North Attleboro senior Frankie Strachan has been selected as the HockomockSports.com Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, for Nov. 2 through Nov. 8. Strachan is the 10th athlete chosen as Player of the Week for the 2025-26 school year.
Strachan was the workhorse for the North offense for the second week in a row, helping the Rocketeers come back from 14 points down to beat Milford in the opening round of the Div. 3 state tournament. He carried the ball more than 30 times (for the second consecutive week) and rushed for more than 200 yards and three scores against the Hawks.
“If you give Frankie any room at all, he’s going to grind and take it,” said North Attleboro head coach Mike Strachan. “He’s just an absolute animal.”
North found itself down 14-0 to Milford with less than six minutes to play in the first half. Strachan and Nathaniel Robin combined to carry the ball 10 straight times and Strachan punched it in from the one to get North on the board before the break. North got the ball to start the second half and marched downfield to tie the game, this time on a three-yard rush from Strachan. The Rocketeers got the ball back with three minutes left in the third and gave it to Strachan on 11 straight plays. At the one-yard-line, Strachan came out for a snap and Milford stuffed the play. So, Strachan came back in and bullied his way into the end zone to give the hosts a 21-14 lead.
Over the past two weeks, in close wins against league rivals Milford and Foxboro, Strachan has carried the ball 71 times for 379 yards and four touchdowns.
The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at 8:00 PM. There may be a poll posted on Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision.
Frankie Strachan
Frankie Strachan The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at midnight. There may be a poll posted on every Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision. Frankie Strachan The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at midnight. There may be a poll posted on every Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision. Frankie Strachan The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at midnight. There may be a poll posted on every Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision. Frankie Strachan The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at midnight. There may be a poll posted on every Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision. Frankie Strachan The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at midnight. There may be a poll posted on every Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision. Frankie Strachan The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at midnight. There may be a poll posted on every Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision. Frankie Strachan The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at midnight. There may be a poll posted on every Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision. Frankie Strachan The Player of the Week, presented by Morse Insurance, is selected by the HockomockSports.com staff. Nominations can be submitted throughout the week up until Saturday night at midnight. There may be a poll posted on every Sunday with the nominations. The results of the poll influence the selection but do not strictly dictate the decision.
FRANKLIN, Mass. – Franklin took the lead in Monday afternoon’s Div. 1 quarterfinal at Beaver Pond Field midway through the second quarter. When the horn sounded at the end of the fourth quarter, the scoreboard showed that the Panthers were still in front by a goal, but Hopkinton forced a corner so even though the clock read 0:00 the game wasn’t over.
Senior Ella Fowler got space and time at the edge of the circle and hit a rocket into the far corner, tying the game in the most dramatic (or devastating, depending on your perspective) way possible.
It was the kind of moment that could derail a team, especially one as young as Franklin, but the Panthers regrouped, reset, and regained control of the game. The hosts dominated in 7-on-7 and one minute into the second overtime period freshman midfielder Cade Taccini was tripped while driving at goal.
The officials gave a penalty stroke for denial of a clear scoring opportunity. Taccini was the pick to step up to the spot to try and win the game. She coolly rifled the ball into the top corner, giving the goalie no chance, sealing a 2-1 win, and sending the Panthers to their third state semifinal in the past five seasons.
“Wild, wild,” said Franklin coach Michelle Hess. “In all my years, I’ve never experienced anything like that. Them scoring with no time left was pretty crushing but I walked over to my team and they were like, ‘We’ve got this.’ They were almost too excited, we did some reset breaths to get them back down.
She added, “As soon as they called that stroke, I knew it was going to be Cade. She’s got the strongest shot on our team and I had faith in her. They played out of their minds tonight. They really wanted this game and they wanted to send a message to show that we can get back to the Final Four.”
Taccini explained, “I knew that was my moment. I had to capitalize on it and if I didn’t I’d have to be running back and forth some more. I just remember putting the ball on the line and I knew my spot and I just knew I had to score that.”
