The Panther Pride traveled to Dekalb to face the NIFC Black on a cold, wet, and wind swept field. The temperature at kick off was in the low 40’s which seemed to cause the Pride to get off to a slow start. Through the first ten minutes the Pride had difficulty moving the ball into the NIFC zone. The Pride regrouped during a short injury time out; upon resumption of play they seemed to have forgotten about the cold and started attacking into the NIFC zone. Outside midfielders Katie Warren, Alyson Simon, Megan Pfister, and Cali Bonie had strong games winning the ball and moving it into the NIFC end. The increased pace of play led to a Madison Pence cross to Kelsey Kraft who buried the ball in the net to give the Pride the lead. Minutes later Simon stole the ball from a NFIC midfielder, passed to Jordyn Sundberg who crossed the ball to Pence for the second goal. The Pride ended the half up two nil.

The Pride started the second half as they ended the first, dominating the play and giving very few opportunities to the NIFC attackers. The lone scoring chance for NIFC occurred early in the half when an NIFC striker broke free and took a blistering shot that was smothered by the Pride keeper, Jodie Makara. The defense of Kamryn Coppes, Hanna Ehlers, Carli Hix and defensive midfielders Jodie Makara and Kristy Zimbelmann shut down the NIFC attack holding the line at the middle of the field. Central midfielder, Mikaela Mockenhaupt, dominated the middle throughout the game, winning the ball and setting up scoring opportunities. The Pride added to their lead when Kraft took a shot that rebounded to Pfister who spun and shot the ball past the NIFC keeper for the 3rd goal. The scoring for the Pride was capped off when Kraft made a long cross to the six yard line that was fired into the back of the net by Pence putting the game out of reach. Zimbelmann and Makara shared the keeper duties and recorded their 4th shutout of the season. Special thanks to the Pride Parents who assisted in moving the nets to a dry field, braved the cold and supported the Team.