Juniata girls fall to tough Midd-West team in home opener

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: August 31, 2023

By Kenny Varner

MIFFLINTOWN – It was a battle in their home debut.

After rallying from a 2-0 deficit Tuesday, the Juniata girls soccer team rallied back to take their contest 4-2 over MIfflin County.

Thursday, the Indians were looking to make it two in a row hosting a very tough Midd-West squad.

However, two first half goals by the Lady Mustangs were too much for the Indians to recover from as Midd-West won 3-0 at Mifflintown. “ we had noticed in the beginning they took a high line and Camryn Powell , our target, has some good speed. Took advantage of the field they had behind them and she got the ball and was calm enough to make it. said Midd-West coach Chris Sauer, when asked about the first goal of the game.“Juniata did a good job recovering but she kept her composure and finished it off.”

In the first, the two exchanged numerous possessions in each other’s side.

Juniata had two chances early as the Indians came close to posting two early on.

“The first half we came out and played pretty solid it was back and forth both ways,” said Juniata coach Garrick Paden said. “They (Midd-West) had two good opportunities to score and they scored two times. We had a couple opportunities we just couldn’t find the net.

Early on Juniata Thea Beward had a shot that just sailed over the net.

Teammate Regan Lowery just missed a shot as well off of a free kick, both just missing.

Midd-West opened the scoring at the 24:26 mark when Camryn Pyle broke loose on a breakaway attempt and put it past the Indians goal keeper.

Both defenses locked down the other’s offense until shortly before the 10-minute mark.

Kylie Hockenberry posted an unassisted goal at 11:32 to end the first half scoring.

At the half, the Indians outshot the Mustangs 7-3. Midd-West led in corner opportunities 2-0.

Juniata came out of the intermission and pushed the ball right into the Mustangs’ back-third.

Juniata offense continued to push, trying to get on the scoreboard. Emerson Freed broke through the back-this midway through the second. She set and blasted a shot and again the shot sailed just over the goal.

At 16:15, the Lady Mustangs added another goal. Coming off a rebound from a corner kick, Bella Knepp got infront of a rebound off a teammate and sent it in, upping the lead to a 3-0 contest.

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