AMHERST — Julia Porostosky’s third goal of the season turned out to be Amherst’s third of the night.
Coincidentally, it was the one the Comets needed to nip Elyria Catholic, 3-2, on Monday in a briskly contested non-conference soccer match.
In what became a tale of two halves, Amherst took a 3-0 lead at the break on a pair of goals by Kelsey Bronson and Porostosky’s eventual winner. Bronson’s second goal and the score by Porostosky both occurred in the 28th minute. At the time, it looked as though the Comets might be crafting a blowout.
But the Panthers (4-6), introducing some fresh legs the second half, got two goals from Kara Schmittgen barely three minutes apart and were back in business with more than 24 minutes to play.
And they gave themselves plenty of chances to tie it. They just never quite finished the job.
“We played really well the second half,” said Tom Wolfe, the Panthers’ first-year head coach. “We put in some of our reserves. We held them out in the first half so they could help us out on top. They really helped out and that’s how we pulled the comeback. We just couldn’t get it in the back of the net.”
On the other hand, Porostosky made good on her best chance of the match.
“Kelsey Bronson had a breakaway,” she said describing her game-winner. “She got a cross and it went right past the goalie. I just tipped it in with my toe.”
Bronson, who didn’t start for the Comets (7-3), broke a scoreless tie in the 20th minute when she took control of a loose ball just left of the Panthers goal and blooped it into the net. Eight minutes later, with Amherst applying heavy pressure, she again took control after two rebounds in the EC box and kicked it home unassisted.
Then less than a minute later, Porostosky scored and it looked as though the rout was on. Not so fast.
EC charged out after the break and fired four shots in the first eight minutes, three of them on target. The third was the first of Schmittgen’s scores, a pretty shot that hooked into the net in the 53rd minute after a throw-in by the Panthers’ Natalie Wilden.
Barely three minutes later, EC’s Michelle Clark took a shot from the left side that Amherst keeper Elizabeth Soto knocked away. But Schmittgen cut the Comets’ lead to 3-2 when she corralled the rebound and kicked the ball into the right side of the net.     
As for the Panthers’ later opportunities, Schmittgen dribbled in alone on Soto in the 57th minute, but hit a shot just wide left; Clark bounced a shot off the top of the Amherst crossbar in the 61st minute; and Schmittgen got a nifty pass across to Clark in the 65th minute, but Clark’s shot was just wide right.
Still later — in the 70th, 74th and 76th minutes — Panthers forwards moved in alone on Soto, but each time fired shots wide of the mark.
“It was exciting, it was fun to watch,” Comets coach Roseanne Kuncel said. “It was probably one of our most fun games of the year. It was really pretty evenly matched and you didn’t know how it was going to go. It was very competitive. It was a good game.”

Amherst 3, EC 2

GOALS: (EC) Kara Schmittgen 2 (53rd, 56th minutes); (A) Kelsey Bronson 2 (20th, 28th minutes), Julia Porostosky (28th minute)
ASSISTS: (EC) Natalie Wilden; (A) Bronson.
SHOTS: Elyria Catholic 19, Amherst 18.
SHOTS ON GOAL: Elyria Catholic 9, Amherst 12.  
SAVES: (EC) Megan Miehls 9; (A) Leah Yacobucci 2, Elizabeth Soto 5.
CORNER KICKS: Elyria Catholic 2, Amherst 0.
GOAL KICKS: Elyria Catholic 6, Amherst 6.
OFFSIDE: Elyria Catholic 7, Amherst 7.
HAND BALLS: None.
FOULS: Elyria Catholic 2, Amherst 6.
CARDS: (A) Elisa Wells (yellow), 57th minute.
HALFTIME: Amherst, 3-0. 

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