Panther JV women’s soccer has completed an unbeaten season.
After a 6-1-1 campaign last year, Franklin was even more ambitious this spring, playing a jam-packed schedule of 13 games. In finishing with 12 wins and zero losses, the team turned in perhaps its best season in history.
“We had it in mind; it was just that we didn’t want to say it out loud – I guess everybody was kind of superstitious of jinxing it,” said head coach Juan Morales of the prospect of an unbeaten season. “Everybody knew what we were working towards, expecially when we got to the back end of the season when we only had like four games left. ... All in all they dominated every single game that they played, and once they get the lead it’s really hard to take that away from them.”
After tying Enka in their first match, Franklin went on a tear, scoring 40 goals and earning five shutouts in their next six matches. With 11 goals and three assists to that point, their top striker was called up to the varsity team.
“Bristol [Brooks] was a big part of what we did. She scored a lot of goals, gave a lot of assists, and is just a great player all around,” said Morales. “When I talked to them about the situation, I made sure to get the point across that Bristol was a big part of what we had done to that point, but that we didn’t rely just on her. She was very important to us, but I stressed that up until that point it had been and has always been a team effort.”
Despite losing Brooks, and later fellow striker Lily Tux Xol to varsity, the JV team continued their dominant run. In the last few weeks of the season however, Franklin faced their toughest test yet.
“Going into West they already knew [the match’s importance], because they were our only loss last season,” said Morales of their home match with West Henderson April 16, the first of two meetings with the Falcons to end the season. “They already knew it was going to be a tough game, and once game day came around they were nervous. But once they actually played the game they had nothing to worry about, because they knew that they had dominated the whole game. So, it was just a matter of putting the goals past the keeper.”
With a 3-0 win over West, the Panthers improved to 10-0-1, before routing Tuscola 6-2 the following week. On May 5, they rematched the Falcons in Hendersonville for a shot at history.
“Around that point once we beat West, everybody kind of knew what was going to happen if we just kept going, but we never said it until the end of the season at that last West game when we were away,” said Morales. “That was the first thing I said once we got back into the huddle after we shook hands – I said, ‘Undefeated season, ladies.’”
Having never even mentioned the word until the last game, Morales finally broke the taboo on their rivals’ home field, in hopes of spurring his team to complete an unbeaten season. In their toughest match of the year, the Panthers answered the bell.
“When we played them at home ... we had plenty of chances to make that scoreline a lot bigger; we just couldn’t finish in the first half,” said Morales. “And then we played the last game against them, and that was a tougher game – we only won 1-0. ... So, it was a mix of both emotions – being happy that they’d managed to go undefeated the whole season, and then the realization that the season was over.”
In saving their grittiest performance for last, Franklin finished the year with a 12-0-1 record, having scored an eye-popping 71 goals and conceded just nine. While the JV team will lose many players to varsity next year, Morales believes both teams will be in good hands.
“I feel like a lot of the girls – most of the JV team – are ready for that varsity step,” he said. “I think the program is just in a great spot right now where we have good teams for both varsity and JV.”