advertisement

Boys soccer: Franklin sets St. Edward scoring record in 5-0 win

It seems the only person who can stop A.J. Franklin is Tim Brieger. And even the longtime St. Edward boys soccer coach has trouble slowing down the high-scoring forward.

After Franklin put up 3 first-half goals against Harvest Christian, becoming the Green Wave's all-time leading scorer in the process, Brieger intended to give him the rest of the afternoon off. But after the Lions built some momentum late in the first half, Brieger sent Franklin back in the game to try for one more goal. Franklin accomplished that quickly enough thanks to a feed from Josh Johansen but then, well, let Brieger tell it.

"He scored, and I was literally writing it down and turning to the kid I was going to put in and he got another one," Brieger said. "And he looks at me and says, 'Five, I look like a (jerk),' and I said, 'That is not what I wanted.' He even came off and said, 'Coach, I'm sorry about that.' We talked and he knows. He said, 'It was just there.' And I look over at Harvest and they're great kids and I thought, 'I hope they don't take this the wrong way.' "

Franklin was the only one to score in the Green Wave's 5-0 nonconference win.

The 5 goals gave Franklin 83 for his career, breaking the mark for both the boys' and girls' programs held by Chelsea Gnan.

Franklin got his accolades after scoring his third goal midway through the first half to applause.

"I got goose bumps down my back," he said. "It was a pretty cool feeling."

The Green Wave moved to 5-0, having outscored its opponents 27-3. Franklin has 12 of those.

Johansen was a big part of Franklin's big day, assisting on 3 of the goals.

Meanwhile the young Lions, whose roster is about 50 percent freshmen, are still looking for an identity. They played just their second game of the season, falling to 0-1-1.

"Our defenders and our midfielders are back, but all of our firepower (from last season) is gone," said Harvest coach Sina Vidic. "We're trying to figure out how to play. After a few minutes we started working on that. It's our second game of the season and we played like it."

Franklin scored his first about 10 minutes in. He struck again about 2 minutes later, pouncing on a rebound of a shot by Jackson Godfrey.

Evan Sajtar started and went most of the way in goal for St. Edward. Peter Cholewa finished up, but neither was tested often. With the St. Edward defense clamping down, the Lions put just 5 shots on goal.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.