PIKEVILLE, Ky. – There were goals a-plenty in Saturday's UPIKE women's soccer home opener, but Emily Branham's second-half brace provided the difference as the Bears walked away with a 5-4 win.

After a rather boring first 20 minutes, there were goals all over the place.

Mardorie Flahn opened the scoring with her first goal of the season. She won a ball in the box, then deked her way around the keeper to find an open net.

UPIKE got a 2-0 lead after Taylor Stamper had a beautiful first touch on a long pass into the box, then found Kylie Maynard at the top of the box and she sent the ball into the corner of the net for her second career goal.

Midway caught UPIKE off-guard off the ensuing kickoff and weaved through the defense to cut the lead to 2-1, but Skylar Chapman got the lead back to two goals six minutes later with a goal of her own.

But Midway cut the lead to 3-2 after they put a goal in after some confusion with the officials on a play that was never called dead to steal momentum heading into halftime.

The Eagles used that momentum to take its first lead shortly after halftime with two goals in a minute, both from Brynn Bradley.

But then Branham finally broke through the defense. Her first goal was very similar to Chapman's in that Kate Auvil sent the ball back to the top of the box for Branham to send home.

The game then stood at a tied standstill for nearly 25 minutes before Stamper got the ball in space and sent it across to Branham for the game-winner in the 86th minute. Branham now sits at six goals in six matches so far.

UP NEXT

UPIKE women's soccer heads back on the road, but with a long break in between matches as the Bears don't play again until Sept. 21 at Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Ga.

-UPIKE-