Pioneers top Duhawks in final minutes

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – Braxton Rottinghaus' late goal in addition to a couple of key situations on defense lifted the UW-Platteville Pioneers to a 3-2 win over the Loras Duhawks Sunday afternoon in Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium.

The Pioneers improve to 11-1-2 overall this season while the Duhawks fall to 11-4-0.

The Pioneers set the pace early when Tyler Gilmore fired a rocket into the right corner at 2:26 for his first goal of the season.  Loras responded quickly in the 4^th minute when Manny Lopez passed one to Kain Tutt to even the score 1-1.

The Pioneers's defense came up big with a blocked Loras shot from Tiernan Talbot at 11:54.  Loras went on to rack up six shots to the Pioneers' three in the half and the teams headed into the second tied 1-1.

Loras jumped into the lead fast when the ball reflected off a Pioneer defender and back to Manny Lopez for him to send one into bottom right corner and set the Duhawks ahead 2-1 at the 46:10 mark.

The Pioneer defense came up big again in the 53^rd minute with a frenzy in the box that included a Nate Miller save followed by two blocked shots before a Loras foul.

The Pioneers evened the score at 77:30 when Nick Hoklas passed one to Tommy Bitter and the scored moved to two apiece. Shortly thereafter, Braxton Rottinghaus' goal assisted by Logan Rinderknecht edged the Pioneers into the lead 3-2 in the 82^nd minute.

The game was not over yet as Miller came up big in goal with a diving save against Javi Simons 83rd minute shot in the bottom left corner prior to the end of the game.

Overall, Loras held a 13-9 advantage on shots and 7-5 advantage on corner kicks over the Pioneers.

The two teams tallied 9 fouls apiece with one yellow card given to the UW-Platteville's Rinderknect.

Goalkeeper Nate Miller recorded three saves as did Loras' Jesse Buffington.

The Pioneers travel next to Wartburg College Tuesday, Oct. 23 with game time set for 7:30 p.m.