my $line = 'This line 1 has a hit here and a hit there.';
my $word = 'hit';
my $count = 0;

my $n = 0;
my @stuff = split m/($word)/, $line;
grep { $n++; if ($n % 2) { print $_; } else { print RED, $_, RESET; $count++; } } @stuff;
print "\nFound $count times.\n";