Drury Panthers – 1
Bellarmine Knights – 2 (1st OT)
The Panthers started strongly this evening, including scoring in the 4th minute on Steve Wilczewski’s header, from a cross by Peter Higgins. The play came after Micah Whorton created a throw-in deep in the offensive end with his forechecking. The play developed from the throw-in and stunned the Knights with it’s well-practiced choreography. The Panthers controlled play for the first 30 minutes as they played their system. Slowly but surely however the Knights began to establish themselves. They looked like they had been well prepared for what to expect by whoever scouted Drury in advance of this game.
The second half saw the Knights earn the greater opportunities, finally capitalizing in the 25th minute on a second chance shot that was nailed into the roof of the net from the right side by #20. The Panthers bracketed that goal with a break into Knights end that ended with a shot from outside the box that went high and wide, followed by a cross that the goalkeeper snatched in front of a pair of Drury players, and then Adam Peterson’s alert work on the right side following Wilczewski’s run into the box that was cleared by defender #17 behind the keeper.
It was not a lack of opportunity that doomed the Panthers to a potentially season changing loss, but potentially a loss of discipline. It started with the loss of a pair of starters to red cards in the loss to Wisconsin-Parkside and ended with a team ruing missed opportunities as they failed to adjust as well as the Knights did. It also ended a string of five straight wins at home and points to the strength of the conference, with Bellarmine being outscored 18-19 while earning a 7-3 Conference record prior to tonight.
It means the Panthers must defeat #1 nationally ranked Northern Kentucky in order to reach the GLVC playoffs for the first time. The game is Sunday, 2:30 pm at Harrison Stadium. The crowd was louder for Bellarmine this evening then it was for Drury. Given the quality of play you can enjoy at these games, that’s a travesty. Get out and support this team.
