Lumberjacks roll past Hornets, 41-6

The Patterson Lumberjacks rolled past Franklin 41-6 Thursday en route to an outright District 9-3A title.
The Lumberjacks, who have now won seven straight after starting the season 0-3, finished district play with a perfect 4-0 mark.
He said the season had three different parts to it, the tough, three-game losing streak at the beginning of the season, the roll Patterson got on beginning with its victory against Westlake and then district play.
“They (are) excited,” Blanchard said of his team’s reaction to winning a district title. “They expected to be in this situation because of all the work they put into it during the season, during the offseason, so yeah, I’m excited for them. They deserve it. They’re a good group of kids and hopefully we can keep this thing going for a little while longer.”
In Thursday’s win, Patterson scored on its first five offensive possession of the game, jumping out to a 34-0 lead at halftime.
Quarterback Sirbatian Charles was nearly flawless in the first half as he completed 11 of 13 passes for 224 yards with four touchdowns.
Tristen Ausama caught two of those touchdown passes, while Daylon Charlot and Nehemiah Augustus each had another. Ausama finished the night with three catches for 54 yards, while Charlot had three catches for 24 yards and Augustus, two catches for 94 yards.
Mykel Jones also hauled in three passes for 52 yards.
Charles, who also carried the football five times for 32 yards, added another touchdown on the ground in the first half, while Dontré Nicholas added a fourth quarter touchdown.
In the running game, D.J. Jones led the Lumberjacks with 12 carries for 80 yards, while Nicholas had five carries for 30 yards.
While Patterson’s offense was explosive, so was its defense, who limited Franklin to just one first half first down via a pass interference penalty and just five first downs the entire night.
Franklin had 48 yards of offense on the night.
Franklin had good field position following big returns on its first two drives of the game but could do nothing to counter the Patterson touchdowns.
“Our defense for the last five week has really, really played well,” Blanchard said. They’ve changed games for us. They’ve gotten turnovers, they’ve given us great field position.”
Patterson began the scoring Thursday when Ausama hauled in an 8-yard touchdown pass from Charles at the 9:41 mark of the first quarter.
The Lumberjacks added touchdowns via a Charlot reception at the 4:46 mark of the first quarter, and a Charles 6-yard run with 7.7 seconds remaining in the quarter for a 21-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Patterson added touchdowns via a 68-yard pass from Charles to Augustus with 10:52 remaining and a 7-yard pass from Charles to Ausama with 6:21 left in the quarter.
Patterson’s second half touchdown came on its second drive of the second half when Nicholas scored on a 14-yard run with 7:57 remaining and Christian Soria’s extra point made it 41-0. Soria finished the night 6-of-7 on extra points.
Franklin turned to D’Andre Charles on its last drive. Charles had a hand in every play of the drive, capping it off with a 22-yard touchdown run after recovering high snap past him and finding running room en route to the end zone. His two-point pass attempt was no good with 57 seconds left for the final margin.
Patterson now will await the announcement of the Class 3A brackets, which will come Sunday morning, to determine who it will host in the first round.