GALESBURG, IL - The Prairie Fire got on the scoreboard first, but Grinnell was able to respond with two unanswered goals in a hard fought game that finished 2-1.
In the seventh minute of the contest, Kestervens Dera got behind the defense and was able to sneak a shot past the Grinnell keeper, placing the Prairie Fire up 1-0 early in the contest. Dera's goal was his sixth of the season.
Just nine minutes later, Grinnell rocketed a ball from inside the box into the top right corner of the net to knot the score at one goal apiece.
The two conference foes went back-and-forth throughout the rest of the first half, but Grinnell had more threatening scoring chances as they got seven corner kicks in the half.
Knox's defense played an incredibly strong game, but the high powered Pioneers were able to sneak one more goal past Diogo Pereira on a corner kick in the 67th minute. Grinnell began to play some incredible shutdown defense for the remainder of the half as they held Knox to just one goal on their way to a 2-1 win.
The Prairie Fire threatened a couple more times in the later minutes, but Grinnell stood tall in their own box.
The loss drops Knox to 2-4-2 (1-1-0 MWC) and they will return to the pitch on Saturday on the road at Cornell at 11:00 a.m.
