GALESBURG, IL - The Pioneers took a trip to Jorge Prats Field for a Midwest Conference clash against the Prairie Fire, and Aniela Rossi welcomed them to town with a pair of first half goals which led Knox to a 2-1 victory.
Early in the contest Knox was threatening near the box when Sophia Gordoa lobbed one over the backline to Aniela Rossi who snuck it past Grinnell's keeper to give Knox an early lead.
Shortly after Rossi's goal Knox was awarded a corner kick. Emma Sineath lobbed a beautiful ball into the box that Reagan Toney headed backwards to Rossi who netted another to put the Prairie Fire up 2-0 in the 24th minute.
Eliana Juarez put one more shot on goal for Knox in the first half, but was given a yellow card shortly after that limited her play for the rest of the night.
Up 2-0 at the half, the Prairie Fire were sitting pretty as Darby Wallig only had to make one save so far.
Knox tacked on four more shots on goal in the first 25 minutes of the second half, but couldn't get any of them past the keeper.
In the 81st minute, Grinnell took advantage of a free kick opportunity off an offside call. From their side of the field they launched a ball just outside of the box, and after a handful of passes they were able to shoot one past Wallig to trim their deficit in half.
Grinnell had a chance to score in the 88th minute, but ended up putting their shot wide of the net and Knox was able to hold on to win 2-1.
Rossi picked up her third and fourth goal of the season after scoring two in a win against Aurora.
Knox's defense looked strong again in the conference victory as Grinnell did not have much going for them offensively before the goal after the free kick.
Toney and Sineath showed some incredible skills from the corner as they lobbed balls that gave their forwards a chance to score on all five of Knox's corner attempts.
Juarez had a really nice first half against the Pioneers before picking up a yellow card. She put on quite a display of dribbling as she beat her defenders along the sideline numerous times in the half.
Knox improves to 4-4-0 (2-0-0 MWC) and will return to the pitch on Saturday when they take on Cornell on the road.
