KARNS CITY — Freeport had its chances, but Karns City capitalized.

Junior forward Haley Scherer found the net twice off Yellowjacket mistakes and Chelsey Dodds scored on a semi-breakaway Saturday in the Gremlins' 3-2 girls soccer victory at Diehl Stadium.

Karns City (12-0) stayed undefeated with the win.

“They beat us (1-0) last year to ruin our undefeated season, so this feels pretty good,” Scherer admitted.

The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for Freeport (10-3), which had allowed only two goals in those six games.

“We made too many mistakes in this game and they made us pay for them,” said Freeport coach Brittni Grenninger, a former 100-goal scorer in her high school career at Karns City.

“I feel like we were the better team today, had the better of the play. We missed too many chances. That happens in soccer.”

The Yellowjackets had seven corner kicks to none for Karns City. Freeport had a number of free kicks on the attacking side of the pitch as well.

“We gave them too much space in the midfield,” Karns City coach Tracy Dailey said. “We haven't played a team with that much speed. Honestly, we're lucky the ball wasn't in the back of our net more.”

KC goaklkeeper Olivia Mourer had a lot to do with that.

A basketball player and a tall presence in goal, Mourer forced those Yellowjacket free kicks to sail high. Olivia Gasperic put one off the crossbar. Hannah Stokes hammered a couple over the net.

“Olivia is a first-year goalie for us and I think her presence in there did make a difference,” Dailey said.

The Gremlins have allowed only eight goals all season.

Karns City got on the scoreboard a little more than six minutes into the contest. Freeport goalkeeper Cassie Suran tried kicking the ball to a teammate in a clearing effort, but her pass found Scherer's foot instead.

With no one between her and the goalkeeper, Scherer fired a shot into the net with 33:54 left in the first period.

“I could tell what (Suran) was trying to do,” Scherer said. “I was pretty excited when that ball came to me.”

The lead lasted only 42 seconds.

Stokes delivered on a free kick from 33 yards out, deftly dropping a shot over Mourer's outstretched arms and into the far left corner of the net.

“She's pretty accurate on those shots,” Dailey said.

With Freeport pressing for the go-ahead goal, Dodds got loose going the other way. Just before a defender caught up to her, the KC junior forward rolled a shot past Suran for a 2-1 Gremlins' lead with 21:12 left in the half.

Scherer's second goal — and 24th of the year — occurred early in the second half. She got possession only a few yards from the net, but didn't get off the hard shot she wanted.

“I mis-hit it, but it got in off the goalie's fingers,” she said, smiling. “I got a break there.”

Down 3-1, Freeport was not done. Off a pass from Stokes, sophomore midfielder Abby Bastaja rolled a shot into the left corner of the net with 24:49 to play.

The Yellowjackets forced the issue from there, but never found the equalizer.

“It was close there,” Dailey said. “But we were able to get the ball down to the other end for the last 10 minutes or so to hang on.

“This is a nice win for us against a very good team. We could meet in the playoffs, so this means a lot.”

Grenninger referred to her return to Karns City as “bittersweet.”

“I have a lot of respect for Karns City's program. I was a part of it and they have an excellent team,” she said. “But you always want to win.

“If we learn from our mistakes, a loss can be helpful, though. Hopefully, this was a hiccup and we'll move on from here.”