senior Donavan Haworth.
Frankfort led 12-6 at the half, but the Chargers dominated the game the final 24 minutes.
“I’m definitely proud of the way our kids responded after being done 12-0,” Thompson added. “We started off the game horribly giving up the strip-sack for a touchdown, and then we stalled out and let them score again. But our kids came back and played. We came in at halftime and told our kids that we needed to come out and execute and we will be fine in the second half, and they did. We played hard the entire game. I don’t doubt our effort tonight.”
It took just two second half drives by North Montgomery to change the entire game. Dyson took it in from 9-yards out and scored the conversion to make it 14-12 with 1:20 left in the third quarter. And after Haworth forced a fumble that was recovered by Gabe Laws just plays later, Laws punched it in from 2-yards out and scored the conversion to make a two-score game with 9:22 to play.
After 137 yards of offense in the first half for the Hot Dogs, North Montgomery held Frankfort to just 93 yards in the second half. Doug Wood led the Hot Dog passing attack with a 13-of-22 night for 143 yards and rushed it nine times for 50 yards. Riley Goodnight was the leading receiver with six catches for 73 yards.
North Montgomery is now 3-3 overall and 2-3 in the Sagamore Conference, while Frankfort falls to 2-5 and 0-5 in league play. The Chargers welcome Danville in week 9, while the Hot Dogs travel to Crawfordsville.
