After falling to the Bearcats in Hendersonville to close out the previous week, on March 1 Franklin’s men’s soccer team returned to Macon Middle School for a date with Brevard. Although the Panthers had blown out the Blue Devils 6-1 less than three weeks earlier, this Brevard team looked very different from the one that lost in Transylvania County, as several key players had since returned from the COVID list. The teams looked evenly matched to start the game, with both sides trading chances to no avail for the better part of the half. With just five minutes left until the break, Brevard broke through, beating multiple Panthers one-on-one for an open shot on the Franklin net.
Down 1-0 after halftime, Franklin came out swinging in the second half, looking sharp on the ball and continuing to probe Brevard’s third of the field. Roughly halfway through the half, the Panthers finally caught a break when the official awarded Franklin a free kick near the touch line just inside the Brevard half. With a vast distance between the free kick spot and the goal, the Devil goalkeeper moved to the top of his box to defend the kick. Sensing the keeper off his line, junior midfielder Pablo Montelongo sent a beautiful strike over the keeper’s head and inside the far post, giving Franklin one of its finest goals of the season to date.
After Montelongo’s strike the Panthers had the momentum, creating chances and winning the ball from Brevard attackers. A few minutes later, midfielder Isaiah Roots won the ball off an errant Brevard header and avoided a defender to send a through ball to forward Erick Munoz. Munoz received the pass and drew a penalty inside the Brevard box. The Panthers buried the shot and held on to win the match 2-1.
“Brevard was a better team,” said head coach Matt Kolodzik of Brevard’s improvement throughout the season. “We showed some resiliency there where we were down, and we were able to come back and get a couple. That was a quality team – Brevard’s record doesn't show how much they've improved. … They came in here and battled, and we were able to persevere and pull through. We’ve really become a second-half team.”
After dispatching Brevard Monday evening, on Wednesday, March 3 the Panthers returned to Macon Middle School for their final home game of the season against East Henderson. Just minutes after the MMS boys team lost the Blue Ridge Conference final in a penalty shootout heartbreaker, the varsity Panthers sought a consolation prize for fans in attendance, looking sharp on the ball to begin the match.
Both teams traded blows until the 28th minute, when disaster struck for the Panthers by way of a penalty inside their own box. The Eagles could not get on the board however, as star goalkeeper Isaac Jennings made a heroic diving save in front of his right goalpost to keep East Henderson goalless. With just two and a half minutes left before the break, Franklin was awarded its own penalty kick when junior striker Luis Torres made a run into the visitors’ box and drew a strong tackle from the Eagle goalkeeper. Torres buried the shot to put Franklin up 1-0.
After halftime Franklin continued to look sharp, building attacks from the back and keeping East Henderson away from their net. Despite several more chances for Eagle attackers, Franklin’s defense held firm, and outlasted a quality team to take the match 1-0. After the game Kolodzik said he was proud of his squad for getting a win against one of the best teams in the Mountain Six.
“They have responded to a lot of the little things we've been talking about all season,” he said. “They picked up on the cues from the other team – if they saw a bad touch, they were pressing correctly. We were able to really keep the ball in their half most of the game. It really just comes down to fight, and you look and see that they have that heart.”