Franklin Wins First Football Title Behind Performance of Murphy
The Franklin Lions defeated the Gunter Tigers 49-35 in the UIL 3AD2 Football Championship game Thursday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington in front of a crowd of 11,700.
With the game tied at 35 after three quarters of play, the Franklin Lions turned to senior RB/DB Malcolm Murphy and he delivered in a major way.
On Franklin’s first two plays of the fourth quarter Murphy rushed for long touchdowns of 61 and 86 yards and then intercepted a pass to end a Gunter drive.
Murphy was named the game’s offensive MVP with 280 yards rushing on 15 carries and 4 touchdowns.
Colby Smith was named the game’s defensive MVP with 11 tackles and an interception.
Gunter spread the ball around with four runners rushing for between 46 and 61 yards (Ethan Sloan 46, Brayden Hinton 53, Hudson Graham 57, Saul Rodriguez 61).
For the game Franklin recorded 523 total yards (all rushing) and Gunter recorded 386 total yards (237 rush, 149 pass).
