Box Score A late strike by
Nate Waters sank a hapless MIllikiin University Saturday afternoon at the Titan Classic in Bloomington, IL. The game which was seemingly neutral game got frantic in the dying minutes as both sides worked tirelessly to unlock each other's defenses. A clearance by
Gavin Thomas to the halfway line took a fortunate bounce before
Dubien Tshimanga skimmed the ball to an onrushing Waters, who did well to head it to himself while outpacing the Millikin defender before nodding the ball past the approaching goalkeeper for the match winner.
The win is a first for Principia in a season that still has plenty of subplots. On this day, however, the Panthers came out a bit flat and lackadaisical in their play and decision making and were fortunate not to concede on a couple of opportunities they gave Millikin. The biggest save of the day came off a breakaway that resulted from a clearance by a Principia player that took an unfortunate deflection off a fellow teammate. The ball then spilled directly onto the path of the millikin forward who charged the panther custodian but Thomas did well to react quickly making the finger save to keep the game scoreless.
Less than ten minutes later, Waters would find himself at the end of a flick on header from Dubien which he took well to give the Panthers the win. Other notables on the day included some positive contributions from outside backs
Michael Rohrer and
Ross Johnson, while
Evan Sperr and
John Gotwals kept the backline steady. The laborious
Gustavo Batista and an industrious
Leif Carlson helped control the middle of the park. Principia is now 1-1 on the season and continue their non-conference phase of play away against Monmouth College on Tuesday afternoon.
