The Pitt-Johnstown women's soccer team fought back from an early two-goal hole and pulled within one in the final half hour on a goal from Sarah Henry, but couldn't complete the comeback, and suffered a 2-1 PSAC West road setback to Slippery Rock, Saturday afternoon at James Egli Field.
Slippery Rock controlled the opening 45 minutes, outshooting the Mountain Cats 14-1 in the first half and cashing in when Jordyn Constable buried a goal in the 22nd minute, assisted by Bailey McGee.
The Rock struck again three minutes into the second half, as Abby Paterline scored off a feed from Chloe Flynn to make it 2-0. Pitt-Johnstown answered in the 60th minute when Henry netted her second goal of the season, assisted by Rylee Fry, cutting the deficit to one, but the Mountain Cats could not find the equalizer.
Goalkeeper Gianna Cardillo turned in a strong performance between the pipes for Pitt-Johnstown, making nine saves across 90 minutes despite facing a heavy 19-shot workload from the Rock attack.
Fry factored into both Mountain Cat scoring chances of note, picking up an assist on Henry's goal and forcing a save of her own late in the second half.
Slippery Rock's Leah Allman made one save before giving way to Allie Burkholder in the final minutes.
Pitt-Johnstown was outshot 19-5 for the game and now sits at 1-4-1 overall and 0-3-1 in PSAC play, while Slippery Rock improved to 4-1-1 and 3-0-1 in conference action.
The Mountain Cats return to action when they host a PSAC West match against Seton Hill at 1 p.m. at the Pitt-Johnstown Soccer Field, before traveling to face Clarion on next Saturday at 7 p.m.
