Logan Heath 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 20-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 160 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 sophomore 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. And that was after the Oilers had taken the 41-3 lead. Eddie Platt got off  66- and 41-yard punts (with roll.)

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NEXT UP: The Oilers will make their home debut Friday against the mighty Sharon Tigers, reigning District 10 3A champs. Sharon is an unaccustomed 0-2, dropping a 15-13 decision to Cathedral Prep and then losing to Hickory, 40-21, on Saturday. (And the Hornets were coming off a 20-6 loss at Pittsburgh Westinghouse in their opener)...The Knights will play their first road game Thursday at Harbor Creek. The Huskies are 2-0 with a decisive win over Warren the last time out. They also beat North East. Harbor Creek is led by Gavin Zillman (5-10, 170), who has been a terror with 511 yards (9.8 ypc) and nine total TDs the first two games. He leads the state in rushing with those numbers. Zillman averaged 14 carries last year and eight as a soph. He's up to 26 attempts per game this season.