Led by coach Tom Geysen and assistant coach Andy Brown, and senior captains Dani Lonati, Alexis Stowell, and Victoria Stowell, the Franklin High School girls soccer team is hopeful for another successful season. With an outstanding record and season last year (16-1-3) and a trip to the Division I South Championship, the Panthers are looking to repeat, and go even further.

“We want to go far,” says junior midfielder Meghan Doherty. “We want to win the state championship again, since the seniors won it their freshman year.”

The team kicked off their season last Wednesday afternoon against Oliver Ames. Doherty made it clear it was not an easy match, yet they managed a tie. “Our first game was tough, they were really hard competitors and we ended up tieing.”

Although their season has just started, the girls are already focusing on what they can improve on as a team.

“I think that [the season has] gone pretty well so far, and we have done a good job defending the back, but we need to be more aggressive and win more 50/50 balls,” says Doherty.

However, whatever the girls are doing, they are doing it well, as they won their last game 2-0 against Foxboro. “I think we played a lot better as a team,” Meghan said.

Besides from the actual games, it is easy to see the soccer season is much more than just winning and losing for the girls.

“It’s like a family,” said Doherty. “I love how close the team is and how everyone always works together and supports each other- we do a lot of team bonding activities too.”

You can catch the girls at their next home game this Friday, the 18th, against Attleboro on the high school turf at 3:30 pm.