The Montgomery County Indians flirted with a major upset Friday night but ran out of gas in the second half as Franklin County flew away to a 55-21 victory at Cunningham Field. The victory gave Franklin County the district title and the home field advantage going into the Class 5A playoffs. The Flyers improved to 7-2 on the season while the Indians fell to 2-7. The Indians will close out the 2014 season Friday night at Cunningham Field when they play host to the Rowan County Vikings. The Vikings come in with only one victory but apparently will make the Class 4A playoffs on the strength of a win over Greenup County. Rowan County is coached by former Harrison County head coach Ray Graham who began his coaching career at Rowan County and is in his first year of a second stint at the Morehead school. On Friday night the Indians had a seven point lead on three different occasions in the first half but simply couldn’t stay with the speedy Flyers. Montgomery County sophomore Dillon Akers took the opening kickoff at his own 10 yard line and raced 80 yards before being caught from behind at the Franklin County 10. Two plays later Art Walker hooked up with Braxton Hopkins on a 12-yard scoring play to put the Indians into the lead with Braden Powell kicking the first of three extra points. It didn’t take long for Franklin County to answer. They returned the kickoff to the 44 yard line and on the very first play Jhanny Rodriguez went around right end and took a short pass for 56 yards and a game-tying TD. That would begin a trend of short-lived leads for the Indians. After an exchange of possessions the Indians had the ball at their own nine yard line and embarked on the first of two long drives. The Indians covered the 94 yards in nine plays. Braxton Hopkins made a key 12-yard reception on a third and eight from the Indians’ eight yard line to get things going. Quarterback Art Walker scampered 25 yards when he was forced out of the pocket and then Walker and Hopkins teamed up on a 47-yard pass play to put the ball into scoring position. The Indians’ second score came on a nine-yard pass from Walker to Hopkins and the duo were on their way to a big night as Hopkins finished with 182 yards on 11 catches with two touchdowns and Walker became the all-time passing yardage leader for a season in Montgomery County history. After the Indians went in front 14-7 the Flyers went 83 yards in just five plays and took only 1:35 off the clock to tie the game for the second time. Denzel Vance’s 34-yard run produced the touchdown after Sam Anderson’s 18-yard run and a 15-yard personal foul penalty against the Tribe moved the ball into scoring position. The opening period ended in a 14-14 deadlock. Midway through the second period the Indians sacked the Flyers’ Barrett Sanderson at the MCHS 46 to force a punt but the kick rolled dead at the Montgomery County three yard line. That’s when Walker engineered a 97-yard drive in seven plays to put the Indians in front again. After a penalty and a 9-yard completion to Cody Parsley gave the Indians some breathing room, Walker and Hopkins teamed up on back-to-back plays that covered 31 and 41 yards down to the Flyer two and Walker walked into the end zone on the next play to give the Indians another lead at 21-14 with 7:28 to play in the first half. Both teams had a three and out possession before Franklin County took advantage of a punt return to the Indians’ 16 yard line and scored in three plays on the first of four Sam Anderson scoring runs to tie the game with 2:20 to play in the first half. The Indians pushed the ball to the Flyer 36 yard line late in the half but got stopped on downs and that was essentially the game. Franklin County took the opening second half kickoff and Anderson took over the game. He scored from nine yards out to give Franklin County its first lead of the night and then Rodriguez had a six-yard run. Anderson followed up with scoring runs of six and three yards to give him four scores on the night and Franklin County wrapped up the scoring when back-up fullback J. M. Stallard scored on an eight-yard run with just 55 seconds to play in the game. Anderson finished with 171 yard rushing and receiving to go with his four touchdowns while Vance had 118 yards on the ground and Rodriguez had 148 combined rushing and pass receiving. Hopkins tied a school record for most receptions in a game with 11. Seth Dotson also had 11 catches in a game in the 2010 season. Walker threw for 244 yards on the night, giving him 2,090 on the season and moving him ahead of Matt Tuttle into first place on that list. Hopkins’ 182 yards tied for second all-time with Darwin Crooks from the 1985 season, a record that is held by Joe Chism who had 200 receiving yards earlier in the year against Harrison County.