The Steel City Sparks recently received an unexpected spark.

Annie Lowry, who graduated from Butler High School earlier this month, scored three goals Saturday night in leading the Sparks' main team to a 6-0 Women's Premier Soccer League victory over the Rhode Island Rays at Pine-Richland High School.

The WPSL is an 18-team league comprised mostly of Division I college players and/or graduates along with some professional players.

"It's rare for a high school-age player to even be on the field in this league," Sparks' co-owner Chris Quahliero said. "For one to score three goals in a game is unheard of."

No other pre-college player has scored three goals in a WPSL game this season "and it probably hasn't happened in a while," Quahliero said.

Lowry has been playing for the Sparks "B" team this year, playing two games a week since the season began in late May.

"I've probably been averaging a goal or two per game there," she said. "They don't really keep statistics."

Saturday's game marked Lowry's first playing time with the main team, which plays its final home game of the year July 10 against the Rochester Reign at Pine-Richland.

"She's certainly earned another shot," Quahliero said.

The soft-spoken Lowry admitted that "there is no level higher than this one that I can be playing for right now.

"Just about everyone in that game was a college graduate or a college senior, if not a pro. It was a great experience."

Lowry scored her first goal late in the first half against Rhode Island and added the other two late in the game.

And the caliber of the game helped her game.

"It's a lot faster and the pace of the game is so much quicker," Lowry said of the WPSL. "These women are so skilled. Every pass I received was right where I wanted it, in stride, ready to go.

"I didn't have to get in position to shoot the ball. I was already in position when I got it. They gave me the ball right where I needed it."

Lowry scored 84 goals - including 30 her senior year - and 122 points in her Butler career. She is headed to James Madison University on a soccer scholarship in the fall.

James Madison has been to the NCAA soccer playoffs six times in the past nine years.

Lowry is also one of only five girls in Western Pennsylvania - the only one from Butler County - participating in the Under-19 Olympic Development Program.

She will participate in the ODP Under-19 Camp July 12-15 at the University of Rhode Island.

"Not many girls still take soccer this seriously at my age," Lowry said.

"Succeeding at this level does boost my confidence. I want to start as a freshman in college, but that's not guaranteed.

"What you do in preseason, how well-prepared you are when you get there determines if you start right away. That's what I'm working on now," she added.