Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Seven tenths of a second remained on the scoreboard Thursday night, and Franklin’s Griffin Atkison was lined up to take a penalty kick at Whiteland.
The idea that a PK with under a minute remaining would be almost meaningless seems out of this world. But when you step into the Mid-State Conference, it’s a whole different world.
That goal was basically just window dressing for statistical purposes, but it felt like a reward for Atkison.
The senior had been playing the right game all night.
A perfectly timed through ball here, a well-placed tap just out of his defender’s reach there. Those well-played possessions from the Grizzly Cubs and Atkison’s last-second PK goal were enough for a 3-1 road win.
Atkison bookended the game with a barrel of a goal three minutes into the game, putting the ball far beyond the reach of Whiteland goalie Jake Witherington.
Both teams battled back and forth for the rest of the half, with the two clubs’ seasoned back lines holding their own and fending off anything close to a goal.
Even though Franklin (5-1-1, 3-1) remained up 1-0 heading into halftime, coach Tony Harris wasn’t satisfied with their performance.
“We didn’t play our way,” he said. “It wasn’t necessarily bad, but we didn’t show toughness. We didn’t win balls, we didn’t come at them and attack them. We let them kind of attack us. Second half, we had that conversation about who we are and what we’re about, and I thought they did come out in the second half and just really battled and really fought.”
The intensity was turned on its head in the second half, with both teams seeming to wake up. That intensity did not result in much besides repeated failed attacks and counters until a cross found the feet of Franklin’s Dylan Harris in the box. He kept the ball on the ground and slid it past Witherington for a 2-0 lead with 24:30 left.
J.D. Lompo converted on a penalty kick to get the Warriors on the board and suddenly, with 3:52 left, Whiteland (2-8, 1-3) was struck with a bolt of energy. The minutes whittled down, however, and the buzz was unable to translate into a tying goal.
“It does feel good to win,” Harris said. “It’s a tough week when we don’t win this game and it’s a great week when we do.”
Even with the loss, Whiteland head coach Justin VanHorn still believes firmly that the two clubs were on equal levels. His just didn’t find the back of the net.
“Even though the season hasn’t been going the way we want it, guys are still confident,” VanHorn said. “Franklin is a good team. I think they’re a top-tier team in the conference. And it was really close there for a while. I don’t know that anybody was better than anybody. They scored more goals than us tonight. So just finding a way to put it together in the final third, for us, is kind of the big thing right now.”
