ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend women's soccer team defended their Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) title to repeat as champions with a 2-1 double-overtime victory over second-seeded Pitt-Bradford on Saturday afternoon.
The Lions (12-8) earned their conference-leading eighth AMCC crown in championship style thanks to the freshman duo of Melissa Huff (Center, PA/Central Valley) and Abbie Schuster (Pittsburgh, PA/Upper St. Clair). Huff scored the game winner three minute into the second overtime off a pass from Schuster to give Behrend the automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Maggie Boehler scored the lone goal for the Panthers (13-5-1), who were making their first-ever appearance in the championship game.
Pitt-Bradford got on the board first in the opening half with an unassisted goal by Boehler. She managed to find the back of the net off a scramble in the box for a 1-0 lead at the 19:28 mark.
The equalizer goal by the Lions came 20 minutes later with a pass from Valerie Wagner (Pittsburgh, PA/Montour) into the box and splitting the defenders to find Julia Schroeck (Fairview, PA/Fairview) to make it a 1-all game.
Both teams generated more offense in the second half, taking five shots apiece but Behrend managed to take two more shots in overtime with one of them counting more than the other.
Lauren Truxal (Latrobe, PA/Greater Latrobe) sent the ball from midfield up to Schuster, who deflected the pass through the Panthers defense. Huff made a diagonal run through the defenders and sent a low shot into the far left corner for the game-winning goal.
Goalies Taylor Troyan (Butler, PA/Butler) and Alisa Cornell each made two saves. Cornell made a save on Danielle Pelensky's (Harborcreek, PA/Harborcreek) in the 67th minute to help Pitt-Bradford survive to overtime.
