Panther men’s soccer’s journey is at an end.
After a big Mountain Seven win over West Henderson to end the season, on the week of Oct. 30 Franklin kicked off their state playoff run. In a first-round win over fellow conference rival East Henderson, the team advanced to a second-round matchup with A.C. Reynolds, but fell to the fifth-ranked Rockets to end their 2023 campaign.
Entering the tournament with the 3A West’s No. 12 seed, the Panthers drew a familiar foe in Round 1, hosting the No. 21 Eagles in the teams’ third meeting of the year. Having each outscored the other 3-1 this regular season, there was no love lost between the rivals, after Franklin (7-5) beat out fifth-place East (5-6-1) for third in the Mountain Seven.
On a wet, chilly night at the Panther Pit, the action started almost immediately, when Franklin won a throw-in roughly 40 yards from East’s goal. With neither team winning possession, senior Frankie Vallez stepped to the loose ball, delivering a gorgeous one-touch shot over East’s keeper into the goal. Less than a minute in, the long-range stunner left East reeling before they’d even settled into the game.
“I saw the ball get past [the East defense], and the only thing I could think about was just ‘Shoot,” said Vallez after the match. “I saw the keeper outside of his box a little bit so that was the first instinct I had, and I’ve always liked shooting from far, so I just ripped it.”
Despite the early lead, Franklin stayed on the attack, nearly scoring again four minutes later when freshman Kevin Torres hit the crossbar. In the 10th minute, Ulises Padron-Perez stressed the defense again, deftly evading an Eagle 30 yards from goal. From the left side of the pitch, the senior uncorked a beautiful shot, which bounced just under East’s keeper’s hands into the far corner of the net.
The match slowed somewhat for the next 25 minutes, until East deflected a Panther cross with five minutes left in the half. Having defended the first attack however, an Eagle cleared the ball right to Miguel Cruz, who found the lower left corner of the net from the top of the 18-yard box. Franklin defended their 3-0 lead to the half.
Both sides went back and forth for much of the second half, until East mounted a dangerous-looking attack in the 58th minute. Upon receiving a pass at the top of the box, an Eagle seemed to have an open shot at Franklin’s goal, but junior Ian Camacho-Mendoza made a last-second slide tackle to deny the chance.
East threatened Franklin again five minutes later, sending a beautiful shot to the top right corner of the net. Junior goalkeeper Will Sinclair made an even better diving save however, barely getting a fingertip to the ball for the deflection.
The Eagles doubled their efforts from there, frantically attacking the goal in a last-ditch effort at a comeback. With just 2:30 to play, East finally broke through, pressing into the Panther box and finding the lower right corner of the net.
Still down 3-1, the Eagles struck again just one minute later, receiving a well-placed cross in front of goal for an easy tap-in to cut their deficit to 3-2. In just 60 seconds of game time, they changed what had been a Panther rout into a white-knuckle final 1:30.
Having already removed key attackers from the match with the win seemingly in hand, head coach Matt Kolodzik was forced to make a mass substitution after East’s goals, bringing Padron-Perez, Torres, Greg Karcher and Miguel Cruz back onto the pitch. With 18 seconds left, East stole the ball from Franklin and passed deep into the Panther half, but were unable to receive it and let it roll harmlessly into Sinclair’s hands.
With the nail-biting win over East, Franklin advanced to a second-round matchup with No. 5 A.C. Reynolds. As one of the lower seeds remaining on their side of the bracket, Franklin was unlikely to host another match at the Panther Pit, which Vallez said has given the team home-field advantage throughout the year.
“It was great having our home crowd supporting us through this whole season,” he said. “For as much as I wish that we could have another home game, we don’t know for sure yet, but let’s hope that we can have our home crowd one more time and keep succeeding this season in the tournament. … They definitely bring a different vibe in to the game. They’re really rowdy, they’re very supportive, and it just feels great having their support at every game. There’s always a good amount of people here, so it really helps us out.”
“Overall, if you take away the last couple minutes or so there when we slacked a little bit, I felt like we dominated possession. A lot of things that we’ve been working on all year have just really come together,” said Kolodzik. “I told the guys that depending on what happens with the construction and the field, there’s a good chance that’s the last time we play on that field. I told them we want to go out with that memory of having a win the last time on that field, and that’s a great memory to have. So, they really stepped up, and I was very proud of them.”
After defeating East, the Panthers advanced to a second-round matchup with fifth-ranked A.C. Reynolds, who had beaten 28th-ranked King’s Mountain 9-0 in Round 1. On a cold Nov. 2 night in East Asheville, the Rockets proved why they’re one of the 3A West’s top teams, dominating possession early and looking sharp in all areas of the pitch.
With the match still scoreless, Franklin came to life in the 17th minute, getting a beautiful high through pass from Vallez to Padron-Perez near the left corner. Reynolds forced Padron-Perez to shoot from a difficult angle however, and the shot sailed just over the crossbar.
The Rockets returned the favor just a minute later, hitting Franklin’s left goalpost in their first of four near-misses over the next 12 minutes.
With three minutes left in the half, Reynolds sent a well-placed corner kick into the box, on which Sinclair continued a superb match in goal to meet a Rocket midair and deflect the ball from danger. Upon landing however, the Reynolds attacker seemed to fall hard on his back, and remained immobile on the pitch for several minutes.
Amid fears of a spinal injury, Reynolds officials called paramedics to the scene, who carted the player off the pitch on a stretcher. All told, the match was delayed for roughly 40 minutes, with both teams forced to do light exercise to keep warm.
Upon restarting play, neither team could break the deadlock before the half. Reynolds’ public address announcer later relayed a message from a local hospital that the injured player was in stable condition and good spirits.
After playing excellent defense to that point, disaster struck Franklin on the second-half kickoff, when Reynolds executed a designed play to flood the Panther box with attackers. The Rockets found the lower left corner of the net just 16 seconds in.
Reynolds kept stressing the Panther defense from there, hitting the crossbar in the 50th minute but watching Vallez clear the ball from danger. With 17:30 to play, they finally broke through again, connecting on a cross into the box to double their lead.
They tacked on a third goal just three minutes later, winning a free kick 50 yards from goal and connecting on a beautiful running header. Franklin was unable to answer before the final whistle.
“I told them coming out of halftime that we would have a team that’s gonna come at us, and that they would be fired up because if I’m their coach, I’m telling them we’re playing for the player that just went down,” said Kolodzik. “That is a team that executes extremely well. They have a lot of physical prowess, they have guys that are very speedy, they have a lot of size, and giving up that goal [to start] the second half was a tough one after you defend so well for an entire half. … We went down and still had a couple opportunities here and there to make something happen, but with a team that good, you tip your cap to them.”
In falling to the fifth-ranked team in the 3A West, which boasts multiple Division 1 prospects and dropped down from 4A this school year, the Panthers ended an up-and-down year playing close to their best soccer. After receiving an email from Reynolds’ head coach complimenting his team after the match, Kolodzik credited his team for their mental fortitude throughout the season.
“Unfortunately, the result wasn’t what we wanted, but it was a great effort by the guys,” he said. “This whole season has been a roller-coaster – we climbed up to the top and had a really good start to the season, and then we had to build from a good-sized drop where even if we won a match here and there, we just weren’t playing our best soccer. … I felt like we started climbing that second hill and getting more towards the top again as we closed out the season, and I was very, very happy with the way they responded to adversity. That’s all you can ask for as a coach, and as a person in life.”