STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – The Franciscan women's soccer team fell to Pitt.-Bradford, 4-0, in both teams' conference opener, Saturday afternoon.

Last year, UPB was the only team in the conference who beat the Barons during the regular season. This season the Panthers gained the advantage over Franciscan again, taking the conference win.

The first half especially, the Barons struggled with executing good passes to their teammates and winning balls, something which Coach McBane has emphasized to her players many times. The flow of the game in the opening half was a ping-pong match between the two teams. Both sides did not take many shots on goal and neither team dominated the field.

The Panthers took the lead with five minutes left in the first half and they did not look back. Sophomore Kaitlyn Williams received a ball from teammate Kaitlyn Donnelly to score the first goal of the game, which turned out to be the game winner. Williams finished the day with a hat-trick. Her second goal came only two minutes later when Courtney Shade crossed a ball which she headed into the net.  Her last goal was unassisted in the second half when she had a breakaway on the left side.

The Panthers tacked on the last goal of the game as sophomore Delaney Houtz found the high back left corner of the net on a free kick. The Panthers completed the game with 14 shots, eight of those on goal. UPB goalie Sarah Dailey collected six saves and the team as a whole was flagged 18 times for fouls.

The Barons put up 14 shots with six landing on goal. They were charged with 12 fouls including a yellow card.

"I felt like we had a lot of build and a lot of opportunities, and as soon as we got to the final third, one poor pass would destroy this entire build we had. So just really we need better execution up top," remarked coach McBane.

The Barons visit Mt. Aloysious on Tuesday, September 29 at 4 pm. FUS looks to correct today's mistakes before this next conference match.