It was a good news-bad news scenario for both Greenwood and Franklin in Mid-State Conference girls soccer action Wednesday night.
Well, maybe not super bad news.
The good news was the Woodmen recorded their third straight shutout, another clean sheet for sophomore goalie Brooklyn Benefiel.
Franklin also recorded a shutout, which leads to the bad news — a 0-0 tie meant neither team won despite both having had several chances to score.
“It was frustrating,” Greenwood coach Dan Appelbaum said. “We were a drop ball here, a drop ball there (from scoring) and the same for (Franklin).
For its part, Franklin (1-0-1, 0-0-1) looked vastly improved from previous years where they have struggled on the pitch.
The Grizzly Cubs kept the ball in play on Greenwood’s side of the pitch for a lot of the first half and threatened to score early with junior forwards Jazlinn Diaz-Avalos and Sami Frazier. They had their best chance in the ninth minute of play when Benefiel was caught out of position, but Diaz-Avalos couldn’t get a good shot off against the swarm of Woodmen who fell back to protect their end.
Five minutes later, another flurry by the Cubs ended the same way — with the Woodmen (2-0-1, 1-0-1) thwarting it. A free kick by senior Izzy Traut sailed past Benefiel and just a few inches over the right side of the crossbar in what turned out to be Franklin’s best chance.
After that, Franklin’s threats were marked so well that they didn’t get any more decent shots at the net.
“(Greenwood) knew what we were looking for and they defended against it,” Franklin coach Garrett Belden said. “It was a tough and well-fought game.
“Nothing seemed to want to go in the back of the net.”
Greenwood’s golden opportunity came with eight minutes left to play, when freshman Katia Loper made a perfect corner kick that sailed past Cub goalie Addi Mashino and the Grizzly Cub defense. The trouble was that no Woodmen were within sight of the ball. Had anyone been in position, it would have been an easy goal against an open net.
“That cross did leave us a little exposed, but we managed to get it sorted,” Belden said.
Neither team could muster up a great scoring opportunity, though the last four minutes were not without excitement as Benefiel had to use her legs to outrun Franklin players whenever the ball came within sight of the goal.
While the tie wasn’t exactly celebrated by either squad, there was no bitterness, either.
“Both teams can leave with their heads held up high,” Appelbaum said. “(Franklin) has vastly improved a lot and were a very good team to battle with.”
