STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan women's soccer team suffered their first loss of the season as Bethany used a late second-half goal to claim a 2-1 victory, Wednesday afternoon.

With just over 20 minutes left in regulation and the score knotted at 1-1, the Bison went to work on their offensive side of the field. Emily Verti fed a pass into the box for Grace Chambers who went high and broke the tie, 2-1. That score held for the remainder of the game, despite a slew of shots from the Lady Barons.

Freshman Clare Burgess answered the Bison goal with a shot just wide two minutes later before a foul was called on Franciscan. The Bison set up their offense once again, but this time senior keeper Sarah Luebking turned away Chambers shot with 15 minutes to play. With just under seven minutes to play, junior Kelsey Scott-Avery took a point-blank shot but the Bison goalie had to make a great save to stop Scott-Avery's shot. Sophomore Sarah Cocozza and Clare Burgess got the final two shots of the game off but could not find the back on the net and Bethany held on for the 2-1 win.

After a scoreless first half, Bison got on the board early in the second as Chambers received a pass from Lauren Hillard on the run and got it by Luebking for the 1-0 lead six and a half minutes into the second half.
The lead would be short-lived, however, as Burgess posted her second goal of the season five minutes later. Cocozza led Burgess into the box with a high pass over the Bison defense and Burgess was able to one-touch it under the goalie to tie the game at 1-1.

The tie would stand for the next 10 minutes until the Bison got their game-winner.

Franciscan out-shot the Bison 26-5 and held a 3-1 advantage in corner kicks. Luebking made three saves in net for the Lady Barons while her counterpart, Hunter Webster needed nine for the win.

Franciscan looks to rebound as the Lady Barons travel to Waynesburg on Friday for a 7:00 pm contest.