CARLINVILLE, Illinois – The Prairie Fire were on the attack from the outset and defeated host Blackburn College 5-0 in the season-opener for both squads on Tuesday.  The win marked the first at Knox for head coach Tyler Sheikh.

Senior Abdulsalam Oganla (Lagos, Nigeria, The International Academy) gave the visitors a 1-0 lead when he scored just 17 seconds into the contest on an assist from first-year Joe Dyer (Kansas City, MO, Oak Park).

First-year James Barrington (Pontefract, England, St. Wilfrid's) extended the Prairie Fire advantage to 2-0 with his first career goal, assisted by sophomore Shadrack Ofori-Boadi (Accra, Ghana, SOS Hermann-Gmeiner International) at the 30:47 mark.

An unassisted score by junior Bernardo Gasperazzo (Montes Claros, Brazil, Colegio Padrao) at 37:50, and the second tally of the afternoon by Barrington less than three minutes later off a feed from junior Jefferson Aguirre (Plainfield, IL, Joliet Township) made it 4-0 at the intermission.

"It's always nice to start a season off with a win and a clean sheet so I'm pleased for the men that they were able to showcase some strides they made in the preseason," Sheikh said.  "We were able to wrestle control of the game early and allow everyone available a chance to play."

Oganla knocked home his second goal of the game on a penalty kick with less than eight minutes remaining to account for the final score.

Knox held a 24-6 advantage in total shots, including 11-4 on goal.  First-year goalkeeper Justin Dunn (Winnetka, IL, New Trier) recorded three saves in 78-plus minutes in net.  Fellow first-year goalie Andrew Hind (Coconut Grove, Australia, Taminmin College) helped preserve the shutout.

The Prairie Fire play the next two opponents at Jorge Prats Field – Concordia University-Chicago on Saturday and Edgewood College on Sunday, both at 1:30 p.m.

"We look forward to this weekend's home-opening doubleheader as today's game also provided us many things to improve on in the coming fixtures," Sheikh added.