Second half surge leads Juniata to win over fiesty MC squad

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: August 29, 2023

By Kenny Varner

LEWISTOWN – It was a surging second half by the Juniata girls soccer team Tuesday that helped them complete an early deficit to defeat an up and coming MIfflin County team in the battle of MIfflin and Juniata County.

The Indians got the nod in this one, winning 4-2.

Offensive, ‘Big Red’ was led by two first period goals by Mylee Landis, cuttting what was a two point deficit to a tie as the first half was ready to turn to the intermission.

“We didn’t come out firing on all cylinders at the start of that game. It’s been kind of habit in both our scrimmages. We put together one good half a scrimmage. It’s the beginning of the year,” said Juniata co-coach Garrick Paden. “It’s alright but we want to start putting together 80 minutes instead 30 or 40 minutes. The defense held out strong. We gave up those two early goals but the offense came back to play the way we wanted to play and kept the ball which was helpful.”

In the second, the Juniata defense stiffened allowing its offense to hit two clutch second half goals, one by Sara Montoya and the other by Regan Lowery.

But MIfflin County started off the contest with the early momentum.

Offensively, the Huskies went right to work pushing the ball down into the Juniata half of the field. With the early momentum, the Huskies were able to push its first MacKenzie Peachey blast past the opposing goalie, making it a 1-0 advantage with 36:12 still on the clock.

“The first 20 minutes I thought we played really well. It’s a shame it didn’t end there,” said MIfflin County coach Barrett Knepp. “Once things got sloppy and didn’t go our way and things got far away, we didn’t bring it back like we should have.

Juniata battled back to try to get in the scoreboard but after a few close calls that almost put them on the board, the ball went back to MIfflin County.

The game would start to even out with both teams were stepping up and playing hard-nosed defenses that kept both off the scoreboard for almost 20 minutes.

Despite the numerous close calls by both teams, MIfflin County battled its way back on the board again.

Like the first goal, the Huskies got the ball for Peachey and she did not disappoint, knocking another through at the 16:55 mark.

Again, the game went into a stalemate as the clock dipped to under 10 minutes left until the half.

Juniata used the time wisely and was able to get the ball through twice before the half.

Both times, the Indians would get the ball to a wide open Mylee Landis who was able to fake her way past the goalie for a goal with 8:14 and another at 2:18.

Both teams went into the halftime posting two goals in quite the nail biting first half.

Juniata used its first half momentum and took it into the second half as they once again were ready to post another goal.

Less than 12 minutes in, Sara Montoya blasted her shot from back of the second line, as it just went out of the reach of Libby Cook’s hands. Cook had a stellar performance stopping a total of seven shots in the game including a diving hit that saved a goal.

But with the Montoya goal, the Indians had the momentum and refused to let up, tightening its defense even tighter and refusing a crack to form any where in the backline.

As the clock continued to tick away to under 15, Juniata added an insurance goal to give its team a little breathing room.

A blast by Lowery scooted through the Huskies goal to up the lead to 4-2, almost ending the contest.

But the Huskies refused to go away and accept defeat as they were able to push the ball back down in the Juniata side of the field.

However, they could not find that chink in the armor they were looking for, falling 4-2.

With the win, Juniata improves to 1-0 while MIfflin County falls to 0-2.