Two stress fractures in his lower back kept Griffin Atkison on the sideline at the start of Franklin’s two boys soccer matches this season.
The junior midfielder’s minutes have been limited, but not his effectiveness.
Atkison scored two goals and notched an assist on Thursday as the Grizzly Cubs pieced together an impressive second half to pull away from visiting Greenwood, 7-2.
“I’ve been out all summer,” said Atkison, who sustained the injuries in June during club soccer season. “So far through my high school experience, I had started every single game, so this is a little weird. But when I get out there, I feel fresh and ready to play.”
Obviously. In the opener, a 7-0 victory over Shelbyville, Atkison scored three goals in just 10 minutes of playing time.
On Thursday, Franklin was stuck in a 1-1 deadlock with the Woodmen after Cubs’ sophomore Ethan Elsner and Greenwood senior Luke Fiesel swapped goals, with the latter coming off a corner kick from junior forward Lal Piang.
The final 40 minutes were dominated by Franklin, which struck only 77 seconds in on the first of two goals by freshman Matthew Payne. Greenwood again knotted it up, this time on senior forward Alex Asumani’s goal at the 7:57 mark.
Payne responded with his second goal only 36 ticks later, giving the Grizzly Cubs the lead for good. Franklin’s flurry of goals continued with JD Sever’s header off a corner kick, a goal by Cole Hufford and Atkison’s contributions into the back of the Woodmen net.
Franklin coach Tony Harris liked the aggressiveness his players demonstrated the final half.
“I thought we finally started marking and winning the ball,” Harris said. “We didn’t win the ball at all in the first half. The second half, we started winning balls. Winning 50-50 balls, and then it just got our transition game going.
“(Greenwood coach Dan Priscu) has done a great job with those guys. They are so much better. He’s a good coach and friend, and they’re going to be there at the end. He’s going to get them better by the end of the season.”
Priscu, in his first season at Greenwood, liked the fight his team showed throughout in the team’s opener. At the same time, he knows there is ample room for improvement as the Woodmen prepare to host Whiteland next Thursday.
“We stopped moving the ball as fast as we could, even when we were in open space,” Priscu said. “On the transition, they killed us when we weren’t on point in terms of our passing. We (usually) move it very well, but this time we were off by half an inch every time.”
Franklin is back in action Tuesday, when it travels to Southport.
