Johnson fell 5-1 to Castleton in conference play on Saturday evening under the lights at the Spartans' house. 

Mallory Costello opened the scoring in the sixth minute with her ninth goal in as many games before adding another score and an assist later in the contest. Shelby McLenithan and Eva Clark contributed goals of their own, as the Spartans improved to 4-5 overall and 2-0 in the North Atlantic Conference. Alexa Jakiela provided the lone Badger goal in the squad's first conference loss of the season. 

In the sixth minute of play, McLenithan broke away from the back line during a run down the near sideline and fired a bending shot towards goal. Her effort ricocheted off the crossbar before Costello one-timed the rebound to score the first goal of the game and put Castleton in front 1-0. 

After narrowly missing on her first attempt, McLenithan came through on her second in the 35th minute with her first goal in a Spartan uniform. Kiley Baran delivered a pass to McLenithan on the left wing, and the junior attacker dribbled into the box before smashing a strike past the keeper to double the hosts' lead. 

With a 2-0 advantage, Castleton maintained its tenacious attack in the second half with 11 shots and three goals. Clark started the scoring less than two minutes into the frame with her third goal of the season. Costello dribbled the ball across the end line before crossing the ball to Clark in the box, who fired it past the keeper for the third Spartan goal of the game. 

Just over 12 minutes later, Costello tallied her second score of the contest to push Castleton's advantage to four. The senior attacker received the ball in the middle of field before dribbling to the edge of the box and firing a bouncing strike into the bottom left corner of the net to put the hosts' ahead 4-0. 

Johnson St. grabbed its first goal of the game in the 76th minutes when Jakiela scored. After Jessica Binkowskipunched a cross clear from the goal line, Jakiela pounced on the loose ball, striking it just inside the far post to cut the visitors' deficit back to three.

In the waning minutes of the contest, Bronwen Hopwood added her second goal of the season after her shot deflected off a defender and into the back of the net to secure a 5-1 victory for the Spartans.

Binkowski was solid in net once again for the hosts, producing seven saves to record her fourth win of the year. Her counterpart, Nichole Weeks, dropped to 3-5 on the season after allowing five goals with six saves.

Johnson will use the week to prepare for another road conference match-up at Husson for a 4:00pm game on Saturday.