Sports

Ohio State midfielder Kaitlyn Wagner gave the Buckeyes the win on the final penalty shot of the game after both teams traded goals to end up tied at two.

 

“On the last penalty, she just faked it over top of the goal and I over-committed. You learn that each player is different. It just depends on the situation and I think as a team we handled it really well. Even though we lost, we worked really hard,” said Ohio sophomore goalie Brittany Walker. 

 

Walker was staunch in the cage, totaling eight saves on the night, with most of them coming at critical moments in the game. Walker had several close calls on the evening, diving to prevent the Buckeyes from scoring. 

 

The first came after Ohio State’s Peanut Johnson got a breakaway, beating all Ohio defenders before Walker came out in front of the cage to forcibly deny what would have been a sure goal 13 minutes into the first half. 

 

The entire defense around Walker came up big for the Bobcats during the contest, especially on corners. The defense prevented the Buckeyes from scoring on their 10 penalty corners. Whether it was Cathryn Altdoerffer blocking initial shots on corners or Adele Sammons disrupting scoring opportunities near the front of the cage, the Ohio defense was stingy throughout the game.

 

Ohio head coach Neil Macmillan was impressed with the effort he saw from Sammons. 

 

“Adele is excellent and she played exceptionally well today. She’s young but she had so much experience from what she’s had in England. You can’t tell she’s a freshman if you watch her play and that’s great to see,” said Macmillan

 

Despite the shutout put up by the defense, the offense could not seem to find the back of the cage. Ohio had eight of their 15 shots go wide of the goal and were not able to score on rebounds off of the Buckeyes goalie, Emma Voelker’s pads. 

 

“The one key we need to address is finishing. We didn’t have enough opportunities from the possessions we had at their end,” said Macmillan.

 

Ohio came especially close to scoring during the second overtime when Taylor Brown and Luli Gomez Teruel played give-and-go into the circle, only to have Gomez Teruel’s shot clang off the right goal post. 

 

Minutes later on Ohio’s second corner of the period, Brown couldn’t control the initial pass in from Jessica Jue and the Buckeyes defense drove the ball far out of the scoring circle. 

 

Brown, who scored the first goal of the penalty shootout after she flicked the ball over Emma Voelker’s head, was frustrated with the lack of goal scoring, but proud of the effort her team put forth. 

 

“We left everything out on the field, we played great, we dominated the second overtime and most of the game. We got really unlucky in the shootout, but just the fact that we put all of our effort into it.  I think we will stay on track, keep focus and put this one behind us,” she said. 

 

After the loss, Ohio’s record is 3-3 on the season and 1-1 at home. The team will face Robert Morris at Pruitt Field on Saturday at 1 p.m.