The energy that Franklin men's soccer brought for the last 20 or 30 minutes of Wednesday night's HCAC home match against Anderson was a bit more in line with what coach
Josh Hughes hopes to see on a regular basis.
Unfortunately for the Grizzlies, it came a bit too late in a 2-0 loss at Faught Stadium. The defeat marked the end of a five-game homestand.
"I don't know why it takes us 60 minutes to get into every game," Hughes said. "The last 30 were pretty good, but everything else was well below standard. I can't figure out why."
Franklin (0-8-2) was on the defensive from the opening minutes, with the Ravens putting a pair of shots on goal in the first 13 minutes. The visitors continued to apply pressure and finally broke through with 6:37 to go in the half, beating Griz goalkeeper
Austin White from close range.
Anderson doubled its lead just over nine minutes into the second half.
From that point, the Grizzlies started to find their stride. A hard shot from
Russell Bilohlavek nearly found the top corner but was tipped away in the 60th minute, and the ensuing corner kick produced two more shot attempts. Franklin had another scoring opportunity in the 85th minute, with
Oscar Garcia delivering a hard shot from outside the box and
Nayiib Browne getting another attempt off a corner moments later, but the home side was unable to put anything away.
White finished with six saves in a losing effort for the Grizzlies, who will try to get into the win column on Saturday against Mount St. Joseph.
