POPLARVILLE, Miss. — The No. 17 Pearl River women’s soccer team hit a rough patch on Saturday against Louisiana College, falling 5-2.

“We struggled a lot to start, but I think we were able to get the hang of it,” said head coach Henrik Madsen. “We played much better in the second half. Their speed of play is a little bit higher than what we are used to, so we were struggling with that. I thought the girls worked hard. The two goals that we scored were really good.”

Pearl River (1-2 overall) was on the attack early in the matchup, narrowly missing a goal in the 4th minute. A Sydney Spataro (Long Beach) header put Ally Davis (Hattiesburg) on goal, but her shot sailed high.

Louisiana College (3-0) opened the scoring in the 15th minute on a penalty kick.

PRCC evened the score at one each in the 20th minute thanks to Aubrey Wawrek (Long Beach; Our Lady Academy). Sydney Salter (Vancleave) played a ball into the box and Wawrek blasted a shot off her left foot and over the keeper’s head at the far post.

LC retook the lead in the 29th minute and went into the half on top, 2-1.

Coming out of the break, Pearl River looked like it had all the momentum as Aubrie Edwards (Biloxi) tied the game at 2-2 in the 53rd minute.

The Wildcat forward battled her way into the box before putting a ball past the Louisiana College goalkeeper with a shot into the top right corner of the net.

Louisiana College quickly took away any momentum that the Wildcats had as they went back on top in the 64th minute.

LC went on to score two more goals before the final whistle, claiming the game by a final score of 5-2.

UP NEXT

Pearl River will be back in action on Friday as they host rival Jones College. The match will begin at 5 p.m. and will be livestreamed on PRCCMedia.com/gold.