Alison Francis had a lot of time to think about becoming a 100-goal scorer.
After finishing her junior season with 99 career goals for the Dallas girls soccer team, Francis could not help but be aware of the milestone when some early breakaway opportunities failed to yield a goal in the season opener.
“We counted toward the end of the year and I knew I was at 99 at the end of playoffs,” Francis said.
Nearly 10 months later, the 100th goal came in the next Dallas game, during a season-opening, 3-2 loss to Abington Heights Sept. 3.
Emma Switzer sent a through ball down the right side, springing Francis, who dribbled in to score from close range.
The hardest part of the goal might have been blocking out the thoughts that went through her head as she approached the goal.
“I had a couple breakaways before that, that didn’t go in,” Francis said. “Then, when I was running down the field with that one, I was thinking, ‘come on, I’ve got to make it’.”
Francis was able to get to the century mark so early in her senior season because of how early she started scoring on the high school level. The first 99 goals were distributed across her first three high school seasons.
“I definitely didn’t think I was going to be that much of a force freshman year,” she said. “It was great coming off of that season with so many goals. I was not expecting that at all as a freshman.”
Francis started playing as soon as she was eligible for Back Mountain Youth Soccer and progressed to travel soccer when she was 9. She also played softball from Little League through her freshman year in high school, but has since switched to track and field to take advantage of the speed that is such an asset in soccer as a sprinter for the Mountaineers.
The forward hopes to continue playing soccer in college. Misericordia and Franklin & Marshall currently appear to be the two most likely destinations.
Francis is one of many returning players for the defending District 2 Class 3A champions, who dropped a pair of competitive non-league games to begin the season. They also lost in overtime, 2-1, to rival Lake-Lehman, the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 champions, who are off to a 3-0-1 start.
The losses did little to damage the team’s status as one of the favorites for the WVC Division 1 title.
“We’re just trying to put those two losses behind us,” Francis said in an interview prior to the conference opener. “It’s early in the season. We’re confident going into our conference games.”
Dallas won its first WVC game, 5-0, over Wilkes-Barre Area and plays at Hazleton Area Friday with a chance to even it season record.
