For the first time in nearly two years, Franklin men's soccer ended a match on the winning end. In doing so, it got a pretty good look at the future.

Four different freshmen found the back of the net as the Grizzlies powered their way to a 4-0 shutout of Heidelberg at Faught Stadium on Wednesday night.

The victory was the first for Franklin (1-6) since beating Mount St. Joseph by the same score back on Sept. 30, 2023.

"I said it in preseason," Griz coach Josh Hughes said. "Winning a game is important for us, just to prove to ourselves that we can do it. I think getting the first goal today was huge — you could see guys light up like, 'Okay, we're in it, we're up for it.'"

Freshman Lane Trump got the Grizzlies on the board just 5:13 in the match when he took a pass from Kalao Ebalo into the box and ripped a hard left-to-right ball that got under Heidelberg goalkeeper Mikael Paulson and caromed in off the right goalpost. That lead held through the remainder of the half despite an 8-5 shot advantage for the visitors, six of those on goal.

Franklin netminder Jaime Silva stopped all of those attempts, however, and also managed to corral a loose ball off a corner kick in the waning seconds of the half.

Silva wound up with nine saves in all, part of a stellar all-around defensive effort.

"Jaime was great; everyone across the back," Hughes said, citing starting defenders Lucas Pereira, Carter Wynberry, Jacobo Alarcon and Mason Tolliver and everyone who got their turn off the bench. "We didn't really give up much today."

The Grizzlies added plenty of insurance scoring in the second half. In the 53rd minute, Trump dumped a ball along the left sideline for classmate Jacobo Alarcon, who charged up the wing and beat Paulson for a 2-0 advantage. A Trump corner kick in the 64th minute yielded another tally when the ball found Ylljon Emerllahu, and Wynberry closed out the scoring by converting a rebound header with 11:06 to go in the match.

Franklin finished with 14 shots overall and converted four of their 10 shots on frame.

Needless to say, there was plenty to be happy about. Now, the Grizzlies will try to keep that momentum going into a Saturday afternoon match at Principia.

"We looked like we were enjoying it," Hughes said after the win. "So now the key is, can we find ways to enjoy it when the game's not 4-0? We've got to enjoy it and be footballers and be ourselves, be really sharp and be all those things when things don't always go our way. But today was huge. It was massive."