MIFFLINTOWN - Finding themselves down by two at the half, Juniata used two second-half goals to tie up the score against visiting West Perry Thursday.
But the Mustangs got those back and more as the Indians fell 6-3 in a non-league boys soccer game.
It took the Indians just a little over a minute to get on the scoreboard, when Brennan Paden drilled a shot from 30 yards out that glanced off the crossbar and into the net to put Juniata up 1-0.
The lead would be short lived though - within four minutes, the Mustangs scored two goals off the feet of Zach Gardner and Ryan McMillen to go ahead 2-1.
West Perry continued to put pressure on the Indian defense, and midway through the first half the Mustangs' Noah Egolf chipped a shot just over the outstretched hands of keeper Matt Coldren to put the visiting team up by a pair.
West Perry tallied 18 shots in the first half, but Coldren and the Indian defense were able to hold the Mustangs at bay and go into halftime still trailing by just two, which proved to be pivotal in their comeback effort.
Juniata came out strong once again to start the second half, but this time there was no relent. Much of the play during the first fifteen minutes of the half was done between the eighteens, but the Indians were maintaining possession for longer periods of time.
The Indians began their comeback with their first corner of the game. With 21:42 left in the game Nick Gilbert sent a header to the upper 90 off of Paden's corner kick.
"These guys are young, but they don't quit," Juniata coach Clint Brackbill said. "It was nice to get that goal off the corner kick, and in the second half they showed themselves what can happen when they put everything together."
The goal seemed to inspire the Juniata offense, and less than a minute later Jose Lopez worked his way through the Mustang defense, and from eight yards out found a wide-open Wyatt Brackbill, who touched it past the West Perry keeper to knot the score at 3-3.
The Juniata comeback would end there, though, as the Mustangs scored two goals over the next seven minutes, and added a third in the closing minutes to set the final score. McMillen scored two of the three to close the night with a hat trick.
"I am proud of our guys. It doesn't matter what the score is, they continue to fight back," Brackbill said. "We need our younger players to step up and they are starting to do that.
"We fought back and tied it, but we just didn't have enough in the end. But they showed tonight that they can play with a pretty good team."
