Having watched her team go scoreless in its first two matches, Franklin junior Lauren Barker decided enough was enough.

Just 34 seconds into Saturday evening's home match against Muskingum, Barker took a feed from freshman Madison Hill and cashed it in for the first of her three goals in a 4-1 win at Faught Stadium.

"The biggest thing that was working for us tonight was just finding each other, possessing the ball, not being selfish," Barker said. "I think that showed early, to have a couple go down; it's a game of momentum, and I think that gave us some confidence moving forward."

Hill scored a goal of her own, the first of her college career, in the 22nd minute to double the Grizzlies' lead to 2-0. They carried that edge into halftime. 

Muskingum tried staging a comeback after the break, getting a couple of quality shot attempts by Emma Morton in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but Franklin goalkeeper Emma Watson (five saves) was up to the task each time. Then, Barker extended her team's lead to three goals when she converted a slick through ball from Courtney Tsamba in the 54th minute of play.

The Muskies finally got on the board with 20:57 remaining on a Morton penalty kick, but the Grizzlies' defense held the rest of the way, and Barker completed her hat trick when Hill fed her a pass from along the end line and she punched it home with 8:59 to go in the match.

Asked to pick her favorite goal of the night, Barker went with the ice-breaker.

"It's just such a good feeling to see a goal go down that early," she said. "It was a great ball from Madison; she was putting me in good spots. But it's the first goal as a team this year too, and we really needed that to lift us up coming off of two scoreless games."

Franklin coach Jennifer Jackson was pleased with how her team (1-2) came out and executed.

"When we pass and connect quickly, I think we're a really good team," she said. "When we lose control, lose our tempers, we have some room for improvement there. ... It's great to put the ball in the back of the net and keep improving."