Franklin County's Kevin Hernandez moves the ball up the field during a game Thursday against DeKalb County High School. Hernandez had five goals and an assist in the 8-1 win.
Franklin County's Kevin Hernandez moves the ball up the field during a game Thursday against DeKalb County High School. Hernandez had five goals and an assist in the 8-1 win.
The Franklin County High School boys soccer team beat the DeKalb County Tigers 8-1 at home Thursday in their first game of the season.
Franklin County scored early and often to steadily pull away for a blowout victory to open the team’s campaign.
Franklin County head soccer coach Kent Bean said it was a good win for his team with his players displaying solid chemistry throughout.
“We were able to get up early and quick, so that was exciting, something we’ve wanted to see and we’ve been waiting on. We think if we just keep building on that chemistry and those connections, it’ll just keep getting better and better,” he said before later talking about the importance of his team’s fast start. “We think we can score often and keep that momentum going. Once it starts rolling, we’ll be hard to stop. That’s kind of what we’re hoping to do.”
Franklin County was awarded a penalty kick with 32:36 remaining in the first half, and Kevin Hernandez nailed the attempt to give his team an early 1-0 advantage.
The next goal came about two minutes later as Hernandez received a pass from Alex DeWolfe and fought through a crowd of defenders before firing a shot into the net.
Cason Eslick provided the next score for Franklin County as he hit a shot from the top of the goal box to make it a 3-0 game with 16 minutes left in the first half.
Hernandez completed a first-half hat trick less than a minute later as he took a long shot that hit off the top of the crossbar and across the goal line to bring the early advantage up to 4-0.
The final goal of the first half came with about six minutes remaining in the period as Eslick broke away from the defense and found the back of the net for his second goal of the day.
Franklin County led 5-0 at halftime.
The next goal for Franklin County came about 14 minutes into the second half with a deflected shot by Hernandez finding the feet of Kener Perez, who finished the play and fired a shot into the net to make it a 6-0 game.
The Tigers were given a chance at a penalty kick with 15 minutes to go, and their kicker was able to hit the attempt to get DeKalb County on the board.
Hernandez struck for his fourth goal of the day with about eight minutes to go as he scored on a long free kick to push Franklin County’s advantage up to 7-1 late.
The final score of the day came with about six minutes left as Hernandez scored once more for his fifth and final goal of the day to seal the win by seven.
With the win, Franklin County started the season with a record of 1-0.
The boys soccer team will next play Monday at Cumberland County High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
