Box Score
Monmouth, IL – Monmouth College broke a scoreless tie a short time after the intermission and went on to defeat the Prairie Fire 2-0 in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday.
Despite the loss, Knox (13-5, 6-4 MWC) is still in the mix for a championship. The Prairie Fire qualified for the Midwest Conference Tournament that begins on Friday, November 8.
Lake Forest College (12-6, 9-1 MWC) is hosting the tournament after clinching the conference's regular season title with a 3-0 win at home against Lawrence University on Saturday.
The Fighting Scots (5-12-1, 3-7 MWC) took a 1-0 lead with a goal 49:04 into the match against Knox. The hosts added another goal at the 88:40 mark to account for all of the scoring.
The Prairie Fire and Monmouth both took three shots in the first half of play. Knox held a 6-2 edge in shots over the 45:00, but couldn't squeeze one past Fighting Scot goalie Matt Schmidt.
Sophomore
Charlie Harned (Webster Groves, MO, Clayton) led Knox with three shot attempts, including two on goal. Sophomore
Abdulsalam Oganla (Lagos, Nigeria, The International Academy) also got off a pair of shots on goal.
Prairie Fire junior goalie
Sean Dockrell (Dublin, Ireland, San Bernadino CC) stopped one shot and finished the season with a school record nine shutouts, which ranks #2 in Midwest Conference history.
Knox will play for its first Midwest Conference championship since 1988 after 13 regular season wins, the most in the men's soccer program's history. In addition, the team's six league victories are the most since the 1996 Knox squad finished with a 6-3-1 conference mark.
The Prairie Fire will meet Lake Forest on Friday, November 8 at 11:00 a.m. in the tournament semifinals at Farwell Field. The two other teams in the tourney are Carroll University (13-4-1, 9-1 MWC) and St. Norbert College (9-7-2, 8-2 MWC). They will square off in the other semifinal match at 1:30 p.m. St. Norbert is making its first appearance in the tournament since 2009 while Carroll is the two-time defending champion.
Knox handed Lake Forest its only conference loss. The
Prairie Fire defeated the Foresters 2-1 on October 19 at Jorge Prats Field.
The winners of the two semifinal matches on November 8 will play in the finals November 9 for an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The match between Knox and Lake Forest will be streamed live at
http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/lfc.portal#
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