MALONE – Playing with the state minimum number of 16 players, the Tupper Lake football team got shut out 28-0 against a more experienced Franklin Academy Saturday in Malone.

Franklin Academy went up early in the game, scoring a touchdown and a successful two-point conversion in the first quarter. After a scoreless second quarter, the Huskies came out in the second half and put another 20 points on the board.

The Lumberjacks were suffering from a spate of injuries, leading coach Dennis Klossner to bring up a younger player from the modified team to field a roster big enough to be able to play the game. Franklin Academy had 15 seniors in the game, while Tupper Lake had just 16 players total.

The Huskies limited the ‘Jacks to 31 total yards in the game that was played in driving wind, rain and snow.

Both teams went into the match with a single win under their belts, with Klossner telling the Enterprise last week that the goal wasn’t to win, but to get out without any injuries.

Malone had 223 yards on the ground, with the sloppy conditions forcing both teams to keep the ball out of the air. Tupper Lake quarterback Brendan McComber made just three attempts in the air for one completion and no gain. Malone QB Jordan Scharf went 2-for-5 through the air.

“I was real happy with the way our kids played. We had some key players out due to injury,” Klossner said. “We had 16 kids eligible. With the kids that we had out there, they did a great job. We came at them right away.

“We had trouble handling the ball, (but) I thought defensively we played really well. And we did move the ball some offensively, but we couldn’t get it in the end zone, we couldn’t get a point on the board.

“We play well down in Malone. I thought holding them to 28 was a real good job,” he said. “And two of those are big plays, which is part of football, but you take those away and it’s 14-0.”

Tupper Lake junior Mike Hyde ran for 59 yards in the game, and Klossner is excited at the possiblity of Hyde playing again next year. Hyde’s yardage was countered by negative-yardage runs, limiting the team to the lower total yards.

“He’s been a good runner but all through the year. When Mike has had his opportunities he’s taken full advantage of them,” Klossner said. “He’s a good, solid runner and we’ll be glad to have him back next year.”

Klossner had to bring freshman Skyler Pickering up from modified to fill out the roster, and Klossner couldn’t be happier with the young man’s play.

“He’s only had one week to practice with us and he did a really good job and I’m really proud of the way he played for not having any varsity experience,” Klossner said. “It took him a play or two to adjust to varsity speed, but I thought he played real well defensively.

“He kept his receiver in check the whole time, and came up on a lot of tackles and did a really good job.

“I was proud of how they hung in there the whole game and never gave up.”