Richards leads Franklin boys past Greenwood

<p>Two matches were all Aaron Richards needed to quintuple his scoring output of a year ago.</p><p>Franklin’s midfielder tallied three goals on Thursday to lead the Grizzly Cubs boys soccer team to a 4-0 defeat of host Greenwood. Richards now has five goals after scoring two in the team’s 2-1 win over Shelbyville to open the season.</p><p>Richards, a senior, scored once last season.</p><p>“We’ve asked Aaron to do a different role this year,” Franklin coach Tony Harris said. “He played a little bit more in the midfield for us last year, and he’s playing more up top right now. We do a couple of different things with him because he has some interesting talents and has an eye for the goal.”</p><p>That was apparent early and often against the Woodmen, as Richards needed only 6 minutes, 28 seconds to score his first goal. He left-footed in a second with 20:22 on the scoreboard clock and made it a 3-0 match with 9:18 left in the second half.</p><p>Richards likes the new role he’s been assigned.</p><p>&quot;It feels great. I feel like I have a really important role on the team,&quot; Richards said. &quot;I’ve got a good attacking midfielder behind me who can help me set up. All I’ve got to do is finish them.</p><p>&quot;I was told I was going to be playing center mid this season, but he needed me at striker, so I was like, ‘I’m down for it.’&quot;</p><p>Franklin sophomore midfielder Griffin Atkison capped the scoring with 9 seconds remaining in the match.</p><p>Fourth-year Greenwood coach Dan Weber enters this season with a roster comprised mostly of underclassmen. Despite opening the season with a loss to a county and conference rival, Weber can’t help but to be encouraged.</p><p>“I’ve got four starting sophomores and a freshman starter on my varsity team, so we’re very young,” Weber said. “For the first game, I thought they did very well. When we went down two goals, I was afraid — teams in the past might have given up a little bit.</p><p>“This team stepped up. They played hard and I thought they played all the way to the end. We had a couple of hiccups at the end, a couple of bad judgments, but that’s just a young team. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of teams.”</p><p>Franklin (2-0, 1-0 Mid-State Conference) returns to the pitch Tuesday when it hosts Class 3A No. 18 Southport. The Woodmen (0-1, 0-1) are off for a week before remaining in conference with a match at Whiteland on Thursday.</p>