Down by four goals with 13:26 remaining in the match, Franklin College men's soccer could have easily packed it in and taken a third consecutive shutout loss on Saturday afternoon.

Instead, the Grizzlies staged a furious comeback effort — and while it proved too little, too late in a 4-3 loss at Eureka, the surge could prove to spark a longer-term turnaround.

"There were a lot of positives to take from the game," Franklin coach Josh Hughes said. "We showed some resiliency that we hadn't shown yet. We got a couple of guys off the mark with goals that needed to get going."

Eureka led 1-0 at the half after a Joyce Kabesa goal in the 15th minute, and Kabesa tallied twice more in a 35-second span early in the second half to put Franklin in a 3-0 hole. Troy Arries added what figured to be the final nail in the Grizzlies' coffin with his 78th-minute tally, but the visitors had other ideas.

Russell Bilohlavek got Franklin's first goal of the season on a penalty kick with with 12:32 to go, and the Grizzlies cut the deficit to two at the 8:54 mark when freshman Enzo Crivari netted his first collegiate goal off a Lucas Flores assist.

An unassisted goal by freshman Lane Trump with 6:07 on the clock made it a one-goal game, but the Grizzlies couldn't manage to net the equalizer.

"We were much better on the ball and on the press, which we've continued to improve on in each game," Hughes said. "That said, we've got to stop leaking silly goals and give ourselves chances to win games. We're close, but we have to improve in that area."

The Red Devils finished the match with a 19-10 edge in overall shots, including a 7-4 advantage in shots on goal. Both teams managed five corner kicks, with all of Franklin's coming after halftime. Grizzly netminder Graham Klein made a pair of saves.

Franklin (0-3) will play its first home match of the season on Monday against Hope (5 p.m.).