Franklin County's Kevin Hernandez, in white, dribbles past a defender during a game Tuesday at Marshall County High School. Hernandez scored four goals in the 7-1 win.
Franklin County's Kevin Hernandez, in white, dribbles past a defender during a game Tuesday at Marshall County High School. Hernandez scored four goals in the 7-1 win.
The Franklin County High School boys soccer team beat the Marshall County Tigers 7-1 on the road Tuesday for the team’s third win of the season.
Franklin County opened up a big lead early in the district contest and continued to build on it throughout the game for a decisive victory.
Franklin County head soccer coach Kent Bean said his team didn’t play up to its full potential in the first half, but he was happy with how his players performed after the halftime break.
“There were some things in the first half that I wasn’t super happy about, even though we were ahead,” he said, adding later that a lack of focus seemed to be the main issue. “In the second half, they went out and did a much better job with that. We picked up the intensity, just focused a little bit more, were more intentional about what we were doing on the field, and we controlled 90 percent of the second half.”
The first goal of the day for Franklin County came with about 32:27 remaining in the first half as Kevin Hernandez headed the ball into the net after receiving a pass from Kener Perez.
Perez would be the next scorer for Franklin County as he received a pass from Cason Eslick and then chipped the ball over the opposing goalkeeper and across the goal line to make it a 2-0 game. It was the second goal of the season for Perez.
Franklin County scored again about two minutes later with Hernandez breaking away from the defense at midfield and sneaking a shot past the Tigers’ goalkeeper to put the early score at 3-0.
Eslick rounded out the first-half scoring for Franklin County as he fired a shot into the net from the top of the goal box to push the lead up to 4-0 with 22 minutes remaining in the first half. Eslick has three goals so far this season for Franklin County.
The Tigers got their lone score of the day with about 11 minutes to go in the first half as they pushed the ball down the field before finding the net with a high shot.
Franklin County led 4-1 at halftime.
The scoring resumed about five minutes into the second half as Eslick found an open Hernandez in the goal box before Hernandez quickly turned and fired a hard shot into the net to secure a hat trick for himself and make it a 5-1 game.
Hernandez would score one more time with 26:39 to go in the contest as he knocked in a free kick from just outside the goal box for his fourth goal of the day and his 11th of the season.
Isreal Mendez struck the final blow for Franklin County as he scored off of a long shot with 14:29 remaining for his first goal of the season as the final deficit settled at six.
With the win, Franklin County improved to 3-2-1 on the season and 1-0 in district play.
The boys soccer team will next play on April 2 at home against Forrest High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
