FC girls soccer falls to Station Camp in state quarterfinals

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The Franklin County High School girls soccer team lost to the Station Camp Bison 3-0 at Baylor School Wednesday in a quarterfinal game for the Class AA state tournament.

Franklin County fell behind early and was shut out for just the third time this season as the team’s season ended in the state quarterfinals for the third straight year. The loss snapped a 13-game unbeaten streak for Franklin County that dated back to Aug. 31.

Franklin County head soccer coach Kent Bean said that the blind draw to establish the state brackets wasn’t kind to his team, but his players didn’t back down from the challenge even with plenty of youth on the field.

“Everybody that has spoken to us about the game said they thought that (Station Camp) and us would be the teams at the end of it if we didn’t draw each other in the first or second round. Station Camp was a really, really strong team,” he said. “Our girls fought. We’ve had a lot of young girls that had to step up the last couple weeks and even today to jump into spots that injuries have opened up.”

Bean pointed to sophomore Valeria Gomez and freshmen Gracen Baggett and Madi Morris as filling key roles on the field late in the season, including during Wednesday’s game, before then paying tribute to his seniors.

“This group of seniors has been just an awesome group of leaders for the young ones, treating them well, encouraging them and making sure they’re taken care of on and off the field. I couldn’t ask for a better group of seniors,” he said.

The Bison took the lead about five minutes into the contest as one of their forwards split Franklin County’s defense and was able to roll a ball past Franklin County goalkeeper Brenna Carroll for a goal.

The Bison scored again with about 25 minutes remaining in the first half as Carroll and a Station Camp player converged on a crossing ball in the goal box, and the Station Camp player was able to squeak a shot by to make it a 2-0 game.

Franklin County trailed 2-0 at halftime.

Franklin County’s best chance to score in the second half came with about 12 minutes left as Cali Banks got past the defense and had a one-on-one chance with the opposing goalkeeper, but her shot near the top of the goal box would be stopped.

The Bison quickly turned the tables and pushed the ball downfield before scoring with 11:22 to go to bring the late deficit up to 3-0.

Franklin County was not able to answer back in the time remaining as the final deficit settled at three.

With the loss, Franklin County ended the season with a record of 17-4-1.

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