GALESBURG, Illinois—The Prairie Fire broke out on offense to put six goals past Ripon College Saturday afternoon.
Knox (8-1-2) came out strong in the first half to take an early lead through Nathaniel Logie (Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Queens Royal College) off a clever chest pass from Abdulsalam Oganla (Lagos, Nigeria, The International Academy) . Logie would double the Fire's lead in the 12th minute after he took down a punt from goalkeeper Justin Dunn (Winnetka, IL, New Trier) to slot past the Ripon keeper.
Logie would return the favor to Oganla in the 22nd minute when he found his teammate in the box for a tap-in. Knox finished their first half scoring through Phelipe Graske (Geneva, IL, Geneva), who coolly finished inside the penalty box after he was picked out by Joe Dyer (Kansas City, MO, Oak Park).
"Our first half was a bit sloppier than I would have liked, but we punished some Ripon mistakes and created a few more of our own," said head coach Tyler Sheikh. "The game might have been killed off at halftime, but I really credit Zach (Hershoff) for having his team ready to compete in the second."
While giving many of their starters a break in the second half, Knox conceded their only goal on the afternoon in the 64th minute, with Christian Navarro scoring on a close-range strike off a deflected cross.
The Fire would make that wrong right with not one, but two, replies to build their lead back to 6-1, where the game would finish.
Gavin Douglas (Oxford, MS, Oxford) popped up at the right moment to finish off a slick move and cross by Charlie Harned (Webster Groves, MO, Clayton) to get his first goal of the season. Shadrack Ofori-Boadi (Accra, Ghana, SOS Hermann-Gmeiner International) would round out the scoring off an assist from solid flank play by Max Dorsey (Brookfield, IL, Riverside-Brookfield). Justin Dunn picked up his sixth win of the season with 3 saves on the day.
Sheikh added, "These doubleheader weekends make or break teams in our conference. We are pleased with three points from Saturday, but know Sundays are huge."
Knox will look to continue their form at 1:30pm Sunday versus Lawrence at Jorge Prats Field.
