Iron Mountain goalie Lauren Lesky boots the ball away during Tuesday's match with Houghton. (Theresa Proudfit/The Daily News)

KINGSFORD — Taylor Paul’s goal in extra time lifted Iron Mountain past Houghton 2-1 in UP Soccer Conference girls play Tuesday at Commemorative Field.

The Mountaineers (3-1, 1-1) and Gremlins (0-2 league) each scored a goal in the second half.

With a couple minutes left in extra time, Marissa Schilling played a cross into Paul who scored the game-winning goal.

The Mountaineers evened their conference record after losing to Marquette in overtime. This is the first year of the UP Soccer Conference.

“This was a huge win to keep ourselves in a good position moving forward,” said Mountaineers coach Zack Frorenza. “It’s been awesome to see how competitive all of these (conference) games have been so far.

“I’m really happy that we were able to make this happen for this season to make it a little more interesting at a time where we have a lot of quality teams so evenly matched.

Frorenza though his Mountaineers started strong in the first half.

“But as the half went on play evened out a little more,” he said. “Even so, I felt our team was getting the more dangerous chances and was driving possession a little more effectively.

“In the second half we took control of the game a little more and moved the ball around better. We were a little stuck on one side of the field or the other in the first half, but got things moving around better.”

A hand ball in the penalty area set up a penalty kick that went off the crossbar. But Mountaineers sophomore Riley Poupore was there for the rebound and her fifth goal of the year.

Frorenza cited Hailey Ellis and Marissa Klarich for a “great job” of shadowing speedy Houghton standout Daryn Dupont.

With four minutes left in the game, Houghton was awarded a penalty kick when Hailey Ellis was called for a foul in the box, Daryn Dupont scored on the kick to tie the game.

“I was impressed with the perseverance our girls displayed to get the job done in extra time,” Frorenza said. “Hailey Ellis played a monster of a game. Not just on defense, but she does such a great job connecting our back line to the attack as well. She did a lot of things flawlessly and I always feel bad when someone has to be the one to get called for the foul that leads directly to a goal.

“I was really proud of how she was able to not let one bad break turn into another and play the rest of the game tough on defense.”

The Mountaineers and Kingsford will play a make-up game Thursday starting at 6 p.m.