Franklin started slowly in each of its first two playoff games but on Monday, even without leading scorerElla Marzullo who picked up an injury in warmups, the Panthers got onto the front foot early on.
Jossie Camp forced a turnover and stepped up into the attack. The ball swung to the right for Tori Cahill, who fed it to sophomore Penelope Brady on the right side of goal. Her shot was kicked aside by Riley Curtin. The rebound was cleared at the far post with freshman Lily Aparo lurking.
Late in the first, on a corner, Taccini slipped a pass to Addi Weiss but her shot was deflected out. Sophomore Clara Blongastainer followed with a drive through the crowd but there was no touch.
Hopkinton had a scoring opportunity early in the second quarter. Avery Quebec fired a shot towards goal but Abby Burke’s tip went wide. Taccini had another scoring chance at the other end and Brady saw her round cleared off the line with the rebound popping out to the other side the Hillers again managed to clear one right on the line.
The breakthrough came with 6:50 left to halftime and it came from an unlikely source. Taccini again played the initial pass into a crowd in front of goal and in the scrum, with Brady and Ava Lucenta also in the vicinity, junior Kiley Silvestri got the final touch to push the ball over the line, just her third goal of the season.
Fowler had a shot through a crowd blocked just in front of Franklin goalie Devon Barry, who didn’t face a shot on target until the Hopkinton goal, and Blongastainer managed to squeeze the rebound out of danger.
The best chance for the hosts came with no time left in the third quarter, as they created a pair of corners. On the second one, Taccini fired the ball into the crease and Brady got a piece of the shot but couldn’t steer it on goal.
In the fourth, Lucenta started a corner routine with a pass to Taccini, who found Brady in space to the right of goal. Her shot found Blongastainer’s stick but the deflection took the ball into her body. A couple minutes later, sophomore Samantha Feigen made a nice steal to keep Hopkinton pinned back. Brady fired the ball across the face of goal and Weiss wasn’t able to get a touch despite being at full stretch.
Searching for a second goal that could put the game away, Caydence Canavan found Taccini for a shot off a corner, but Curtin made the save.
Franklin had only allowed nine goals in 20 games coming into Monday, including a pair of shutouts in the playoffs, and hadn’t allowed a shot to get through to Barry since the opening round, but the Hillers got one more chance and Fowler did not miss with her unstoppable blast.
When the game went to 7-on-7, Hess threw out a lineup that included two seniors (Barry and Lucenta), a junior (Camp), two sophomores (Brady and Blongastainer), and two freshmen (Aparo and Taccini), with freshman Amelia Manning coming off the bench. In the biggest moment, it was a freshman that stepped up.
It comes as no surprise to Hess, who has leaned on her underclassmen right from the start. “They showed right from the get-go that they were going to buy into our culture and tradition,” she said. “We did graduate so many good players but these guys just believed from the very beginning and they knew we could get back.”
The Panthers don’t often have a chance to show off their resiliency but it was on full display on Monday, as they quickly righted the ship and found a way to win.
“It definitely impacted our team a lot,” Taccini said of the Hopkinton goal, “but our coach, she really calmed us down. We do breaths, they really work. We knew this was our moment, we can’t lose. We never lose on the Beav, we just had to come out as strong as we can.”
Franklin (16-2-3) will face No. 3 Wellesley in the Final Four on Wednesday night at Westboro High. Five years ago, the program reached its first state semifinal. Now, it is headed to its third. The Panthers have reached the quarterfinal every year under the new tournament format.
“I’m very blessed with players who just love this sport and they just come out every day and work hard,” Hess said, emotion creeping into her voice as she thought about what it takes to keep the program at this level. “The expectation every year is to get back here and they buy into it.”
Franklin Field Hockey Franklin Field Hockey Franklin Field Hockey Franklin Field Hockey Franklin Field Hockey Cade Taccini Cade Taccini Cade Taccini Cade Taccini
ANDOVER, Mass. — With No. 4 Andover applying pressure in the first two sets of Sunday’s quarterfinal bout with No. 5 Franklin, the Panthers leaned on their veterans who had been there before to cruise to a 3-0 win by way of 25-20, 25-22, 25-8 at Andover High School.
