HENDERSONVILLE – The stakes ran high Wednesday night at Johnson Field between the West Henderson and Franklin soccer teams, with the winner taking full control of the Western North Carolina Athletic Conference.
The game was controlled by strong defense early by both teams, but the Falcons were able to come away with 1-0 victory on a second-half goal by Thomas Jones off of a throw-in by fellow senior Austin Rutter.
Both teams entered the game with a 5-0-0 record in conference play.
Franklin coach Ken Neitz knew his team was in for a tough challenge facing the strong offense of West Henderson, led by Tyson Hichman. Hichman broke the Falcon’s all-time scoring record against Tuscola on Monday night.
“The game played like it should have between two teams that are number one in the conference,” Neitz said. “They have three legitimate scorers. We tried to out-possession them, and keep the ball off their feet.”
The Panthers (7-4) challenged West Henderson early, stopping their opponent from setting up any goal opportunities. Junior goalkeeper Tomas Marquez was able to save 13 shots, leading both goalkeepers on the night.
Neitz will not look to change any of his team’s strategy for their upcoming games despite the first conference loss of the year.
“I don’t think there’s anything we need to change, we are playing well,” Neitz said. “Tonight we just couldn’t find the back of the net. Hopefully we will take this as motivation for the second half of conference play.”
The Falcons (10-3-1) continued their strong defensive play, now only allowing one goal in their past four games. Jones’ late second-half goal marks his 15th goal on the season. Goalkeeper Cesar Aguilar was able to save eight shot attempts by the Panthers. Jones hopes this win pushes his team to finish the conference in first place.
“We want to finish the season undefeated and win the conference this season,” Jones said. “It feels great to take the conference lead this early in the season.”
West Henderson head coach Brian Brewer believes this year’s team success is not only great for this season but for future seasons, because of the amount of young talent.
“We are a solid team, a lot of those guys are young. This is not a one-and-done team,” Brewer said.
The Panthers will look to bounce back at home against Highlands on Thursday. The Falcons, currently on a seven-game win streak, will play next at East Henderson on Monday.
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