By: The IC women’s soccer team stayed focused and mostly shut down a potent Knox offense, but the Prairie Fire were able to strike twice on either side of halftime.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College women's soccer team stayed composed against relentless Knox College pressure, but the Prairie Fire were able to score once in each half to earn a hard-fought 2-0 win on Monday evening. The win pushes Knox into a tie for first place in the Midwest Conference at 12-5-1 (7-0-1 MWC) with St. Norbert, while IC falls to 3-15-0 (1-7-0 MWC).
Knox was sloppy in possession to start the match in the opening minutes, giving Illinois College an early opportunity. The best opportunity for the Lady Blues was a header by
Kara Zillhart that was blocked on its way through. With IC committing numbers forward, Knox was able to spring a counterattack that resulted in the opening goal. Kayla Brown slid a shot past
Charlotte Crofton after a cross from Briana Quintana in the seventh minute to put the Prairie Fire on top.
From that point on, Knox consistently applied pressure on the Illinois College goal, but the Lady Blues refused to yield. Despite 17 shots in the first half by the Prairie Fire, they only had the one goal to show for it thanks to Crofton, who made 10 of her 17 saves before halftime.
Just past the hour mark, Bryssa Montez banged a free kick off the crossbar and the rebound shot by Jessica Petersen was straight at Crofton to keep it a one-goal game. In the 69th minute, Illinois College worked its way up the field with a nice bit of interplay between
Kelsey Ziegemeier and
Ashley Sholmire. Sholmire sent a square ball in towards the on-rushing
Mackenzie Bedgood, but her shot went just wide off to the right of goal.
The match was put away in the 78th minute. After Crofton was able to bat away a long-distance shot by Yvette Rodriguez, the rebound came to Alyx Farris who slammed it over the top of Crofton while the keeper was still on the ground. IC was not able to muster another offensive push and the Prairie Fire held on for the victory.
Illinois College concludes the 2017 season on Oct. 28 with a 1 p.m. match at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.