Franklin (21-2) advances to play perhaps the hottest team in the tournament in No. 16 Newton South, which has downed No. 1 Chelmsford and No. 8 Brookline en route to the Final Four. That game is slated for Wednesday at Westwood High School (7:15 p.m.).
A talented Golden Warriors team made Franklin work for its second semifinal appearance in the last three years. But Makayla Kuykendall (14 kills, 10 digs, two aces, two blocks) and Olivia Alberti (eight kills, two aces, four blocks) ensured a clean sweep.
“We needed to close it out,” Kuykendall said. “Just to finish strong and finish it out right there. We didn’t want to go to a fourth set or a fifth set. We didn’t want to have that nervous ending.”
Both quarterfinal victories Kuykendall and Alberti have had a hand in have been upsets. Franklin edged No. 2 Haverhill in 2023 to punch its ticket to the semifinals, where it fell to Barnstable.
“My favorite moment throughout all of volleyball was making it to the Final Four a few years ago, and that was like a really big upset,” Alberti said. “So to do it again this year and to also be an upset is such a big moment.”
Andover (18-5) received strong play from Jessie Wang (10 kills, seven digs, block), Naomi Vajda (four digs, eight kills, 10 service aces) and Farah Berty (15 digs), but Franklin’s well-rounded engine was too much to overcome.
“You can’t be ashamed of losing to a team that outplayed you on a given day,” said Andover head coach Dan Young. “And I felt like today they were the better team, so they are deserving to move on.”
The teams were tied at 15 early in the first set in what was a tightly contested game. But Franklin eventually created a 23-20 lead and sealed game one with an ace from Alberti.
“We just had to stay steady,” said Franklin head coach Chris Ridolfi. “We didn’t panic. If you noticed in the first set, I didn’t take a time out. I just let it roll, and I asked them to be steady. They were steady.”
Alberti would notch huge kills in the second set to help Franklin pull away and set the tone in the final set with pivotal kills in the early goings. Phoebe O’Connor (37 assists, three aces, 24 digs) developed a strong connection with Franklin’s hitters.
“The energy overall was really good, so it was able to bring me up,” Alberti said. “And I think the setter-hitter connection all night was really good. We were just pushing really hard through every point.”
After Franklin raced to a 20-12 lead in the middle frame, however, Andover struck back. A pair of Vajda kills cut the deficit before Wang and Camryn Leithead added kills as Franklin’s cushion dwindled to 24-22. Kuykendall spoiled the comeback effort to take the set.
“They keep them on track and they keep them together,” Ridolfi said of Kuykendall and Alberti. “It’s something that you can’t measure. It doesn’t show up on the court, but we would probably be lost without it.”
Franklin’s attack was supplemented by a large supporting cast, including Emerson Delleo (seven kills, two blocks, 14 digs), Gianna Laurello (five kills, three aces, five digs, one block), Emma Cunningham (three aces, 24 digs) and Charlotte Yeulenski (four kills, two blocks).
Ridolfi may be a first-year head coach, but it didn’t take long for him to gauge his team’s determination early in the season to return to Sunday’s stage after a loss in the quarterfinals last fall.
“From the very beginning, they told me this is where they wanted to go,” Ridolfi said. “And they’ve prepped like that, they’ve practiced like that, all of them.”
With a trip to the state finals on deck, Franklin will keep taking every game one point at a time.
“I think we definitely set the tone that this game is like, ‘You got to win this game.’ We were really excited, and we came into this wanting to win. Our goal has always been looking forward and just looking to the next game,” Kuykendall said.
Jason Cooke is the editor of Valley Sports Daily – a sister site of HockomockSports.com. You can contact him at Jason@valleysportsdaily.com and follow him on Twitter at @cookejournalism.
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