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By ED BRANNON Sports editor Despite a season in which it dropped its final two games to finish at 5-4, the Franklin Knights football team was well-represented on the Northwest Football Conference all-conference squads in voting  by the league coaches. Coach Tiger LaVerde's Knights, who finished 3-4 in the NWFC, had six first-team selections, a second-team pick and five honorable-mention honorees. Heading the Franklin contingent was senior Graham Collins, who earned first-team honors as both a tailback and punter. The speedy Collins, who missed the Titusville game in Week 8 with an illness, paced the Knights' offense with 583 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. He also grabbed 13 passes for 283 yards and four TDs, returned two kickoffs for scores and completed 5 of 18 passes for 61 yards. All told, Collins racked up 98 of Franklin's 240 points this season with 16 touchdowns and a two-point conversion. He also received the most votes as the first-team punter as his 12 kicks resulted in a league-best 37.8-yard average. "Graham had a magnificent year offensively and it was kind of a surprise to me that he also led the conference in punting average," LaVerde said. Joining Collins on the first team were wide receiver Mike Bell, center Josh Battin, outside linebacker Bill Hasson and placekicker Dan Zasa. Bell, a junior, led the NWFC with 36 receptions, which also ranks second all-time at Franklin. He accounted for 530 yards and four touchdowns and had a record-breaking night against Titusville when he posted single-game school records with 13 catches for 196 yards. "The scary thing about Mike is that he's capable of having an even better season next year," LaVerde said. Battin, also a junior, was the inspirational leader of Franklin's offensive line. Despite being undersized at 5-10 and 155 pounds, Battin's solid play and gritty effort helped the Knights' offense average 313.2 yards per game. "Josh didn't even play on junior varsity last year and he just had an excellent all-around season for us," LaVerde said. "He's a real hard-nosed kid with a great work ethic." Simply put, Hasson was Franklin's defense this season. The senior linebacker finished with 106 tackles, which was 49 more than runner-up Bell, who had 57. He also had solid offensive numbers at fullback with 287 rushing yards and 61 receiving yards. "I was real happy that Billy was selected on defense," LaVerde said. "He was the only defensive player we nominated so it says a lot about what the other coaches thought of his play." Zasa, another junior, became Franklin's all-time field goal leader this season and now has nine in his career. The lefty was a perfect 5 of 5 on field-goal attempts this season with a long of 47 yards to win the season opener against Conneaut, Ohio. He also went 15 of 22 on extra points. "Dan was a unanimous pick as the kicker," LaVerde noted. "He just has a tremendous leg." Franklin's lone second-team selection was junior quarterback Rich Cerro, who was a first-team pick as a sophomore. "Richy had a better year passing-wise this year, but unfortunately (Warren's) Ben Maljovec was probably the best player in the conference," LaVerde said. Cerro completed 85 of 170 passes for 1,378 yards with a FHS-record 13 touchdown passes. His passing yardage fell 48 yards shy of his single-season mark of 1,425, which he set as a sophomore. The five Knights who earned honorable-mention status included senior offensive guard Ryan Crissman, junior offensive tackle Dave Mong, junior offensive guard Garrett Brewster, junior wide receiver Zack Sterner and junior defensive end Chris Cirell. "For not having played before, Zack did a tremendous job for us offensively," LaVerde said. "Dave, Garrett and Ryan all played well on the line. Dave led our line in grading percentage about four weeks in a row and we ran behind him and Garrett almost every time we were in short-yardage situations. "Ryan was one of our captains and was a great leader for our underclassmen and Chris played extremely well on both sides of the ball in his first year at Franklin," LaVerde added. The team recently held its season-ending banquet and the following players were honored: Hasson (Defensive MVP), Collins (Offensive MVP), Battin (Offensive Lineman of the Year) and senior Andy Kahle (Sportsmanship Award). "We've got a good nucleus with 24 juniors back and we're really looking forward to having another good season next year," LaVerde said.