GREENSBURG – The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg women's soccer team dropped a hard-fought match against Penn State Behrend, 1-0, in their Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference home opener on Saturday afternoon at Ridilla Field.
It is the first loss of the season for the Bobcats, who move to 7-1 overall and 1-1 in AMCC play. The Lions improve to 8-1 on the 2021 campaign and are off to a 2-0 start in conference play.
Fans cheering on both teams showed out in high numbers on the beautiful September afternoon to watch a rematch of the 2019 AMCC championship game.
The contest was a defensive battle all the way through, as only five shots were on goal the entire game. Penn State Behrend was responsible for four of them, while Pitt-Greensburg had just one.
Lauren Yoder knocked down both of the Lions shots on goal in the first half, which came in the midway through the opening 45 minutes.
Alexz Rosser had the Bobcats lone shot on goal in the 39th minute. It was ripped to the middle of the goal and stopped by the Lions goalkeeper.
The gameplay was more of the same in the second half with defense being front and center. The Lions maintained control for the majority of the half, allowing just two Pitt-Greensburg shots and none on net.
The hotly contested match was getting more physical as the minutes went on. Each side garnered a yellow card in the second half.
In the 75th minute, Penn State Behrend broke through and Brenna McGuire kicked in the game winning goal.
With five minutes left to play, the Bobcats were threatening on their end and got a pass to Tiffany Michalek who kicked in what some thought was the game tying goal, however the linesman put his flag up for offside to negate the goal.
Yoder was in net for all 90 minutes and made three saves. Ashley Lucas shot four times for the Blue and Gold, but was unable to put any on goal.
Pitt-Greensburg will come right back to Ridilla Field on Monday for non-conference matchup against Franciscan University. Kickoff is set for 4 pm.
Fans can follow the Bobcats all year long online at PittGreensburgAthletics.com, as well as on Twitter (@upgbobcats), Instagram (@UPG_athletics), and Facebook (@UPGbobcats).
