HOUGHTON, N.Y. – The Pitt-Bradford women's soccer team entered the final 20 minutes of play trailing Houghton College 2-0 on Tuesday night when sophomore forward Melissa Smith turned a hat trick to rally the Panthers to a 3-2 victory.
The feat marked Smith's second hat-trick of her young career.
Pitt-Bradford (6-0) struggled against the Highlanders offensively in the opening half. Both teams battled neck-and-neck but couldn't find the back of the net.
Freshman goalkeeper Sarah Dailey tallied five saves in the match for the Panthers and surrendered, while surrendering the two goals. Houghton's Emma Arbuckle also registered five saves between the posts but gave up the final marker that lifted the Panthers to victory.
Coming out of the locker room at halftime, the two squads were knotted 0-0. In the 68th minute, Houghton's Stephany Ellison scored on an unassisted goal to crack the scoring. Just two minutes later, it was Ellison again scoring for the Highlanders to give the home team a 2-0 cushion.
Less than a minute later, Smith found the back of the net for her first goal of the night on a pass from freshman Abby Celesky. It wasn't three minutes later and it was Smith again firing a shot past the keeper off a ball from junior Maggie Boehler to tie the game at two goals each.
The go-ahead goal came in the 77th minute, only six minutes after the first goal, when Smith moved her way past the Highlanders' defense to score her third goal of the night and cap off the hat-trick.
Pitt-Bradford held onto its lead for the remainder of the match and escaped what was almost its first defeat of the season.
The Panthers are back in action on Saturday, Sept. 20, as they travel to face St. John Fisher at 5 p.m.
