For the vast majority of Wednesday night's match at Faught Stadium, Franklin men's soccer held its own between the 18-yard lines against a Rose-Hulman squad that's in contention for the HCAC regular-season title.
In the end, though, the Engineers did a better job of finishing opportunities inside the box, scoring twice in the second half to come away with a 2-0 victory.
"In between the boxes, the games are always good," Franklin coach
Josh Hughes said. "And then there's always one in our box that we let bounce around and give one away, and we struggle to finish our chances when we're in their box. ... That's what wins you games.
"There was a lot of good today. That's a good team. But at some point, we've got to get the key moments."
The Grizzlies (0-10-3, 0-4-1 HCAC) were on the defensive early, giving up four shots and three corner kicks in the first 20 minutes, but they were eventually able to create some chances, including a shot on goal by
Johnny Garcia in the 24th minute. But quality opportunities were hard to come by on both ends, and the two sides went into the half tied at 0-0.
At the start of the second half, Franklin was more aggressive and pushed the ball into the Engineers' end consistently. That push did not yield any scoring chances, though, and Rose-Hulman wound up getting on the board first when it converted off of a cross with just under 20 minutes remaining.
Franklin had a pair of chances to tie the game down the stretch, with
Emilio Quintero putting a solid shot on frame in the 80th minute and
Oscar Garcia just missing the mark about three minutes later, but the Engineers were able to get some breathing room with a late second goal, putting a shot away with 3:37 to go.
"I thought the second half was arguably better than the first half in terms of chances that we created," Hughes said.
Goalkeeper
Austin White made three saves in a losing effort for Franklin and cut off several other Engineer chances on corner kicks before a shot could be taken.
Up next for the Grizzlies will be a Senior Day matchup against Bluffton on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m.).
