Box Scores

Knox earned a shutout victory on the road Saturday and a hard-fought tie in far from ideal weather on Sunday in a pair of non-conference matches.

Perhaps the most impressive match was Sunday's, when the Prairie Fire battled Webster University - which came in to the contest on a three-match winning streak - to a 2-2 tie after two overtime periods.

The players fought through light fog at the start of the match, which got thicker and was accompanied by light drizzle as the afternoon progressed.  Mother Nature, however, didn't keep the Prairie Fire from playing one of its best matches of the season against the Gorlocks (3-2-2).

Knox got on the board first when first-year midfielder Maxwell Gatyas (Plymouth, Wisconsin) scored off of his own deflected penalty kick at the 13:17 mark of the match.  Webster responded when Clint Carder scored the first of his team's two goals on the afternoon at 30:41 to force a 1-1 tie at the break.

Carder struck again at 82:57 to put Webster up 2-1.  Sophomore Donald Tchopya (San Francisco, California) tied the match when he scored at 87:55, electrifying his teammates and a sizable crowd that braved the elements.

Knox played shorthanded, and did so impressively, after junior Marcos Moreno (East Moline, Illinois) was ejected from the match in the 57th minute after receiving a red card.  Webster outshot the Fire 34-6 overall and 15-5 on goal.  But the Knox defense and goalie, sophomore Robert Porter (Tucson, Arizona), held strong and did not allow another Webster score.

Porter played all 110 minutes, recording 13 saves in the match.

Knox was a 3-0 winner Saturday at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois.  The Fire scored all three goals in the first half:  two by Gatyas and one by junior Luca Pescarini (Rockford, Illinois).  Gatyas assisted on Pescarini's goal and Pescarini assisted on both scores by Gatyas.

The Prairie Fire (2-5-1) dominated the match, outshooting the Highlanders 25-3 overall and 17-2 on goal.  Porter, who made two saves in goal for Knox, earned his first shutout of the season.

The tie with Webster stopped Knox College's two-match win streak, but the performance made a statement against a Webster team that won its conference title (SLIAC) last season and was the favorite coming into Sunday's match.

Kevwe Akpore’s improving Knox squad looks to continue a solid stretch of soccer Wednesday on the road against the University of Dubuque at 7:00 p.m.