Mt. Pleasant drops tough one at home

On a cold, wet and windy Thursday at East Lake Park, it just wasn't Mt. Pleasant's day. The Pathers lost a marquee conference game against Fairfield 2-0, which dropped them out of first place in the Southeast Conference.

The hounding wind and wet field made things tricky on everyone, but Fairfield got an early boost with a penalty kick in the first half. The Trojans scored with 28 minutes left on the clock after a penalty in the box, and the Panthers found themselves in an early hole.

'You never want to give up an early one and be behind, but we had the wind,” said Panther head coach Neil Schmitz. 'We should have had the advantage, and we had several good shots. It just seemed like every time we shot it, it bounced perfectly right up to their keeper.”

The Panthers had the majority of the shots with the wind at their back, but squandered opportunities led to a 1-0 halftime deficit, and that means Mt. Pleasant had to hope for a score into the heavy wind.

The Panthers struggled to create opportunities in the second half, and the clock closed down on a Fairfield victory, but not without a little more bad luck for the Panthers.

A Trojan defender launched the ball downfield toward Panther keeper Logan Lee. The wet field caused the ball to take a funny hop over Lee's head and trickled in for the second goal of the game, with just one minute remaining.

The loss broke the first-place tie in the SEC, leaving Fairfield alone at the top with just one loss. Mt. Pleasant is now 8-3 overall and 3-2 in the conference.

'Every game is important,” Schmitz said after the game. 'This just means we have to win out the rest of our conference games, and hopefully somebody will be able to beat Fairfield. Otherwise, they're going to be conference champs again, which is very disappointing because I thought it was going to be our year.”

The Panthers sill look to bounce back in a road game at Keokuk on Monday, April 29.