DECATUR, Ill. — Playing its second game of the season in four days, the Knox College women's soccer team was unable to escape Webster University with a win, falling by a final of 2-0. The host Gorloks improved to 1-1 on the season while the Prairie Fire dropped to 0-2.
It was a scoreless duel for most of the first half, and Knox had the first opportunity with a shot by sophomore Isabella Urrutia Flores in the fourth minute that sailed wide to the left. And her classmate, Asia Ling, fired off a shot in the 35th minute that was off target to the other side. But it was Webster that broke the deadlock in the 38th minute, turning a corner kick opportunity into a 1-0 lead as Payton Montana bounced a header into the upper left corner of the net. It was the Gorloks' 10th of 11 shot attempts in the opening half and fourth on goal.
The second tally came less than 11 minutes into the second half with Mayrin Soto taking a cross into the box from Malaya Blakely and putting it away for her second goal of the young season.
- Sophomore keeper Darby Wallig, who faced a total of 26 shots and 11 on goal, provided nine saves after entering the match after barely four minutes, replacing classmate Bri Mahoney who departed following a collision in the box.
- Senior Avery Leigh had Knox's other shot in the game, which missed wide right.
- This was just the second meeting between the two schools in women's soccer, the other coming 26 years ago, also won by the Gorloks, 5-0.
Next up for the Prairie Fire is their home opener on Saturday, Sept. 6 when Aurora University comes to Jorge Prats Field for a match at 1:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live through the PrairieFire.Knox.edu website with live stats available as well.
