A Franklin men's soccer team looking to close the season on a high note Tuesday night faced an unenviable task — hosting a Transylvania squad that was trying to grab the top seed in the HCAC Tournament.
The Pioneers scored three times in just over 10 minutes during the first half and rode that flurry to a 6-1 victory at Faught Stadium.
Despite the final score, Griz coach
Josh Hughes saw plenty of positives from his young team.
"The first one went in, and we didn't respond great, and we gave up a few," he said. "But there were some bright moments with the ball in the middle of the field, lots of good moments. We were able to get on the scoresheet, which is a big one for us, a good goal. There's a lot of positives and some things to build on."
Franklin (0-14-3, 0-8-1 HCAC) hung tough in the early going before the Pioneers got on the board in the 14th minute, converting a long chip from close range. The margin then grew to two goals with 22:02 left in the half, and the visitors quickly added goals in the 28th and 34th minutes to stretch the lead to four going into the half.
The Grizzlies got on the board in the 80th minute with some of their best work of the night. Freshman
Maximilian Last played a ball to
Enzo Crivari, who played it long toward the box to set up
Lane Trump in close. The sophomore was able to tap the ball past the Transy goalkeeper with 10:34 to go in the match.
Transy added a late tally after both sides had substituted fairly heavily.
The Pioneers outshot the Grizzlies by a 20-7 margin. Freshman goalkeeper
Austin Horner made nine saves in the loss.
With just five upperclassmen on the roster and seven freshmen in Tuesday's starting lineup, Hughes believes the Griz have some things to build on despite the team's final record.
"I told these guys — it's the end of the season, but it's the beginning of the next thing," the coach said, "and I don't know that this program's ever treated it that way. We started to last year; now we've got a really complete foundation, which we didn't have coming into this season ... and we need to build on that foundation now and treat the next eight months with the same intensity and vigor and all those things that we treated the fall with.
"And this group will. That's the next step."
