The Johnston/Achievement First girls soccer team picked up a much-needed win when it traveled to Central and held on for a 1-0 shutout on Monday. 

After a scoreless first half, Johnston/AF broke through midway through the second when Olivia Iafrate scored on a shot from nearly midfield which would be enough to close things out.

“I had a tough first half, my shots weren’t going in, so my mentality in the second half was to take as many shots as I could. There were a lot of fumbles and rebounds from the (Central) goalie so my thought was just to take a shot and see where it goes, and finally one went in,” said Iafrate.

The Panthers improved to 2-6 in league play and 5-7 overall as it snapped a three-game losing streak with the victory.

Iafrate was proud of her team’s resilience as it looked to get back into the win column. The senior also felt that it was important for the team to play with some urgency, as it has tended to let its guard down when things click.

“I try to keep the team motivated. Sometimes we have off days, sometimes we make mistakes, so I just try to keep the energy up and positive. It’s important because once we score we sometimes let up on defense. I give credit to our defense and goalie for holding up in back,” said Iafrate.

With nine games left in the regular season, the Panthers will begin taking on some teams for the second time as they look to qualify for the Division III playoffs. Iafrate hopes that Monday’s win will give the team a boost and teaches it how to win the close ones before the postseason.

“At practice we talked about how the losses sucked but we had to move on, we had to move to the next game and get some points for the playoffs,” said Iafrate. “This win gives us the motivation we’ve been looking for. We can now say, ‘OK, we’ve got the win so let’s get more before playoffs.’”

The Panthers faced Tolman on Wednesday afternoon, but the results were unavailable at press time.