FRANKLIN — Talawanda coach Andy Stuckert spent the week making sure his players understood Franklin’s record didn’t tell the entire story.
The Brave apparently got the message.
Talawanda remained unbeaten with another dominant defensive performance Friday night, Sept. 11, shutting out Franklin 35-0 at Atrium Stadium and improving to 4-0 for the second consecutive season.
“We talked about all week how well coached Franklin is, and their MO is always going to be hard-nosed kids,” Stuckert said. “They’re going to always have athletes running around there. So we started Monday with, ‘You guys want to take them lightly because of the record, you’re going to go over there and get your butt kicked.’ I thought our guys took that to heart and came out and played pretty well from the get-go.”
Pretty well might be an understatement, particularly on defense.
Talawanda has surrendered just 12 points through four games. The Brave opened with a 33-6 victory over Taylor, blanked Meadowdale 49-0 and defeated Eaton 38-6 before recording their second shutout of the season. The four victories have come by a combined score of 155-12.
Talawanda’s defense has been the constant.
“That’s how they’ve been playing since Week 1,” Stuckert said. “The scary thing is there’s still a little bit of room for improvement. Some guys that are starting to really play well that are younger, which is fun to watch.
“I can’t say enough about our defensive coordinator, and his staff. They find a new way every week to just get these kids flying around and playing fast. That’s so huge because that’s what it was tonight.”
Oliver Bennett and Brody Abney caught short touchdown passes from sophomore quarterback Jake Van Gorden to give the Brave a 14-0 after one quarter. Van Gorden had a short TD run right out of the second quarter gate, and then Van Gorden connected with Camar Ellis on a pair of touchdown passes to close out the scoring before the half.
A running clock was enforced after the break.
Senior defensive back and captain Kemper McAfee — who is one interception away from becoming Talawanda’s all-time leader — said Friday’s performance was another product of the work the Brave have put in.
“We work on this every day. We perfect our craft every single day,” McAfee said. “We got a lot of guys bought in out here wanting to make something happen. So it don’t surprise me that we made it happen.”
Talawanda’s start also shows last season’s breakthrough was no aberration.
The Brave started 4-0 in 2025 and ultimately finished 10-2, reaching the second round of the Division III, Region 12 playoffs. They graduated Division III Offensive Player of the Year Lance Cantrell, who rushed for more than 2,500 yards, but returned several key pieces from one of the best teams in program history.
Among them were McAfee, junior linebacker Windon Lowe and senior linemen Hollis Hofmann and Jordan Ellis.
“We’ve got really good football players. And that’s the God’s honest truth,” Stuckert said. “We have really good football players. We have really good coaches. And that’s just the perfect mixture right now.
“I would say the biggest theme to what we’ve got going on right now is our kids are actually winning and finishing games and understanding that feeling, and then they crave that every week. They’ve done a really nice job of just staying focused week to week and coming out. And now, man, it’s dangerous. We get a little confidence in you and you got good football players like we do.”
Franklin fell to 0-4 after facing a difficult opening stretch that has included Butler, Valley View, Fenwick and Talawanda. That stretch also included some key injuries from just about every part of the Wildcats’ roster.
The Wildcats went 4-6 last season under Brad Childers, but that record was deceptive. Franklin opened 0-5 before winning its first four SWBL Southwestern Division games to claim the division championship.
This season has presented a different challenge.
“We’re just in a tough spot playing a lot of younger kids,” Childers said. “We don’t have a lot of kids with Friday experience, but their kids are battling. They are playing as tough as they can. We’re dealing with some adversity of injuries, but we’re not going to make excuses.”
Childers said the focus now is keeping his young team together.
“Stats are on paper, but right now, it’s about just playing with Wildcat pride and trying to get better,” Childers said. “We had a good week of practice. That’s what we talked about. We built on that. Injuries aren’t helping us. But as coaches, we take full responsibility. We’ve got to keep getting better.”
Franklin travels to Carlisle next Friday, while Talawanda hosts Carroll.
“Our seniors set goals every year, and they have those,” Stuckert said. “We certainly have some postseason aspirations, but we’re really not worried about that. That’s what I love about these guys.
“You get tonight, and then tomorrow’s Carroll. So one week at a time for us.”
McAfee delivered essentially the same message.
“There’s a lot of critics saying a lot of different things about us,” McAfee said. “But at the end of the day, we don’t let none of the outside noise in, and we take care of what we gotta take care of.
“It’s just a bunch of guys that love each other and love football. And now we’re just really hungry to make something happen. This program, we take a lot of pride in it.”
