Franklinville/Ellicottville’s Logan Grinols pitches to Lucas Marsh before a 44-yard touchdown pass to Logan Frank during the Titans’ 28-0 win over Randolph on Friday evening in Randolph. P-J photo by Jay Young

RANDOLPH — Throughout Friday night’s Class D matchup Franklinville/Ellicottville was better than Randolph where it often counts the most — in the trenches.

Despite suffering from a rash of penalties in the first half of play, the visiting Titans (3-1, 3-0) were able to grind their way to a 28-0 win over the Cardinals (1-2, 1-1) on the back of offensive and defensive line play.

“We had the whole week, so we had a chance to prepare and do everything right,” Randolph head coach Brent Brown said, one week removed from a last-minute rescheduling against Clymer/Sherman/Panama. “They took it to us in the trenches. Their linemen beat our linemen. That is how the game goes. We were close a few times, but couldn’t sustain anything. They penetrated. The penetration killed us.”

Both teams began their nights with quick three-and-outs, but Franklinville/Ellicottville won the field position matchup early when Logan Frank struck a punt that was downed at the 2-yard line to pin the Cardinals deep in their own half.

Getting the ball back after a quick series by the hosts, the Titans picked up a fresh set of downs at the opposing 30-yard line, but quickly gave up some ground with a holding penalty.

Wyatt Chudy started his night out with a 20-yard catch from Logan Frank to put the Titans into the red zone. Frank then grabbed a fresh set of downs with a 5-yard run, opting to hand the ball off the Clayton Rowland on the ensuing play for a 5-yard scoring run.

Drawing attention from opposing defenders all night as a runner and a thrower, Frank did damage not only with the ball in his hands but with well-timed fakes and options to his running backs.

“Logan is just a great athlete. He works hard and is a good team player,” Titans head coach Jason Marsh said. “He really has come a long ways as a player. You know, the throwing game was there tonight, he threw some really nice balls. He had good protection from the offensive line. He draws a lot of attention, and our running backs are doing a great job. Clayton Rowland and Wyatt Chudy are two really good running backs as well that we haven’t heard a lot about. Tonight I thought those two guys also played an excellent game. Those three guys together are a great combination.”

The Titans would take an 8-0 lead, opting to go for 2 after an encroachment penalty on the extra-point try, with Frank banging home the conversion.

On the following possession it looked as though the Titans might give a touchdown right back to the hosts, as they picked up back-to-back unsportsmanlike penalties to gift Randolph 30 yards of field position.

The Cardinals would work their way all the way to the 15-yard line, but on fourth-and-2 Luke Pagett fumbled a carry that was grabbed by Rowland to undo the momentum shift.

Despite moving the ball well on their third series of the night, the Titans continued to suffer from penalty trouble with a personal foul and an offsides call.

Those miscues were all undone early in the second quarter however, when Marsh opted to call a fake reverse passing play. Taking the ball with defenders lined up in front of him, Lucas Marsh was able to hit Frank with a wide-open throw down the right sideline for a 44-yard catch and run to the end zone.

“You work on it and practice and it looks good, it doesn’t always look that way in the game, but the kids executed it well tonight,” Marsh said. “We were backed up, had kind of a long-yardage-type situation. We thought, hey if it is going to work, it might work now. Especially because we thought they might bite up on the reverse. It just was open, the kids executed really well.”

Showing off his running and catching abilities in the first half, Frank transitioned to pocket-passer in the third quarter, hitting Marsh with and eight-yard throw for the third score of the night.

Grinols would add the final score of the game with a 10-yard run with 5:09 remaining in the fourth.

“We really thought Randolph was a physical football team, and we knew we were going to have to match their intensity and match their physicality,” Marsh said. “If we could do that we thought we would be able to move the ball. Our kids executed really well on the offensive line, played great up front tonight. That is really what we thought was the key to the game, to match their intensity.”

The Titans would post 310 yards of offense to 162 for Randolph, with Frank going 5 of 6 through the air for 77 yards and a score, in addition to 19 carries for 84 yards.

Rowland would rush the ball 15 times for 82 yards and Grinols three times for 16 yards.

Sophomore Xander Hind would put in a strong effort on the ground for Randolph, rushing 25 times for 118 yards. Cardinals quarterback Ashton Bushey was sidelined for portions of the night with injury, as was running back Isaac Hind.

“His brother (Isaac) was on a concussion protocol and was just cleared yesterday, so we didn’t want him back there,” Brown said. “So Xander did a little bit more of it.

“Xander is a good runner, just a 10th-grader,” Brown added. “He does a good job.”

Frank added five tackles and three assists and Chudy five tackles and two assists on defense, while Jaiden Huntington led Randolph with eight tackles.

FRANKLINVILLE/ELLICOTTVILLE 8 7 6 7 — 28

RANDOLPH 0 0 0 0 — 0

F/E–Rowland 4 run (Frank run)

F/E–Frank 44 pass from Marsh (Butler kick)

F/E–Marsh 8 pass from Frank (kick failed)

F/E–Grinols 10 run (Butler kick)