FC girls declaw Bears, 5-0

Franklin County High School’s Lady Soccer Dawgs garnered their fifth-straight district win of the season last week in downing the West Lincoln Lady Bears, 5-0, on Thursday, Jan. 5.

The squad wound up in a 1-1 tie at home against Purvis on Friday, Jan. 6 to see its season mark settle at 10-2-2 overall.

FC 1, PURVIS 1

The Lady Dawgs scored early thanks to the Brooklynn Cupit completion of a Gre’Yonne Queen cross, but the home team could not find the inside of the net the rest of the way.

Purvis scored in the 54th minute of the contest to knot things up between the two programs.
In all, FC finished with 23 shots and eight shots on goal.

Karlee Wallace paced the offensive effort with six shots and two SOG while Cupit and Queen had four shots and two SOG apiece.

Kaitlyn Fussell and Lilly Hutto recorded three shots with one shot on goal each. Amberly Wallace, Carmon Coleman and Edniya Gordan all had one shot apiece for the Lady Soccer Dawgs.

Defensively, Franklin County was led by Ken’niya McGowan’s career-best 14 stops while Addison Cooper added 12 and Amberly Wallace finished with 11.

Other take-aways were collected by Braxton Martin, nine; Karlee Wallace and Hutto, seven apiece; Coleman, six; Fussell and Meg Kelly, four each; Marlee Tindle and Queen, three apiece; Kendra Jones, two; and Gordon, one.

FC goalkeeper Katherine Romero accounted for eight saves against Purvis while surrendering a single goal in 80 minutes in front of the net.

“Ken’niya did an outstanding job against a very talented Purvis team,” Franklin County Head Soccer Coach Jeff Long said.

“Defensively, we played great, but we struggled to score offensively and that was the difference.”

FC 5, WEST LINCOLN 0

The Lady Soccer Dawgs controlled the tempo of their district match-up against West Lincoln’s Lady Bears on Thursday, Jan. 5 and walked away with a 5-0 victory.

Queen recorded a hat trick with three goals in the first half on timely assists by Karlee Wallace and Cupit.

The second half saw Hutto nail a penalty kick and Gordon also found the net late on a feed from Cupit.

In the keeper’s role, Romero had two saves on as many shots to take the victory and picked up her fifth shutout against district teams and her eighth on the campaign thus far.

Pacing the Lady Soccer Dawgs’ defense were McGowan, Karlee Wallace and Martin with eight stops each while Cooper, Hutto and Amberly Wallace wound up with seven apiece.

Kelly, Tindle and Coleman finished with five take-aways each against the Lady Bears.

Other defensive stop totals included: Cupit, four; Queen and Fussell, three each; and Gordon and Jones, one each.

“Defense has been the reason for our success,” Long said of his squad.

“Our keeper play from Katherine has been outstanding, while our back line has proven themselves to be very solid and getting better with each game.

“Offensively, we played one of our best games yet, with great ball movement and good communication. Against West Lincoln, we strung together more passes than we have all season long and were making multiple runs off the ball.”