Box Scores

Knox College broke through in a big way against Lincoln Christian University Wednesday night at home, earning its first men's soccer victory of the season.

The Prairie Fire (1-5) had managed to score just three goals through five matches going into the contest against the Red Lions (0-5).  Knox broke that trend as first-year midfielder Maxwell Gatyas (Plymouth, Wisconsin) and sophomore mid Daniel Tchopya (San Francisco, California) both recorded hat-tricks in a 9-2 non-conference win.

Tchopya struck first at the 19:37 mark of the match from the left side unassisted to give his team a lead it would never relinquish.  Gatyas followed less than four minutes later with his first goal from straight on for a 2-0 score.

The Prairie Fire added two more first-half goals: by first-year players Dillon Kostka (Coal Valley, Illinois) and Avinab Rajbhandary (Nepal) before Lincoln's John Merritt responded with a pair of scores at 41:50 and 43:44 to get his team closer at 4-2.

The final 45 minutes was all Knox. 

Junior Luca Rajola-Pescarini (Rockford, Illinois), who assisted on Kostka's goal earlier, scored his first of the season at 46:20 to give Knox a 5-2 lead.  Gatyas added two more goals, at 59:05 and 85:57, and finished with two assists.  Tchopya scored his final two goals at 73:42 and 87:41.

Knox fired off 34 shots, 19 of them on goal, to the Red Lions' eight shots and five on goal.  LCU goalie Chris Strohbeck made 10 saves.  Prairie Fire sophomore goalie Robert Porter (Tucson, Arizona) played just under 86:00 of the match, recording two saves and no goals allowed.

Knox is back in action Sunday at home against Webster University (3-2-1).  The non-conference match begins at 1:00 p.m.