LEOMINSTER — Midway through this season, few people would have said the Franklin girls soccer team would be standing at Doyle Field playing in the Division 1 semifinals.

Not only were the Panthers doing just that on Tuesday night, but they set a return engagement for Saturday. Surviving a huge push from No. 10 Concord-Carlisle, Franklin used goals from Cassidy Carmignani and Anna Carosi to take a 2-0 win and a date with Natick on Saturday at 10 a.m. for the title match.

“Midway through the season, we were a hot mess,” Franklin coach Jody Kline said. “The kids have taken it from there. They have taken control of this team. I haven’t needed to motivate them.”

The sixth-seeded Panthers (15-5-2) dominated most of the opening minutes as they held Concord-Carlisle (12-5-5) shotless. The problem for Franklin was that it couldn’t get anything past Aubrey Monaghan. That was until Cassidy Carmignani took a corner kick midway through the half.

The senior’s bender from the right wing deflected off Monaghan and in, the fourth such goal over two days in Leominster, and the Panthers had a 1-0 lead.

“Cassidy just wants to take those,” Kline said.

It was still 1-0 as the second half began, yet it seemed like the teams had swapped jerseys as the Patriots began to thoroughly dominate the run of play.

Just past the 10-minute mark, they nearly tied the game off a corner, but three different Panther defenders stopped balls on the play, which saw keeper Cami Towers leave the game because of injury in favor of sophomore Olivia Cotte.

She would be tested early as a corner sailed just over the crossbar before Emmy O’Donnell’s bid two minutes later was stopped.

The Patriots kept the pressure on, but Franklin was able to withstand it and then found a way to put the game away. Once again, it was Carmignani setting the table as her perfectly placed free kick eventually was netted by birthday girl Carosi with 5:26 left.

“Natick know who our weapons are, we know who theirs are, and hopefully it’ll be a good time. It’ll be a pleasure to go against them,” Kline said.