Franklin County's Danika Arellano moves the ball up the field during a game Tuesday against DeKalb County High School. Arellano scored two goals in the 9-0 win.
Franklin County's Danika Arellano moves the ball up the field during a game Tuesday against DeKalb County High School. Arellano scored two goals in the 9-0 win.
The Franklin County High School girls soccer team beat the DeKalb County Lady Tigers 9-0 at home Tuesday in a semifinal game for the Region 4AA tournament.
Franklin County jumped out to a big early lead and continued to steadily pull away throughout the day, wrapping up the blowout victory with 17 minutes left via the mercy rule to advance to the regional championship game for the fourth year in a row.
Franklin County’s first goal came about a minute after the opening kickoff as Osiris Rodriguez scored off an assist from Gracen Baggett for her 15th goal of the season.
Baggett recorded the next score for Franklin County as she fired a shot in off an assist from Rodriguez to make it a 2-0 game less than eight minutes into the contest. It was the seventh goal of the season for Baggett.
Valeria Gomez found the net with a shot about a minute later as her fourth goal of the year quickly brought the deficit up to 3-0.
After a 14-minute stretch with no goals scored, Franklin County’s offense got back on track as Caitlyn Cashion scored off an assist from Rodriguez to put the score at 4-0 with 17:33 left in the first half. The goal was the third of the campaign for Cashion.
Carly Smith was the next Franklin County player to get on the board as she redirected a shot from Cashion into the net for her second goal of the season to make it a 5-0 game with 15:38 remaining until halftime.
The last goal of the first half came on a shot by Riley Howell with her fifth score of the season growing the deficit up to six goals with four minutes to go in the period.
Franklin County led 6-0 at halftime.
Danika Arellano joined the offensive barrage about three minutes into the second half as she scored off an assist from Carly Smith to push the lead up to 7-0.
Danika Arellano scored again with about 27 minutes left in the second half with Gomez providing the assist this time as Arellano’s second goal of the day and her third of the season made it an 8-0 game.
Nyomi Arellano provided the final score needed to trigger the mercy rule as her second goal of the season came off an assist from Howell to end the game.
With the win, Franklin County improved to 15-3-1 on the season.
The girls soccer team will next play Thursday at home against Tullahoma High School in the Region 4AA championship game. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
