Football concludes spring season by losing on road to Franklin

FRANKLIN, Ind. – In its final game of the 2021 spring season on Saturday afternoon, the Defiance College football squad traveled to play the Franklin College Grizzlies in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference contest and left Faught Stadium with a 31-18 defeat.

On the game's first snap, Ja'qway Janvier intercepted a pass, giving Defiance the ball at Franklin's 38-yard line. On the ninth play of the drive, Tyshaun Freeman scored a touchdown on a 5-yard run as the Yellow Jackets led, 6-0, just 4:03 into the contest.

Late in the opening quarter, DC threatened to score again but had a pass intercepted at the goal line.

Defiance held the six-point advantage after one period before the Grizzlies got on the scoreboard two plays into the second quarter. A 20-yard touchdown pass play and an extra point put FC on top, 7-6.

A fumble by the Yellow Jackets on the ensuing kickoff gave the hosts good field position, but the DC defense allowed only four yards on four plays to keep Franklin from scoring.

The Grizzlies increased their lead, however, to 14-6 with 7:50 left in the second period.

With 1:24 to go before the intermission, Defiance's Rigo Villa forced a fumble that was recovered by teammate Daniel Budwah, setting up a late first-half touchdown drive that covered 40 yards. As time expired in the opening half, Daylon Lange threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Amison as the Yellow Jackets trimmed their deficit to 14-12 at halftime.

After DC lost a fumble on the kickoff to start the second half, its defense held and then came up with another turnover in the third quarter when Marcell Maxwell intercepted a pass inside the red zone to prevent FC from adding points to the board.

Franklin responded by blocking a punt, though, that gave the Grizzlies the ball at Defiance's 9-yard line. On the next snap, FC was in the end zone on a run and added the point-after for a 21-12 advantage.

One minute into the final quarter, the Yellow Jackets' Machari Bighams pulled in a 17-yard touchdown pass from Lange as DC climbed to within 21-18.

The hosts answered quickly as two plays later, they connected on a touchdown pass of 57 yards and the lead went to 28-18.

Franklin added a 25-yard field goal with 8:25 remaining to conclude the scoring before Defiance went 62 yards in 10 plays to the Grizzlies' 20-yard line, but gave the ball up on downs.

The Yellow Jackets finished with 387 total yards and 19 first downs to FC's 327 and 16, respectively. Each team was guilty of five penalties and Franklin was credited with seven sacks while DC had two. Defiance was limited to 80 rushing yards.

Lange posted season highs by completing 22-of-36 passes for 307 yards to lead the Yellow Jackets offensively. Amison had his best game of the campaign with six receptions for 143 yards while Bighams and Salah Edwards each grabbed five passes.

On defense for DC, Richard Pope IV shined with 12 total tackles, including seven solos, 3.5 for loss and 1.5 sacks. Alijah Fleming tallied nine total tackles while Gashawn Moody had seven with a forced fumble.

The Yellow Jackets finish the spring season at 2-5 overall and in HCAC play while the Grizzlies end at 4-3.