Elsah, ILL. -- On Tuesday night under the lights, Principia Men's Soccer played host to the Hornets of Harris Stowe State University. The Hornets were coming off of a 1-0 loss to Fontbonne, while Principia hoped to build on the momentum of their 2-0 victory over Illinois College the previous Thursday. Senior captain,
Carson Hussey, returned to the starting lineup in the back line for Principia helping to keep the defensive unit strong.
David McCook had a strong performance in multiple roles for Principia, starting as a holding midfielder and shifting into the back line. Harris Stowe played a strong defensive game making it difficult for the Principia men to find many clear scoring chances. The first half ended 0-0, with the Panthers taking 9 shots, to the Hornets 4. Goalkeeper
Nick Klusmeyer made two saves in the first half. The Hornets shot stopper, Nicholas Morales was up to the task, also tallying two saves in the first half.
Sophomore,
Cole Heinbaugh had an outstanding match as a work horse in the middle of the field, both in attack and defense. Heinbaugh started as a holding midfielder in the first half and moved into an attacking role in the second half. Principia continued to gain foot holds in the game as the second half was played, building on momentum created from multiple scoring opportunities. Despite creating chances, the Panthers weren't able to find the decisive goal in regulation time. After 90 minutes of play, the match was still at a 0-0 deadlock.
In the opening minutes of overtime Principia's defensive unit, anchored by
EG Pierce, was forced to deal with a couple of dangerous balls played into the box by the Hornets. They held strong, and nine minutes into the first period of overtime they were able to find
Seth Arens on a quick break. Arens played a perfectly weighted ball over the Hornets back line, finding
Kaleb Keller who took the ball in stride and tapped it over the Hornets' goalkeeper for the game winner.
The performance demonstrated Principia's work rate and resilience. The team will have the rest of the week to recover and prepare for another tough home matchup against Earlham on Saturday.
