CALEDONIA, Mich. - The Sunday matinee between the Davenport men's soccer team and Upper Iowa proved to be a good show. In three previous meetings, DU had outscored the Peacocks 12-0 but that wasn't the case in this one as the Panthers battled to a 3-2 win to improve to 2-3 overall and 2-0 in the GLIAC.

"With warm conditions, the boys battled and in the end were quite resilient," said head coach Chris Hughes. "Upper Iowa has a competitive squad and had a good game plan today. We knew that in the end you need to find a way to win and I'm happy that the boys found another three points. It was a six-point weekend and a great way to start conference play."

It started off rough for the Panthers as Upper Iowa scored in the second minute. Italo Martins Soares scored his third goal of the season with Paal Vistnes getting the assist. Vistnes took a give-and-go pass from Soares on the left wing and returned it to Soares in front of the goal. He flicked it into the net as close range past starting goalkeeper Shane Marinkovich.

The first shot on goal for the Panthers came in the 19th minute and it landed in the back of the net. Daire O'Riordan scored his second of the season on a header in the upper right corner from about 15 yards out. Evan Marquess dropped off a pass to Eoin Broughan who served it into the box for O'Riordan.

The Peacocks had a 7-2 advantage in total shots and each team had two shots on goal in the first half. Upper Iowa took the lead in the 55th minute as Marcus DeLeon tucked a shot into the upper left corner from about 16 yards and Soares was given an assist.

The Panthers came back five minutes later and tied it up as Gustav Moeller came off the bench to score his second goal of the season. He took a deflection off a pass from Justice Sikkema on the close left wing and tapped home a shot just inside the left post.

UIU had two great scoring chances to break the tie as Carson Cajuste hit the crossbar and Soares grazed the right post from about 14 yards across the goal mouth. The Panthers were given a free kick after a foul on the Peacocks from about 30 yards out on the right side. O'Riordan lifted a ball perfectly to a streaking Matt Whelan who headed it home from about 13 yards to the top left corner in the 79th minute.

Upper Iowa had just one shot on goal after that as Davenport hung on the victory. UIU finished with 13 shots and four on target while DU had five shots in four on target. Marinkovich got the win in goal improving to 2-0 and made two saves.