In a tough game, the Lady Pirates came up just short with a 6-5 loss Tuesday in their first away game of the season.

Southwestern started the scoring early 6 minutes into the game. At minute 15 Tayte Motsinger put the Pirates on the board, with sophomore Carrley Shreve putting one in the back of the net 1 minute later assisted from classmate Jessaca Rawson.

Southwestern did not go away quietly, as they stepped up their game and put three in before half by their number 10, Kayla Adkins. Going into the half, the Pirates were down 4-2. “Their speed up top really challenged us in the first half. We needed to find a way for our back line to step up higher to put pressure on their front line before they had a chance to turn.”

The Lady Pirates came out strong in the second half as Motsinger scored 3 minutes in with Carrley Shreve assisting Ilayah Keltner 4 minutes later, at the 47 minute mark of the game. Keltner put the Pirates ahead 5-4 as she found the back of the net after Ivon Guzman won the ball out of the air from the back line off a Southwestern punt.

Scoring off a PK with only 13:29 left, the score was once again even at 5 a piece. With only four minutes to go in the game, Southwestern found a gap in the Pirate defense and placed it past Berger in goal to win the game 6-5. Berger came up big for the Pirates tonight with 23 saves, keeping it a close match between the two teams.

“Our kids played a great second half. Kelsey and I addressed what we needed to fix from the first half at halftime, and our kids executed the game plan. We ended up on the wrong side of the score tonight, but that’s soccer and that’s sports. Hoping to be able to take the momentum from the second half tonight into tomorrow’s game against Jeffersonville’s Varsity squad. ”

The Pirates return home September 14 at 6:00pm.