top of page
Oilers 63, Knights 3

Logan Heath (pictured) was the star of stars as Oil City trounced Franklin, 63-3, Friday for its 10th straight victory over the Knights.

The Oilers spotted Franklin a 3-0 lead early on freshman Jacob Fleming’s 19-yard field goal, but that advantage was quickly erased when Heath answered with the first of his three touchdowns on a 95-yard kickoff return.

Heath later scored TDs on two passes, one from Bryce Marchinke covering 17 yards and the other from Alex McIntyre good for 33. That made Heath player of the game in the minds of many.

Oil City led 34-3 at intermission and put the mercy rule into effect when Dylan Van Wormer hit paydirt from 57 early in the second half.

Carter Thompson, who finished with an estimated 170 yards, scored twice, one TD coming on a 1-yard run and the other from 63 yards out.

Before that Blake Stevens blocked a punt and recovered in the end zone (31 yards) for the Oilers’ second TD of the game.

Oil City came up empty on PATs after its first two TDs, but converted one after the third on a pass from Marchinke to freshman Clark Findlay, whose running proved to be effective later in the game (3/32).

Thompson added two conversions on a run and a kick, and McIntyre found Matthew Antrilli for another after his TD pass to Heath.

After Marchinke’s scoring pass to Heath late in the first half made it 28-3, the Oilers tried an onsides kick – and recovered. A 29-yard pass to Carter Bialo and a 19-yard run to Thompson led to Thompson’s second touchdown and a 34-3 halftime lead.

And then after it became 41-3, the remainder of the Oiler scoring came from deep off the bench. Owen McCullough contributed a 30-yard Pick 6 off backup QB Austin Brown and Declan Cunningham tallied the game’s final TD on a 7-yard scamper with a pass from Skylar Hanlon to Joey Palczar accounting for the PAT. 

Franklin mounted little offense; Caden Mincer carried the ball maybe seven times for maybe 25 yards.

The Knights did use a 26-yard pass from Harrison Doty to Anthony Martin to the 4 to set up Fleming’s field goal. A 23-yard pass to Freddie Blackhurst resulted in a fumble. But that was after the Oilers had taken the 41-3 lead.

Logan Heath copy.jpeg
tuba_edited.jpg
IMG_1845.jpeg

This is the tuba the late James Self  of Hollywood fame donated to OCHS, his alma mater. (Kelly Malek)

Mincer2.JPG

Photo by Christy Fackler

A LISTERS

Image 12.jpeg
Knox.jpg

Heading into the 2026 season Oil City's Ethen Knox is 10th in rushing and Franklin's Ian Haynes is 12th in passing on Pennsylvania's all-time lists.

One little discrepancy: I have Knox with 7,870 yards.​

Haynes_edited_edited_edited.jpg
IMG_1393.jpeg

ABOUT THIS SITE

If you are from Anywhere, USA, and happened to stumble upon this site, Franklin and Oil City are about eight miles apart along Route 8 in Venango County, Pa. -- which is about halfway between Pittsburgh and Erie in the western part of the state.

​

yardsandpoints.com (formerly venangofootball.com and then route8rivalry.com) covers the grid doings of Oil City and Franklin high schools in Venango County. It also includes the football histories of the two schools, which date back to 1896, along with that of (RIP) Venango Catholic (nee Christian and formerly St. Joseph in Oil City), which dropped the sport in the 1990s. I've recently included more stuff on basketball as well as the doings in other sports.

​

Former Derrick sports editor Penny Weichel is webmaster.

​

Contact pennyweichel@gmail.com if need be.

bottom of page