Senior captain Kelly Dubowski scored a hat trick and junior Maddie Bressler scored three points as the Franklin Panthers beat King Philip 6-1 in a big Kelley-Rex division clash on Thursday at the Beaver St. fields.
Franklin (6-0-1) got off to a great start, scoring three early goals. Bressler scored the opening two goals of the game and Dubowski added her first early in the opening half. According to head coach Lisa Cropper, these are the kind of starts that the Panthers have been pushing for over the past few games.
“We started fast, which we’ve been doing the last two games,” said Cropper. “The first couple of games of the season we had slow starts, it allowed the other team to stay in the game and it was an uphill battle.”
King Philip (2-4-1) head coach Liz Hathaway knew what to expect from the league leaders, but felt her team did not adjust to the speed of the Panthers on their home turf.
“We knew that they were physical and they come out right away very, very aggressive,” she explained. “We knew what they were going to throw at us, but unfortunately our adjustments, even knowing all that, were a little too late.”
Sammy Rondeau added a fourth for Franklin in the first half, with Bressler and Emily Jeffries picking up the assists. In the second half, Dubowski scored a pair of goals to complete the hat trick and put away the Warriors.
“It’s really nice for us to take that win because we’ve really been working in our practices on connecting with each other and everybody get the ball up the field,” said the senior. “We want everyone to touch the ball.”
Cropper was pleased to see the goal scorers start to get into form after both suffered injuries that kept them from playing during the preseason. Bressler had a hamstring issue and Dubrowski had problems with her shin.
When asked what the pair did so well against KP, Cropper replied, “They’re getting themselves in the right position. They’re adjusting off the midfielders carrying the ball and then reading what the opening is and moving off of it. And then they’re finishing.”
She added, “They both got off to late start and didn’t really do anything in the preseason because of their injuries, so the first few games were their preseason and the last couple games they’ve really hit their stride.”
Dubowski passed on the credit for her goals to her teammates. She remarked, “It’s awesome but I give credit to my teammates for bringing it up the field; I couldn’t do anything without them.”
Despite falling behind early, King Philip continued to press forward. Early in the second half, Emily Lambalot finished off a scramble in front of the Franklin goal to give the Warriors some hope at 4-1. The goal came after several solid saves by Panthers goalie Allyson Burke, who kept out two other good chances in the second half that could have made it a much closer game.
Hathaway said, “We did make some adjustments; it was 4-0 for a while and then 4-1 and I really thought a couple of those late goals it was going to be 4-2, 4-3, but then they got a couple extra in there at the end. Like I told my team, I’m really proud of them because they kept on fighting to the end.”
One player that stood out for KP was new goalie Maria Woodall, who made a number of big saves to repel the Panthers and keep the Warriors in the game until Dubowski scored twice to ice it.
“She made some really great saves and I was really pleased,” said Hathaway. “Her effort has always been great.”
Franklin can now look ahead to this weekend’s showdown with rival and perennial power Walpole. It is a battle of unbeatens and, according to Cropper, a state tournament test in midseason. It is a challenge, but the coach noted that the team was not looking beyond Thursday’s game.
She commented, “It’s the old cliché, ‘One game at a time,’ but…we didn’t talk about Walpole this week, until now. We had KP.”
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.