PATTON — A year ago, the Juniata girls soccer team saw its season end in the District 6 Class 2A semifinals at Cambria Heights.

Lady Indians senior Mylee Landis didn’t let that bother her going into Monday’s rematch against the defending district champions and the top seed in the bracket.

That belief paid off with 2:31 to play when her shot found the back of the net to give fourth-seeded Juniata a 2-1 win over the Lady Highlanders at Ameriserv Bank Field.

“I believed in us every game,” Landis said. “I also believe we can win the next game, go to states and keep winning.”

That next game will be the District 6 championship on Thursday.

“It feels great. I have been with a lot of these girls since they were in seventh grade,” Juniata coach Garrick Paden said. “They have been saying since then that they want to win District 6. It’s a goal they have been working for, and Cambria Heights is a great team. We knew it was going to be a tight game, and we came in and finished it. It feels amazing.”

Cambria Heights took a first-half lead when Juniata keeper Yaa Serwaa stopped star senior Brooklyn Galinis’ shot, but freshman Mele Lavelua fired the rebound into the back of the net.

Landis had a good look at tying the game in the final 30 seconds of the half, but Heights keeper Emma Gilbey stopped the shot.

In the second half, Cambria Heights struggled to get any shots off and Juniata controlled play.

“We played them last year and knew the style they wanted to play,” Paden said. “They wanted to go long, so we just adapted and played a girl long, played a sweeper, which we haven’t ever done. We like to control possession, but if their game plan was to go over the top, we figured we could take it away and see what happened. It worked out.”

Landis tied the game with 28:26 to play when she scored off a corner kick by Mallory Garver.

Neither team had many good chances until Landis took her shot with 2:31 left that Gilbey got two hands on, however the momentum of the kick still carried it past the keeper into the net.

“I didn’t think it was going in,” Landis said. “But when it went in, I was so happy. My team came together, and we were just trying to get the ball in the net and that happened.”

Cambria Heights finished 16-3-1.

“We’re still a good team that accomplished a lot,” Cambria Heights coach Nikki Spanik said. “Over the last seven years, we improved our record each year. We lost to a great team tonight. I thought the second half was back and forth. They controlled it a lot in the middle and did not make it easy for us. We made one defensive mistake and it led to a goal.”

Juniata ran out the final two minutes keeping the ball 80 yards away from their goal.

“We have always coached possession,” Paden said. “They can’t score if we have the ball. District semifinal game, a big game, but the first half we were out of sorts after a two-hour bus ride. The second half, we settled down. The girls wanted it, we got back to our roots holding the ball and didn’t give up many opportunities.”

SCORE BY HALVES

Juniata 0 2 — 2

Cambria Heights 1 0 — 1

First Half: CH–Lavelua (unassisted), 7:50.

Second Half: J–Landis (Garver), 28:26; J–Landis (unassisted), 2:31.

Records: Juniata (12-6-0); Cambria Heights (16-3-1).