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The Franklin County High School girls soccer team beat the Tullahoma Lady Wildcats 3-1 at home Thursday for their seventh win of the season.

Franklin County rallied from an early deficit to take the lead late in the first half and stayed in front the rest of the way to pick up a district victory in the rivalry matchup.

Franklin County head soccer coach Kent Bean said he was proud of his players for coming back following a rough start to the game.

“The girls fought back. We were knocking on the door over and over, but we just had to settle down and finally got one to go,” he said, referring to his team’s first goal. “I think once the one (shot) went in, we were able to take a breath, settle in and then really play our game.”

The Lady Wildcats put up their lone goal of the day about six minutes after the opening kickoff as they scored off of a breakaway opportunity to put Franklin County behind early.

Franklin County was awarded a penalty kick with about 14 minutes left in the first half, but the ensuing attempt from Baylor Russell went just wide of the net.

Osiris Rodriguez fired a hard shot at the net from just outside the goal box a few minutes later, but Tullahoma’s goalkeeper jumped and made a diving save to deflect the ball out of bounds.

Franklin County broke through for a tying score with 5:32 remaining in the first half as Cali Banks received a pass from Karly Neal down the sideline and hit a shot which went over the opposing goalkeeper and into the net for her seventh score of the season.

Franklin County then quickly took the lead less than two minutes later as Rodriguez received a pass from Russell at the top of the goal box and fired a shot into the goal to make it a 2-1 game. It was the 10^th goal of the year for Rodriguez.

Franklin County led 2-1 at halftime.

The momentum remained on Franklin County’s side to start the second half as a shot from Cali Banks deflected off of Tullahoma’s goalkeeper and found the feet of Russell. Russell then tapped the ball into the open net with her fifth goal of the season giving Franklin County a 3-1 advantage.

The score would remain there for the rest of the day as Franklin County won by two.

With the win, Franklin County improved to 7-3-1 on the season and 4-0 in district play.

The girls soccer team will next play Tuesday at home against Giles County High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.