Prep girls soccer: Mission Prep rallies from two goals down to beat Pioneer Valley in league opener

The Mission Prep girls soccer team fell behind 2-0 at halftime before reeling off four-straight goals to beat Pioneer Valley on a rainy Wednesday night to open PAC 8 league play.

Jenna Miller opened the scoring in the second half for the Royals with a shot from the top of the 18 yard box to make it 2-1.

Mission Prep coach Gil Braga said the Royals kept the pressure on, and Emma Kuchinski’s run through four defenders in the box led to a foul and she converted the penalty kick to tie it at 2-2.

“The girls got fired up after that,” Braga said. “We kept on pressuring, taking shots, trying to keep the ball on the Panther’s half of the field.”

Sammi Fernandez took a corner kick and Emily Riforgiate headed it in to put the Royals in the lead 3-2 with only a few minutes to go. But they weren’t done.

Before the final whistle, Kuchinski recovered a ball that was cleared by Pioneer Valley’s goalkeeper and kicked back into an almost empty net.

Maddie Morley played in goal and had six saves for Mission Prep.

Mission Prep is scheduled to play Atascadero on Friday, but the game may have to be postponed due to the fields being too saturated with all the rain, Braga said.

The Royals are now 7-3 overall and 1-0 in the PAC 8.

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 11:01 PM with the headline "Prep girls soccer: Mission Prep rallies from two goals down to beat Pioneer Valley in league opener."