A new era is underway for Panther men’s soccer.
When new head coach Bryan Wilkinson took over this offseason, he brought with him an impressive resume, spanning three decades at the middle, high and college levels. With strong results in their first two regular-season games, the Panthers seem to be heading in the right direction.
On Monday, Aug. 11, the first official day of the fall season, the Panthers traveled to Erwin for a nonconference match to open the year. There disaster struck Franklin early on, when the Warriors scored twice in the first 10 minutes.
Senior Dylan Monzon responded eight minutes later, attacking deep into the right side of Erwin’s half. There he evaded multiple defenders and sent a high cross towards goal, finding senior Greg Karcher for a tap-in score.
With rougly six minutes left in the half Franklin attacked up the center of the pitch, where Monzon again found Karcher with a lay-off pass to his left. There the senior uncorked a 25-yard strike across the face of goal and inside the far post. The Panthers ended the half still tied 2-2.
Thirteen minutes into the second Erwin won a corner kick to Franklin’s right, and snuck a shot just inside the far post to take the lead.
Both sides traded chances for the next 16 minutes, until Joaquin Lopez won a loose ball deep in Erwin’s half. From there the junior streaked into the 18-yard box and drew a foul from an Erwin defender to give his team a penalty kick. In a rare expression of trust for a freshman, Wilkinson sent Pablo Odilon to the spot, who calmy found the inside of the right post to tie the match. Franklin held Erwin scoreless through the final 10 minutes for a 3-3 draw.
“Erwin is a phenomenal program – their team did extremely well, and that game was totally different,” said Wilkinson. “We were playing on turf, it was much faster-paced, and we held our shape really well. We went two-nil down after 15 minutes and put ourselves in a real bad hole, and the boys did extremely well to get out of it.”
Three nights later the Panthers returned to Macon Middle School, hosting in-county rival Highlands for their first home match of the season.
After multiple blowout defeats to Franklin in recent years, Highlands looked much-improved to start the match, weathering several early Panther attacks. Roughly 16 minutes in Arturo Soto claimed a loose ball near midfield, and sent a high lob pass for Kevin Torres towards Highlands’ box. There the junior evaded defenders for a one-on-one chance with Highlands’ goalkeeper and scored.
Just two minutes later Franklin attacked Highlands’ box once again, and received an unexpected chance when Highlands’ keeper mishandled the ball. The loose ball fell directly to Soto’s feet, who found an empty net to double Franklin’s lead. The Panthers nearly added multiple goals in the next 20 minutes, but couldn’t tack onto their lead before halftime.
Highlands senior Aniah McKim sparked his team’s offense early in the second, receiving the ball near midfield, dribbling through defenders into Franklin’s box and finding the inside of the far post to halve the Panther lead.
With 18 minutes to play Franklin pushed an attack across midfield, where Torres found Jose Dominguez with a well-placed pass into Highlands’ box. From a difficult angle to the right, the junior shot back across the face of goal and found the inside of the far post to re-double Franklin’s lead.
Highlands answered less than three minutes later, winning a free kick near midfield and finding Conner Hughes open in the box. The senior found the net with a running volley to cut Franklin’s lead to 3-2. The Panthers had the last laugh however, when Karcher found the net from the top of Highlands’ box. Franklin defended their 4-2 advantage to the final whistle.
“We didn’t execute the best today, but we created the opportunities – [that’s] what we’re happy about,” said Wilkinson. “[Highlands head coach Brian Crook] has done an absolutely phenomenal job with them, and they were very disciplined. Soccer is about – like all sports, I guess – it’s about momentum, and when they got that early goal in the second half the momentum changes, and so we have to then manage the game differently. They did really well, they worked hard, it was good to hear their families, and I love the atmosphere of a rivalry.”
With his first-ever win for the program in hand, Wilkinson credited his players for their offseason work. In “borrowing” the MMS field during renovations at Franklin High School, the team was forced to get creative with their schedule this summer.
“It’s going well. A lot of our boys work, so what we did was we implemented morning practices a couple of days a week from 6 a.m. to 7:30, then we have afternoon and evening practices, and it gives the kids the opportunity to work or do their other family commitments that they’ve got to do,” he said. “So, we’ve been doing a lot of indoor stuff and we’re trying to increase the gameplay speed, and that’s going real well. And really, you know, whenever you take over a program you’re trying to establish that buy-in – you’re trying to get the buy-in from the parents, you’re trying to get buy-in from the players and you’re trying to establish the culture of the program, so that’s what we’ve been doing.”
With a wealth of experience as a coach and a player, including a Sun Belt Player of the Year award at Jacksonville University and coaching the MMS boys to an unbeaten season last fall, Wilkinson knows what it takes to create a winning program. To that end, he said the buy-in from the program’s parents, players and fellow coaches has been paramount.
“We tell the boys all the time it’s all about preparation for the playoffs, and even though tonight is only the second game of the season, you’re still preparing for playoffs,” he said. “There are things that we can see that we have to change, there are things that we did well that we can kind of improve and get even better on, but it’s all about being prepared and getting yourself in a position to do well, so I’ve been proud of the boys. Getting started before school starts is extremely tough, getting them together and getting them organized, and we had 13 out of 17 JV players here this morning for a 6 a.m. workout. That’s a testament to the parents because they have to drive the kids to create everything, and that culture is what changes the dynamic, so it’s going really well.”
After dispatching Highlands the Panthers prepared for a difficult road trip, facing regional powers Rabun Gap and Asheville the following week, before returning home versus Hendersonville Aug. 27.