Sentinel photo by SAM BAUMGARDNER Juniata’s Cassi Parson hovers around Penn Cambria’s Megyn Stipanovich during a D6 playoff game Tuesday night.

LEWISTOWN — On Tuesday night at Donald M. Chapman lll Stadium, the Juniata girls soccer team started their trek with a chance to capture District 6 gold with an opening contest against Penn Cambria at Mifflin County.

Coming into the contest, the Lady Indians came in with a fourth seed while the Panthers were the fifth seed in Class 2A.

“Based on the first half I thought we were going to score more goals. We had our opportunities and we had our chances,” said Juniata coach Garrick Paden. “In district games though that’s just the way it goes. We took two. We needed to win tonight. We had a nice finish in the corner.”

Mylee Landis led the way for the Indians as she finished with both Juniata goals in the 2-1 victory.

Things started out well for the Lady Indians as they started out with the momentum off the first possession.

Landis passed the ball to teammate Emerson Freed and she took the first shot of the game. Landis hit Freed in transition but the shot hit the horizontal bar of the goal, just missing a score.

Penn Cambria goalie Avery Holland had a busy first half as she had eight saves in the process.

The Lady Indians adjusted to the bigger and faster field early.

Landis put her team on the board first on an unassisted blast at 26:48.

Defensively both teams settled in and it was a back-and-forth battle until the 16 minute.

At 15:29 Landis found the back of the goal once again as she hooked up a pass from Sara Montoya.

But the Panthers rebounded to notch a score before the end of the first half when Megyn Stipanovich posted an unassisted goal at 7:27, cutting the Juniata lead in half at the intermission at 2-1.

In the second half, the Juniata defense put the Panthers on lockdown, keeping them looking for a crack in the Indians’ armor. They never found one.

However, the Juniata offense was able to work the ball consistently into the Penn Cambria side of the field.

On numerous occasions, the Indians were able to keep attacking the goal as Landis continued to pound the ball at the goal.

Despite the shots missing, the Indians defense was able to stand up and cut the field in half for a majority of the final stanza.

With each minute ticking down, the game grew more intense but in the end, the Lady Indians were able to keep a chokehold on the lead and in the end to take home the hard-fought victory, advancing them to the next round in a game to be played on Monday.

Juniata outshot Penn Cambria, 28-9, while Penn Cambria finished with the advantage in corner opportunities by a 5-2 margin.

In goal, Indians’ Yaa Serwaa stopped six shots.

Juniata 2, Penn Cambria 1

PC 1-0–1

JUN 2-0–2

Scoring:

First half

JUN – Mylee Landis unassisted, 26:48

JUN – Landis from Sara Montoya, 15:29.

PC – Meghan Stipanovich unassisted, 7:27.

Second half

None

Shots on goal: PC – 9, JUN – 28.

Corners : PC – 5, JUN – 2.

Saves: PC – Avery Holland 11, JUN – Yaa Serwaa 6.