Panther men’s soccer will not repeat as conference champions.
Entering the week of Oct. 11, last year’s Mountain Seven winners faced long odds of defending their title, sitting in fourth with a 3-4 conference record. In a 4-2 win at Tuscola, Franklin briefly kept their hopes alive, but a 2-0 home loss to Pisgah eliminated them from title contention.
On Monday, Oct. 9, the Panthers traveled to Tuscola to rehash their 4-1 win over the Mountaineers Sept. 13. There, midfielder Ulises Padron-Perez wasted little time stressing defenders, dribbling back toward his own half then turning upfield suddenly to shake a defender. With space in front of him, the senior talisman uncorked a beautiful strike nearly 40 yards from goal, which sailed over the keeper’s head and into the net just four minutes in.
Tuscola equalized in the 22nd minute, pressing upfield and sneaking a high shot under the crossbar from 25 yards. Franklin answered just seconds later however, when junior midfielder Graham Caldwell intercepted a Mountie pass and found Padron-Perez deep inside enemy territory. Near the left side of Tuscola’s 18-yard box, the senior made another deft move to evade a defender and passed to Josiah Mascorro, who found the net from a difficult angle to put his team up 2-1.
With five minutes left in the half, the Mounties looked poised to equalize again, slipping in behind the Panther defense with a well-placed through pass. Junior goalkeeper Will Sinclair denied the one-on-one chance however, beating the attacker to the ball and clearing it before the two collided. Seeming to sustain a minor injury on the play, Sinclair was briefly replaced in goal by senior Swiss army knife Frankie Vallez, but returned for a goalless final three minutes of the half.
Seven minutes into the second, Mascorro harassed Tuscola again, pressuring a Mountie throw-in and deflecting the ball toward freshman Kevin Torres. Torres then sent a through pass just beyond Mascorro’s reach, but the keeper missed a routine save to give the junior a tap-in goal.
With 25 minutes to play, senior Alejandro Robles-Perez pushed another attack into the Mountie half, finding Padron-Perez with open space to the left of goal. The senior shook another defender and scored from point-blank range to put his team up 4-1.
With five minutes to play, Tuscola picked Franklin’s pockets near midfield, and beat Sinclair with a beautiful shot just under the crossbar from 25 yards. The Panther defense held firm for the remainder however, cementing the 4-2 win.
“When I saw the way our guys played against Tuscola, I saw what you might call a rebirth of the team,” said head coach Matt Kolodzik. “We switched some guys, put them in some different positions, we had one or two guys starting that weren’t starting before. They earned it, and what I saw in that Tuscola match was a team that possessed, that finished. What I asked for in that game was that we try to assist every one of the goals that we could, so we really focused in on that, and we actually assisted three of the four goals.”
Two nights later, the team returned to the Panther Pit for a much-anticipated match with Pisgah. At 4-4, Franklin needed to beat the 7-0 Black Bears to stay alive for a Mountain Seven title, and felt they just had to improve slightly on their 3-2 loss in Canton Sept. 18.
The match was intense and physical from the start, as both sides fought tooth and nail for possession amid somewhat laissez-faire officiating. In the 14th minute, Torres nearly put his team on the board, evading defenders and sending a rocket toward goal from the top of the box. The shot bounced off the left goalpost however, and Pisgah was able to clear their lines from danger.
With 10 minutes left in the half, Padron-Perez showed off his skill on the ball, receiving a cross-field pass from Vallez near the top of the box and putting a defender on skates. The senior curled a shot to the lower right corner, but Pisgah’s keeper made a solid save and corralled the ball.
The search for Franklin’s first goal continued into the second half, marked by unsuccessful chances at goal from Padron-Perez and senior Yeins Chavez. In the 55th minute however, disaster struck the Panthers when two Bears connected on a through pass behind defenders and beat Sinclair one-on-one.
With less than 13 minutes to play, Pisgah doubled their lead, stealing the ball from Panther defenders near the left edge of the box. With only space between he and the attacker at point-blank range, Sinclair made an excellent save to deny the initial shot, but the ricochet bounced to another Bear for an easy tap-in. The Bears maintained their 2-0 lead to the final whistle.
“I was really happy with the guys. You hate to give up those couple goals, and hate that we couldn’t get a couple on our end,” said Kolodzik. “You get a shot or two, and then it changes the whole complexion of the game. But, I thought our guys played quality soccer. They possessed and we went in after the first half 0-0, and I said, ‘Guys, you’re doing everything that a coach could ask for, so now let’s just finish.’ It was unfortunate that we just couldn’t break through, and that’s been kind of the story of the season so far – finishing on both ends.”
With the loss to Pisgah, Franklin dropped to 4-5 in the Mountain Seven, good for fourth place with just three more games to play this regular season. With a winning record overall (8-7) and a strong strength of schedule however, Kolodzik remains confident in the team’s postseason odds.
“Unfortunately we didn’t win on the scoreboard here, but I’m very happy with the trajectory of the team going into the playoffs,” he said. “This is what we talked about – we’re fighting, we’re improving, we’re increasing, we’re doing things that we need to do, and it’s starting to click. That’s what we want to see as we go into the playoffs.”