Panther men’s soccer opened their conference schedule with two big wins.
After a month of fine-tuning against other regional opponents, on the week of Sept. 11 Franklin played their most important matches to date. In multi-goal wins over East Henderson and Tuscola, Matt Kolodzik’s team entered the weekend tied for first in the Mountain Seven Conference.
On Sept. 11, Franklin welcomed East to the Panther Pit for a match that served as both teams’ conference opener. The two sides looked evenly matched in the early goings, trading unsuccessful chances at each others’ goals for the first half-hour. In the 32nd minute, junior midfielder Graham Caldwell pushed a Panther attack past midfield, and found junior forward Josiah Mascorro with a well-placed through pass just behind the defense. Seeing senior Ulises Padron-Perez unmarked in a central position, Mascorro passed to Padron-Perez, who beat East’s keeper to the lower left corner of the net.
Less than three minutes later, the senior proved why he’s been the focus of opponents’ game plans all year, evading three Eagle defenders and finding junior Jochemus Tagge near the top of East’s 18-yard box. Tagge beat the keeper with a beautiful chip to the far lower corner of the net, and Franklin protected their 2-0 lead to the half.
East came out firing to begin the second, taking several wild shots that never truly threatened the Panther goal. Midway through the half, an Eagle finally broke through, making an incisive run through Franklin’s defense and finding an open teammate with a cross.
With their lead cut in half, the next several minutes were nervy ones for Franklin. With 14 minutes to play however, they were awarded a free kick 38 yards from goal, where senior Frankie Vallez beat the keeper with an incredible strike to the lower right corner.
With their deficit back to two, East spent the final minutes in an all-out attack on Franklin’s goal. With 10 minutes to play, an Eagle noticed a teammate behind Franklin’s defense, and found him with a well-placed lob pass for a point-blank shot. Junior goalkeeper Will Sinclair made the play of the game on defense however, saving the first shot in split-second fashion and a second shot off the ricochet. Franklin defended their 3-1 lead to the final whistle.
“Whenever you face East it’s gonna be knock-down, drag-out, and it really was,” said Kolodzik. “I was really, really proud of the response that they had. They did well with possession, did well shifting defensively, we fixed some of the issues that we saw the week previous, and I was real happy to see that. You’d like to see a few more finishes in that game because we had some opportunities, but the guys really stepped up and played well.”
After dispatching East, two nights later the team returned to the Panther Pit for another conference match with Tuscola. There, the game started poorly for Franklin, when 12 minutes in officials awarded the Mountaineers a throw-in near the Panther goal. When the ball was sent into the box, Franklin was penalized for tripping an attacker, and Tuscola converted the penalty kick for an early lead.
In the 16th minute, the Panthers answered back when Tuscola’s keeper saved a close-range shot from Padron-Perez, but deflected it to the feet of Mascorro for an easy tap-in.
Four minutes later, Franklin earned a corner kick to the Mounties’ left, where Mascorro found junior Miguel Cruz for a close-range header. Two minutes after that, Cruz and Mascorro cleverly dissected Tuscola, with Mascorro leading Cruz behind defenders with a well-placed through pass and a one-on-one opportunity with the keeper. Franklin maintained their 3-1 lead through the last 18 minutes of the half.
This score held through much of the second half as well, as neither team were able to break down the other’s defense. With 16 minutes to play, Franklin’s two-goal lead was seriously jeopardized when officials awarded Tuscola a penalty kick. For the second time in three days however, Sinclair turned in some late-game heroics, making a diving save to his left to deny a golden opportunity.
Just 30 seconds later, Franklin broke the Mounties’ back, when Padron-Perez shook a defender and sent a gorgeous strike to the far top corner of the net. The Panthers protected their 4-1 lead to the final whistle.
“Tonight, Tuscola was actually a much-improved team over last year,” said Kolodzik. “If you watched some of the ball movement they had, they really were well-coached. … You go down 1-0 and then you think about how your team’s gonna respond to that, and what they did was they just picked it up a notch. Sometimes in previous games we’ve seen [opponents] get a goal on them and it kind of gets them down a little bit, but I thought you could see something changing there to where their response was much heavier than what they got knocked with. I’m very, very proud of the guys as far as their response.”
With two multi-goal wins over Mountain Seven opponents at the Panther Pit, Franklin kicked off their 2022 conference title defense with a 2-0 record. At 6-2 overall, the team seems to be hitting their stride at just the right time, led by the attacking and strength in possession of Padron-Perez.
“It feels great. The team is hyped, we’re 2-0, and we’re going for more next week,” said the senior after the match. “Last week we weren’t playing good – I ain’t gonna lie. But all of a sudden, we just turned up. Our ball movement has been great, and we’ve been playing amazing.”