“I’ve never scored a free kick before, every time I just go up to it, I try to pick my spot,” Frantz said. 

Scoring goals is nothing new for Frantz, who had 34 last season. He was one short of a hat trick on Wednesday despite notching his first goal right against the end of the first half before his second capped off the game. 

But of all those goals, there was one way he had yet to score in his high school career — the free kick. 

“I was feeling pretty good, I was having a good game, this time it just came off really well. Really nice goal; I’m proud of it.” 

Maple Grove co-head coach Justin Turner said there’s plenty of reasons why Frantz hadn’t scored from a free kick, but he wasn’t surprised to see it happen tonight.  

“He’s going to hit stuff like that. You just never know though, it’s high school, it’s hard to hit free kicks,” Turner said. “We’ve seen him hit them in practice daily, but it’s different when it’s in a game, it’s a different pressure. I wasn’t surprised, no, but it’s hard to hit those and it was super cool to witness that.”  

Even though it wasn’t his only goal of the evening, it still wasn’t his favorite goal of the night.  

“I think the dribble was the best one,” he said. “Technically to beat three guys and slot it home. That’s probably the best of all of them.”  

The “dribble” is referring to his solo goal that put the Crimson (2-1, 1-1) up 2-1 with just under three minutes left in the first half. Frantz picked up the ball in the midfield and then dribbled by three different defenders before beating the keeper one-on-one.  

“He still amazes me and the coaches on a daily basis because he’s just super good on the ball and he has a passion for the game,” Turner said of Frantz.  

Carter Sheard got the goal scoring started for Maple Grove with a shot that went just in under the crossbar in the first half. 

Champlin Park was able to answer Sheard and Frantz’s goals on multiple occasions, with both goals coming from Sylvester Doe.  

The senior forward scored 24 seconds after Frantz’s first goal, hitting a rocket with his left foot from outside the box that ripped the top corner.  

“The first one was truly something special,” Champlin Park head coach Brady Hicks said.  

He scored again midway through the second half, heading home his own rebound to tie the game 2-2.  

While this was not the desired result for the Rebels (2-1, 2-1), Hicks knows his team has responded from a loss like this before.  

“Maple Grove’s ranked number one in the state for a reason and we gave them all we can handle tonight,” he said. “We lost to Maple Grove 3-2 last year and then we won 12 in a row, so hopefully we can have a similar reaction.”