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John Marshall One Score Short Against Still-Streaking Falcons

By NICK HENTHORN 6 min read

MOUNDSVILLE -- With their opponents coming to town with a multi-year, 33-game win streak behind them, the John Marshall Monarchs had a tall task against the Frankfort Falcons, who entered Monarch Stadium on Friday as the No. 1 team in WVSSAC Class AA.

In the end, the Monarchs had their shot, but couldn't hit the bullseye. Down 42-34 with under a minute to play and one timeout, the Monarchs drove down past midfield but fell short against the Falcons, who extended their streak to 34 victories in a row behind a hard-hitting offense that rushed the ball 41 times for 273 yards and six touchdowns.

"That’s what we talk about each week is to have a shot," John Marshall head coach Mark Cisar said after the 42-34 defeat. "And we had our shots."

The game was neck-and-neck Thursday, the score tied on four occasions though John Marshall never led. After three quarters of play, there was one such deadlock, 21-21, but Frankfort's Cole Shanholtz-- who ended as his team's leading rusher with 104 yards and a pair of scores-- scored on a four-yard run to push the Falcons ahead with 9:38 in the fourth.

On the first play back on offense, John Marshall's Dalton Cooper answered, bursting between the tackles and shedding Falcons defenders on his way to the sideline, where he won the footrace for a 69-yard touchdown dash. 28-28 with 9:18 on the clock.

It wasn't the first quick response that Cooper had provided Friday. In the waning minutes of the third quarter, after Frankfort quarterback Austin Twigg had scored on a one-yard plunge, Cooper took the ensuing kickoff return to the house to tie the game 21-21 heading into the fourth.

The junior finished with four total touchdowns-- one kickoff return, one receiving, and two rushing-- along with 173 total yards from scrimmage.

"Dalton Cooper was unbelievable in the backfield, ran hard as heck," Cisar said. "Offensive line played well. We played really well offensively in the second half, did a lot of good things. Linemen up front did great things in a physical game."

After Cooper's 69-yard score, Frankfort went back on the march, and Bradyn Tyler ran in for a six-yard touchdown, his third of the game as the senior rushed for 83 yards.

John Marshall answered, but only by a hair.

Jacob Cisar and Landen Snyder connected for a six-yard fourth down conversion that barely moved the sticks around midfield, and the two hooked up again to end the drive with a 12-yard touchdown throw to the corner of the end zone that required a remarkable contested grab by Snyder, who caught a team-high six passes for JM.

The Monarchs, though, opted to go for two, pulling out a trick play where Cooper received a pitch and sprang up to make a throw himself-- one that fell incomplete. John Marshall trailed 35-34 with 1:51 to play.

"We didn’t come here to tie," Cisar said of the two-point decision. "We came here to try and win. Hindsight, we could have called a better two-point conversion play. We thought they would jump on that. They didn’t. Our kids played extremely hard."

The Monarchs couldn't recover their onside kick attempt, but the Falcons' Shanholtz dashed to the end zone from 25 yards out-- Snyder got ahold of the Frankfort runner in the secondary, but released him to let him score and give the Monarchs offense a chance to go tie the game, now down by eight, 42-34 with 0:57 left.

Starting the drive from their own 40, Jacob Cisar connected with Snyder for six yards, then with Tiler Clemons for 15 and five yards, but the Monarchs were running out of time, and had used their last timeout. A throw down to the one-yard line was intercepted by Peyton Brittingham, icing the game.

Cisar's intercepted heave put a blemish on an otherwise impressive statline-- 14-of-21 passing for 153 yards and two touchdowns, as well as 28 yards rushing. The senior was money on fourth down Friday, a spot where Cisar completed four of five passing attempts for 76 yards and a touchdown, as well as a 15-yard rush to make for five total fourth-down conversions from the signal-caller.

"That’s guts," Cisar said of his QB's performance. "Fourth downs-- we knew we had to go there because we were having trouble stopping them, so we went for it on fourth down several times. Jacob played an outstanding game. I mean, the pick at the end of the game, we were just fortunate to have that chance-- we let them score, they should've gone down. They gave us a shot to get the ball back. We drove down and, yeah, we’re going to throw the ball to the endzone with no timeouts left. But we went down the field and gave ourselves a chance again. There’s a lot of positives to take from tonight."

Frankfort utilized a three-headed monster of Shanholtz, Tyler and Brittingham, who each had success on the ground inside the Falcons' tight running formations with many quick handoffs, motions, and fakes. Against their 41 rushing attempts, Frankfort attempted only 10 passes, with Austin Twigg completing five for 71 yards.

"Very difficult to defend," Cisar said of Frankfort. "We played decent defensively, but they had some big plays. Their first two touchdowns they had, they had two motions that weren’t called. But, that’s how football goes. Two plays they scored on, which could have been penalties. But our kids played extremely tough, and we showed that we got some guts and character to battle back when we were down most of the game. We fought and fought and fought. Pleased with our effort-- obviously, you don’t want an L, but pleased with our effort."

John Marshall, now 5-2, plays their last three regular season games on the road, starting with a tilt against Brooke next week in a game that has major playoff implications in Class AAA.

Frankfort (6-0) will look to make it 35 in a row, returning home to face Petersburg.

Frankfort 42, John Marshall 34

Frankfort 14 0 7 21 -- 42

John Mar 7 0 14 13 -- 34

F--Tyler 45 run (Perdew kick)

JM--Cooper 2 run (Hamrick kick)

F--Tyler 5 run (Perdew kick)

JM--Cooper 24 pass from Cisar (Hamrick kick)

F--A. Twigg 1 run (Perdew kick)

JM--Cooper kickoff return (Hamrick kick)

F--Shanholtz 3 run (Perdew kick)

JM--Cooper 69 run (Hamrick kick)

F--Tyler 6 run (Perdew kick)

JM--Snyder 12 pass from Cisar (pass incomplete)

F--Shanholtz 25 run (Perdew kick)

RUSHING: Frankfort 41-273-6tds (Shanholtz 18-104-2tds; Tyler 10-83-3tds; Brittingham 8-79; A. Twigg 5-7-td). John Marshall 29-180-2tds (Cooper 21-147-2tds; Cisar 6-28; Snyder 2-5).

PASSING: Frankfort 5-10-71 (all by A. Twigg). John Marshall 14-21-153-2tds-1int (all by Cisar).

RECEIVING: Frankfort 5-79 (Brittingham 4-79; Tyler 1-(-8)). John Marshall 14-153-2tds (Snyder 6-48-td; Clemons 5-79; Cooper 3-26-td).

FIRST DOWNS: Frankfort 15; John Marshall 15

PENALTIES: Frankfort 4-31; John Marshall 3-26

FUMBLES: Frankfort 0-0; John Marshall 0-0

Starting at /week.