


This site is about the sports doings of the high schools in Venango County, Pa. Contact: pennyweichel@gmail.com
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.


Photo by Christy Fackler

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS
A LISTERS


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.​



