PITSBURG – Franklin Monroe dominated Southeastern 9-1 in the opening round of the Ohio High School Athletic Association boys soccer sectional tournament on Wednesday in Pitsburg.
“It’s the first round of the tournament,” Franklin Monroe coach Danny Diceanu said. “Those guys played hard and gave it all they had. That’s all you can ask of a team. We moved the ball well. I just think our quality was a little too much for them tonight. Good win.”
The Jets took the lead less than three minutes into the game as Cody Coppess scored to put Franklin Monroe up 1-0. The FM senior also scored with 31:11 remaining in the half and 12:34 remaining in the half to give him a hat trick and put the Jets up 3-0 entering halftime.
“Our offense is decent,” Diceanu said. “We’re not like we were last year, explosive, by any means. But we’ve got guys who can score quite a few of them and rely on no one, and everyone can score. We create opportunities.”
Less than two minutes into the second half the Jets extended their lead to 4-0 with a goal by Britt Bowlin. Not long after that Colby Chrisman scored and then just moments later Nicolas Garcia-Ramos scored to increase the lead to 6-0.
Garcia-Ramos scored his second goal of the night with 16:28 left on the clock to make it 7-0, and Southeastern countered less than two minutes later to end the shutout.
“They countered real good, and the kid had a beautiful shot,” Diceanu said. “You can’t ask for a better opportunity than that. He did the best he could with it. I applaud him. He had a nice finish. It was not a cheap goal. They worked for it, and they earned it.”
Garcia-Ramos scored his third goal of the night with 6:26 remaining, giving Franklin Monroe an 8-1 lead and two players with hat tricks.
Hudson Nestor then finished the scoring with 3:58 remaining, making it a 9-1 game.
The Franklin Monroe offense did pretty well, Diceanu said, even though the field conditions were poor with dead grass and large spots of dirt.
“It is challenging,” Diceanu said. “You play the opponent and you play your field. So it’s not an easy task to control the ball and do the things I ask them to do so we always play better on the road. Once we get out of here after the next round – hopefully we get a win Saturday – we go to turf so we’ll be a different team, an improved, better team.”
Franklin Monroe, the third seed in its sectional, will play host to No. 25 Tri-County North at 7 p.m. Saturday in the next round of the tournament.
It will be the final home game of the season for the Jets, who had a large crowd in attendance Wednesday with dozens of students showing up to support their classmates.
“It was awesome,” Diceanu said of the fans. “We love it. Absolutely love it. Very appreciate of it.”
