GALION — Walker Frankhouse’s hat trick and two goals by Max Albert powered the Galion boys soccer team to a 6-0 shutout of Pleasant on Saturday.
The match was the first for the Tigers at their new soccer complex on the Galion City Schools campus.
Galion (3-1, 2-0 Mid Ohio Athletic Conference) dominated the match from the opening whistle, maintaining ball possession for long stretches of the match. The Tigers only allowed Pleasant to cross midfield a few times and didn’t give up any shots to the Spartans.
“I really liked our possession. I really think we controlled the possession,” Galion head coach Eric Palmer said. “It was a really great game. I loved how much we were able to possess the ball. We were able to put a lot of shots on goal. We probably could’ve gotten a few more goals.”
The Tigers finished the match with 28 shots and Pleasant goalkeeper Cody Thompson was forced to make 16 saves.
Frankhouse opened the scoring on the new home field with 26:04 remaining in the first half, slotting home a shot from in front of the net after taking a cross from the right wing from teammate Kennan Walker.
Galion increased its lead to 2-0 about two minutes later when Frankhouse netted his second goal of the match. He knocked home the rebound of a shot by Jack Hart at the 23:56 mark.
The Tigers opened up a 3-0 lead early in the second half when Sam Albert found the net. Hart once again assisted on the goal that hit the back of the net with 34:15 remaining in the match. Albert was the beneficiary of a rebound off the Pleasant goalkeeper that came straight to him.
Max Albert tallied the first of his two goals with 22:58 to play in the match. He took a cross from teammate Kolton Tyrrell and knocked the ball into the net to run the score to 4-0.
Frankhouse completed his three-goal performance with 10:02 remaining in the match. Sam Albert collected the assist on Frankhouse’s hat trick tally. Frankhouse deftly flicked Albert’s cross from the right wing past the Spartans goalkeeper to increase the Galion lead to 5-0.
Max Albert rounded out the scoring three minutes later, tapping the ball into the net following a scramble in front of the net. Teammate Tanner Keinath was credited with the assist on the goal at the 7:03 mark of the second half.
Palmer said he was pleased that his ballclub recorded a shutout in the first home match of 2021 at the new complex.
“One of our goals was a clean sheet for the first home game of the season,” Palmer said. “That was the main focus, no matter what, even if we don’t score a goal, we don’t want them to score a goal. This week in practice we worked on getting back and then getting the ball back up the field.”
Despite the dominating performance, Palmer said his team still has some work to do to improve its attacking tactics.
“What I think we need to work on is getting teams like that off balance a little more,” Palmer said. “I think (Pleasant) did a good job of staying compact and keeping us from getting clear shots. That’s something for us to work on, spreading out a little more, maybe dropping the ball back into our defensive third and then trying to attack.”
Galion has two matches on its schedule this week. The Tigers play host to Clear Fork in MOAC play at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 7, then travel to Toledo Bowsher for a 1 p.m. contest on Saturday, Sept. 11.
