BELLEFONTE - In a stunner in the girls District 6 Class AA quarterfinals soccer tournament held at Bellefonte's Rogers Stadium, No. 7-seeded Juniata stopped No. 2-seed Bellefonte 3-1 to advance.
Senior Lauren Baublitz, sophomore Janelle Swartz and Elisabeth Ritzman scored the goals for the Indians while the Red Raiders lone tally came from senior Kristen Buchanan.
"Any time you give up a big goal it's huge," quipped Bellefonte coach Stacey Miller of the Indians' Baublitz' goal at the 33:36 mark of the first half. "Any time anyone gets the first goal that is huge. That gave them momentum and that happened very quickly and hit us hard. That really put us on our heels a little bit and we seemed to be playing a little bit more nervous. We seemed to collect ourselves at halftime and get back into the game and had a couple of shots on goal and had some momentum."
Article Photos
Sentinel photo by CHRISTOPHER SHANNON
Juniata’s Janelle Swartz battles for possession against Bellefonte’s Jessica Book during the District 6 Class AA girls soccer plays Thursday in Bellefonte.
But Juniata quickly took that momentum away from Bellefonte when Swartz scored at the 18:52 mark off a midfield shot for 2-0 lead.
"We don't play our regular season games here so this was no home field advantage for us." quipped Miller. "So it really wasn't a feel-good home story for us. We normally play our games at the middle school and we aren't really used to this field. it's smaller dimensions and that made it tough for us."
The Red Raiders closed the gap to 2-1 at the 17:27 mark off a left-corner kick from Buchanan but the Indians responded quickly when Ritzman drilled a shot that was caught by the Bellefonte goalie but she was ruled to have been standing across the goal line giving Juniata the insurmountable 3-1 lead with 16:30 to play.
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IF YOU GO
Juniata plays Somerset Tuesday
With the win, Juniata will take on Somerset, which was a 5-4 winner over Ligonier Valley, Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.
