SHORT GAP, W.Va. — No. 7 Frankfort used a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns from John Anderson III to pull away from No. 4 North Marion, 41-20. Kevin Whiteman earned his 100th victory as the head coach of the Falcons.
“It means so much to me. Other than my family, this is my baby right here. I have been around some good coaches and some good players. I am very fortunate to be able to do the job I do,” Whiteman said.
Several running backs were required for FHS to secure their most impressive win of the season. Luke Robinette scored a rushing touchdown in the first quarter and Parker VanMeter found the end zone three times on runs of 19, 2 and 2 yards.
“We got in [VanMeter’s] head the whole week and told him how big he needed to be tonight for us to have success. He ran like a bull and played some good defense. But our whole team played really well tonight.”
Frankfort led 13-8 at the end of the first quarter and VanMeter’s second touchdown gave the Falcons a 21-8 halftime lead.
VamMeter’s third rushing touchdown in the third quarter was sandwiched by North Marion (7-2) touchdowns. Casey Minor tossed a 41-yard scoring strike to Parker Kincell and Isaiah Sigley added a 3-yard touchdown run late in the third.
Frankfort responded with a lengthy drive that spilled into the fourth quarter. A 13-play, 64-yard drive chewed up over 7 minutes and was capped by Anderson’s first touchdown run.
“That seven-minute drive was beautiful. The kids were resilient. We fought through a lot of adversity. We were playing without two of our running backs and we were really worried coming in without [Landon] Kisner being in the game. The kids just stepped up and played hard the whole game.”
Anderson put the game out of reach with 3:02 to play with a 26-yard touchdown.
“He is used to making big plays. But coming in and doing some of the stuff he did tonight — I will be honest with you, we did it on the fly at halftime. With a couple backs out, we needed to get him involved more. We came up with some of those formations and adjustments and they worked out.”
The Falcons entered the game ranked sixth in the SSAC ratings. They will conclude their regular season next week against Keyser in the Mineral Bowl.
“We talked about it all week how big it was with two 7-1 teams playing for playoff position. It is huge.”