Lake Forest, IL – Lake Forest College won its fifth straight match to maintain its hold on first place in the Midwest Conference with a 3-0 victory against the Prairie Fire on Saturday.

The Foresters (11-2-1, 7-1-0 MWC) improved to 8-0 at home with the win.  Four of the five consecutive victories by LFC have been shutouts as the Foresters have outscored the opposition 14-1 during the run.

Knox (5-6-2, 1-3-2 MWC) held LFC in check in the first 45:00 as the teams went into the intermission scoreless.

Lake Forest did its damage against the Prairie Fire during about a 12:00 stretch in the second half.  Mahir Mameledzija scored his MWC-leading 21st and 22nd goals of the season at 55:43 and 63:34, respectively, to give the hosts a 2-0 lead. 

Mameledzija is averaging 1.57 goals per game, nearly a full goal more than Knox first-year player Charlie Harned (Webster Groves, MO, Clayton).  Harned is second in the conference with 10 goals and an average of 0.77 goals per game.

The Foresters' Brett Grijalva scored his team's last goal of the match at 67:24 .

Lake Forest held the Prairie Fire to three total shots, none of them on goal, while taking 21 -- including 10 on goal.  First-year goalie Sean McGovern (Chicago, IL, Niles Notre Dame) had seven saves for Knox between the pipes.

The Prairie Fire will try to end a stretch of three consecutive losses and a tie in their last four matches on October 20 – Knox’s Homecoming – against Carroll University (7-6, 5-1 MWC) at 1:30 p.m.  The Pioneers are in second place behind Lake Forest in the MWC but have dropped their last two matches.

Carroll was shut out in both defeats.  The University of St. Thomas won at home 2-0 on October 7 and Lake Forest blanked the Pioneers 1-0 on October 10 at home.

The Prairie Fire play their final four matches at home.  After taking on Carroll, Knox meets Beloit College on October 21 at 1:30 p.m., Illinois College in a make-up match on October 25 at 3:00 p.m. (the previous match was postponed because of inclement weather on October 2), and St. Norbert in the season finale on October 27 at 1:30 p.m.

Knox has already won the most matches by the men's soccer program in four years.  Two more victories would equal a 13-year high by the 1999 team, which had seven wins.

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