It didn’t take long for the youthful Lumberjacks to find out that the Frankfort-Schuyler squad was the real deal. The Maroon Knights’ first five drives all ended in touchdowns as they cruised to a 50-0 win at the Frank Tice Memorial Field.

Frankfort-Schuyler, which trails only Moraivia in the latest New York State Sportswriters Association poll, is the reigning 8-man state champion. The Maroon Knights finished last season 13-0, and while outscoring their opponents 770-179 during that run. This year, the team is off to a 3-0 start.

“So at this point, they’re probably still number one,” Tupper Lake head coach Dennis Klossner said. “I’m proud of the kids for hanging in there. We did some good things. I mean, we had a lot less penalties — until the tail end when we picked a few — but we had a lot less penalties.”

Frankfort-Schuyler’s quarterback Jerome Brown completed four of his five passes for 73 yards, which included a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jovan Meyers on the team’s first drive.

Tupper Lake’s Brock Fleishman looks to make a pass during Friday’s game against Frankfort-Schuyler. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

Brown found even more success on the ground as he rushed for a team-high 165 yards on 10 carries while running for three first-half touchdowns. The senior signal caller had broken free on numerous big runs, including a 26-yard carry where he shed multiple tackles with a video game-esque play, to set up a score.

While Klossner was proud of his team’s defense, he said his team needs to work on tackling. But he added that comes with the inexperience at the varsity level, as the Lumberjacks lost 12 seniors from last year’s team, and a lot of the guys this year had minimal planning time.

“We’re a young JV team playing at the varsity level,” Klossner said. “I’m not knocking the kids, but that’s the inexperience that we have. We’re just a very young team and it’s coming. It’s getting there and what I like is that they kept their heads up, they kept playing. It’s easy to get discouraged in games like these, but the kids are still playing hard and trying their best that they can.”

Brown closed out his night with a 59-yard touchdown, which made the score 30-0. Griffith Bryant ran in on four of the Maroon Knights’ seven touchdowns during the game.

Frankfort-Schuyler’s backup quarterback Jason Monahan passed for 93 yards and one touchdown. He connected with Tyrese Lyles for a 23-yard touchdown at the end of the first half, giving the Maroon Knights a 38-0 advantage.

Tupper Lake’s Liam McClain runs with the ball during Friday’s game against Frankfort-Schuyler. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

The Lumberjacks finally had some success after the intermission, as they picked up a few first downs and even held Frankfort-Schuyler without a score during the third quarter.

“And that was still their whole group out there for the most part,” Klossner said. “I thought we had a real good third quarter. And then we’re just our offense is struggling on, you know, no points this week, six last week, the first week, a couple of the week before. We’ve got to get the ball moving on offense because defensively — we’ve got to work on our tackling still, but — we’re around the ball. Kids were in position for everything. Now, we just have to finish.”

Cooper McDonald rushed for 46 yards on five attempts for the Lumberjacks, while Liam McClain had 30 yards on the ground on 14 carries. Tupper Lake finished the day with 100 yards of offense.

The Maroon Knights closed out the contest with a 17-yard run from Caden Bryant and a 19-yard carry from Dhomi Mendez. Frankfort-Schuyler churned up 427 yards of offense.

For Klossner, he’s hoping that playing against some of these top teams early in the season will help his team going forward.

“We still have some very competitive teams coming up,” he said. “I think the way we’ve been improving, I think playing these really fast teams — and this one that has some good-sized kids — it’ll help us in the long run as it goes. As long as we can stay healthy, we just have to take care of our penalties and mistakes.”

Tupper Lake, which is now 0-3 overall, is on a bye this week. Following that, the Lumberjacks will host the Thousand Island Vikings, who are also 0-3, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3.

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Frankfort-Schuyler 50, Tupper Lake 0

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Lumberjacks 0 0 0 0 — 0

Maroon Knights 16 22 0 12 — 50

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SCORING

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First Quarter

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FS — Myers 12 pass from Brown (G. Bryant run), 6:19

FS — Brown 8 run (G. Bryant run), 5:45

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Second Quarter

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FS — Brown 8 run (G. Bryant run), 10:23

FS — Brown 59 run (Run failed), 5:39

FS — Lyles 23 pass from Monahan (G. Bryant run), 00:00

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Fourth Quarter

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FS — C. Bryant 17 run (Pass failed), 5:56

FS — Mendez 19 run (Run failed), 2:56

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

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Rushing

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FS — Brown 10-165, 3TDs; Lyles 2-(-1); R. Bowen 1-6; C. Bryant 6-73, TD; Monahan 1-(-1); Mendez 1-19, TD. Totals: 21-261, 5TDs.

TL — McClain 14-30; McDonald 5-46; Durfee 2-9; Jones 1-4. Totals: 22-89.

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Passing

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FS — Brown 4-5-0-73, TD; Monahan 6-8-0-93, TD. Totals: 10-13-0-166, 2TDs.

TL — Durfee 2-6-0-11; Fleishman 0-2-0-0. Totals: 2-8-0-11.

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Receiving

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FS — Myers 3-34, TD; Lyles 3-78, TD; Eck 2-41; R. Bowen 1-5; Mendez 1-8. Totals: 10-166, 2TDs.

TL — Gerstenberger 2-11. Totals: 2-11.