Box Score ELSAH, ILL. – The Panthers hosted the Millikin Big Blue tonight, who travelled down from Springfield, IL for a game under the lights. As the game began, both teams looked to be evenly matched. With the Big Blue forwards as fast as they were, the Panthers' defense wasn't able to rest long. Millikin forwards came out of nowhere to pressure the ball and created dangerous situations for the Panthers; junior goalie
Kara Johnson had to maintain her focus the entire game. On Principia's side, midfielder senior
Nadine Marczi, sophomore Sam Bronkar, freshman
Emelie Fredrikson and later, junior Gabby Martin pinged passes, maintained possession and found the Panthers' forwards' feet occasionally. It was good to see that some of the Panthers' attack came from the wing backs, junior Georgia-Mae Hurley and freshman
Clarice Bruch. They worked hard to recover the ball or intercept passes, and then looked up to freshman center forward
Emma Dixon (later Marczi) or out wide to the wing forwards senior
Kenzie Keller and freshman
Sarah DeNicholas to get crosses off or have a shot on goal. Keller tested the Millikin keeper more than a few times, once shooting over the cross bar and just barely missing the goal.
As the first half was nearing its end, on a quick counter attack Keller received the ball out wide on the left side around midfield and drove centrally at the Big Blue defense while Marczi made a diagonal run across her path. As they entered the box, Keller passed Marczi the ball and in a tumble Marczi hit the ball into the back of the net and gave Principia a 1-0 lead. With 2 minutes left in the half though, Millikin wasn't going to end without a fight and they came close to evening the score, but Johnson came away with the saves.
Two minutes into the second half, a Millikin forward caught the Panthers' defense off guard just outside the box and capitalized on their surprise attack tying the score, 1-1. This didn't deter the Panthers though. The women looked even more driven and focused on scoring. Martin did a great job creating chances, Keller and Marczi had a few more shots and even holding midfielders Bronkar and Fredrikson took some long range shots. Â Unfortunately none were able to beat the Millikin keeper. At the end of the 90 minutes no other goals were scored for either team and overtime commenced.
In the two following overtimes, the Panthers, while pushing into the Big Blue half and creating some dangerous situations, were fading out faster than Millikin. Their speed up top made it difficult for the Panther defenders, which in turn weakened their distribution out of the back. They turned to clearing the ball as their first option, and the Panther forwards were unable to collect the ball regularly. With three minutes left in the second 10 minute overtime, Millikin scored their game winning goal, ending the game with a 2-1 final score.
Though it was tough to lose in the second overtime, the Panthers had plenty of chances in regulation to finish the game. It was good to see shots actually being taken and on frame, so now going forward the Panthers will look to get more numbers into the attack, and work to beat the keeper when in a scoring position.
The team was grateful to have all the support from their Principia community and on such a cold night too. Their next home game is this Saturday, September 20
th, at 1:00 pm against Augustana University. Hope to see you there!
Â
