A gallant effort by Free State freshman goalkeeper Meghan Hrenchir wasn’t quite enough to lead the Firebirds to their second win of the season Thursday afternoon.

Hrenchir made 25 saves against Leavenworth — many of them acrobatic moves and last-second lunges to corral the ball or punch it wide — but eventually one got away, and the Firebirds lost to Leavenworth, 1-0, in double-overtime at FSHS.

“We’re fortunate that we got some really good goalkeeper play out of Meghan,” FSHS coach Jason Pendleton said. “It’s really good to see the freshman step up. She did a really nice job of making saves.”

The one Leavenworth shot that finally found the net came in the 92nd minute, when Allison Fischer broke free down the right side. She drove toward the goal and slipped a pass to Natalie Harper who was sprinting up the middle. Harper buried her shot to the upper corner of the far post.

“That last shot was just a perfectly placed side-bending shot,” Pendleton said. “She’s not going to save that one.”

Realistically, the game never should have come down to that shot. Free State (1-3-1) fired five shots that narrowly missed, while the Pioneers (2-6) fired more than two dozen shots on goal.

The Pioneers were the superior team physically, and Free State had trouble slowing them down all afternoon.

“They were very fast, and they were pretty athletic at a lot of spots,” FSHS senior forward Rebekah Berkley said. “If they’re not the fastest team we’ve played, then they were up there. We had to give them a lot of space so we wouldn’t get beat defensively.”

Free State’s best scoring chances came in the 31st minute. Berkley slipped a pass across the mouth of the goal. Sierra Best corralled it in stride and blasted it just wide. Moments later, Clare Robinson fired a shot off the post.

The Firebirds only had one legitimate scoring opportunity in the second half, while Leavenworth shot at will. When Hrenchir wasn’t making saves, the Pioneers were drilling a shot too high or inches wide.

Five fine saves by Hrenchir and a nice backsave by Wallis Romzek allowed Free State to survive the first overtime before Harper scored the game-winner.

“We competed well and had chances,” Pendleton said. “We hit the post, we had a couple of other really good opportunities. Clearly they had more opportunities, but we created enough dangerous opportunities to get a goal and win the game. We just didn’t get breaks when we needed them.”

The Firebirds will play host Saturday to Manhattan. Kickoff is noon at FSHS.