St. Louis, MO- It was another tough loss for Principia this Tuesday on Fontbonne's home turf, a rematch of the 4-3 overtime loss against them earlier in the season. The loss marks Principia's third straight loss since the promising 0-0 tie vs. Westminster.
Throughout the match, neither team had many dangerous shots on goal, but Fontbonne started strong in both halves. Their first goal came in the third minute - an easy goal after a flicked header over the Principia back line. Right at the beginning of the second half, Fontbonne's Ian Steinkamp finished off a cross to put Principia in the hole 2-0.
After a red card in the 56th minute, Principia found themselves playing with ten men. For the remaining minutes, senior midfielder Seth Arens slid into the back line, where he did a fantastic job limiting Fontbonne's opportunities to score. Goalkeeper Jacob Ellis also made a tremendous breakaway save to keep the game within reach. The men fought hard for the rest of the game, but couldn't quite garner up any offensive opportunities.
"Our guys battled hard tonight. The effort they displayed out on the field when we went down to ten men was inspiring. We have the heart and talent to make it into the Conference tournament, but there are some details to clean up on both sides of the ball before we get there," said head coach Jess Semnacher. "We are now officially halfway through our Conference schedule. A win tonight would have put us in a good position to lock down a postseason spot. Now our pathway to the tournament gets a little harder, but there is still plenty in our control, and our guys want it."
Up Next: Principia will take on the Webster Gorloks in St. Louis, this Saturday, October 9th, at 3:30pm.
