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The Franklin County High School girls soccer team lost to the Summit Lady Spartans 4-2 on the road Thursday in a preseason scrimmage.

The Lady Spartans did all of their scoring in the first half with Franklin County not being able to rally back in the exhibition contest.

Franklin County head soccer coach Kent Bean said that his team got off to a slow start but did a good job of making adjustments at halftime.

“I’m glad that we were able to see some things in the first half that we need to address, talk about and work on and glad to see that some of that was already being taken care of in the second half,” he said before referring to physicality as being a missing component for his team in the first half. “We didn’t come out being the aggressor. We lost a lot of our physicality last year in that group of seniors. We’ve been looking for somebody to step up and fill those roles, and in the second half, it seemed like several people wanted to step up.”

The Lady Spartans were the first team on the board as they scored off of a corner kick about seven minutes into the contest to take an early 1-0 lead.

Franklin County briefly tied the score with 28 minutes remaining in the first half as Cali Banks received a pass from Baylor Russell, maneuvered around a charging Summit goalkeeper and fired a shot into the open net for a score.

However, the Lady Spartans retook the lead less than a minute later to quickly retake control of the contest.

 The deficit grew against Franklin County following an own goal with about 22 minutes remaining in the first half to make it a 3-1 game.

The Lady Spartans were awarded a penalty kick with 1:49 remaining in the first half, and their kicker converted the attempt to put the lead at three.

Franklin County trailed 4-1 at halftime.

Franklin County chipped away a portion of the deficit with 15 minutes remaining in the contest as Osiris Rodriguez launched a long free kick which found the net for a goal.

However, Franklin County wouldn’t be able to score again before time ran out as the team lost by two.

The FCHS girls soccer team will play in its next scrimmage on Tuesday at home against Culleoka High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The girls soccer team is scheduled to open the 2023 season on Aug. 15 at Lawrence County High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.