DuBOIS — Karns City senior sweeper Taylor Downs, her cheeks still ruddy from the tears that had wetted them, spoke with pride about her team.

“I’m so proud of how we played,” she said. “I’m so proud of what we accomplished this year.”

But she was speaking in the past tense after the Gremlins girls soccer team lost a 2-1 decision to Loyalsock Township in the PIAA Class A semifinals.

The Lancers’ defense did in Karns City in the second half, holding on to the one-goal lead they had built for the final 52 minutes of the match at DuBois High School Tuesday night.

Karns City played tough against a battle-tested team from Williamsport that played in one of the most competitive Class A girls soccer leagues in the state.

“We definitely take pride in it,” Downs said, choking back more tears. “But we wanted to win. This game was so big for us. We wanted it so bad.”

Karns City had gotten to arguably the biggest girls soccer game in school history after winning its biggest match in its existence, 3-2 over WPIAL champion Greensburg Central Catholic Saturday.

Loyalsock, though, ended the ride.

In the 10th minute, Rhialle Jessell scored to put the Lancers up 1-0.

Karns City answered in the 25th minute when Hunter Dittman struck a ball from 34 yards away into an open net after Loyalsock keeper Grace Schreckengast came out too late and too far to defend and left the goal exposed.

Loyalsock answered quickly with what ended up being the game-winner.

Ariana Barone took a free kick and bent it into the goal in the 28th minute for a Lancer lead that stood.

Barone also set up the Jessell goal with a free kick.

“(Barone’s) our free-kick specialist,” said Loyalsock coach Ben Comfort. “She takes our free kicks and corners. She has like 14 goals this season and I bet 12 have come off free kicks.”

Loyalsock is built on defense and the Lancers excelled at it after regaining the lead.

“Defense is our bread-and-butter,” Comfort said.

Schreckengast redeemed herself in a big way with three stellar saves, the first coming near the end of the first half when she tipped a shot off the foot of Aubrie Ball over the cross bar.

The other two came against Megan McCartney in the second half to preserve the lead and the win.

“That’s what you expect from your keeper,” Comfort said. “She needs to make two or three big saves a night, especially in a game like this, and I couldn’t have asked anything more of her.”

Karns City coach Tracy Dailey said she couldn’t have asked anything more of her team this season.

But she lamented the nerves and the mistakes her team uncharacteristically exhibited Tuesday.

“We were able to compete, (but) the team that makes the least amount of mistakes is going to win, and that was them. Kudos to them. I wish them well in Hershey.

“We didn’t play our best game tonight,” Dailey added. “I think we were a little nervous coming in and we didn’t play our best soccer.”

Still, Karns City ended up with more shots on goal than Loyalsock and made several furious attacks late that were turned away.

“We had opportunities,” Dailey said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t finish enough of them. Someone had to lose and, unfortunately, it was us. The girls worked so hard and they accomplished so much this year.”

McCartney, a junior, said she felt bad for the seniors.

“I could have done better,” she said. “The whole team could have done better, but we made it this far. We can make it again.”

Dailey, who 19 years ago was on the last Karns City girls soccer team to make it to the state semifinals, also has little doubt the bar has been raised even higher for a program that has won 18 District 9 Class A titles in 21 years.

“It is tough. The seniors are a lot of the heart of our team,” Dailey said. “I feel like we can come back and compete at this level next year. This will light a fire.”