Sports
Ohio Earns Win Over Eastern Kentucky
By: Kellen Becoats
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The Ohio soccer team fought its way to a chippy 2-0 win over Eastern Kentucky for its first home win of the season on Sunday, Sept. 7.
“I think that the shutout was the biggest thing today,” sophomore Alexis Milesky said. “It’s always a great feeling to get your first win at home. There’s no feeling that describes it, it’s just great.”
The Bobcats (2-4-0), dispatched the Colonel’s 5-1 last year and it appeared a similar scoreline was imminent as Ohio had plenty of close chances early on, many of which were created on
Ohio’s right side. The duo of redshirt sophomore Carly Manso and Milesky interchanging in the right forward slot and senior Tonya Frasik’s efforts in pushing forward out of the defense threatened to beat the Colonels (2-3-0) all game.
And in the 54th minute, the Bobcats many forays into Eastern Kentucky’s defensive third were rewarded with the opening goal of the game, courtesy of Milesky.
Junior Grace Campbell saw Milesky driving towards goal and put an over-the-top ball over the Colonel’s defensive line and setting Milesky on a one-on-one with the EKU goalkeeper. And Ohio’s leading scorer last season did no wrong, slotting a low shot into the right corner of the goal for a 1-0 lead.
“I felt like after we got one (goal), they were just going to keep coming,” Milesky said.
And it appeared that way as Ohio continued to push for a second goal early in the second half. It appeared that the Bobcats had gone 2-0 when a lofted ball was headed home in the 61st minute, but the goal was ruled out for offsides, which was the second Ohio goal disallowed on the day.
But with the Bobcats continuing to push the Colonel’s defense, another goal seemed imminent, and it came in the 77th minute.
The ball was played in front of EKU’s goal and the Colonel’s failed to clear it, giving the Bobcats time to push players forward and attack the ball. After bouncing around a few times, the ball was finally put into the back of the net by Manso, after being played off of junior Leah Sandercock.
The rest of the game came down to time management, and with a two goal lead, the Bobcats sat back a bit and allowed EKU to pressure them before trying to strike on the counter. But the Colonel’s appeared uninterested in the dying minutes of the game, seemingly letting Ohio boss possession and get a few more chances before the final whistle.
“Overall, a clean sheet and a win is what we needed,” Ohio coach Aaron Rodgers said.
But Rodgers’ said he would also like to see a few more chances completed after the Bobcats had 23 shots, 10 on target, against the Colonels.
“We just have to have the composure in front of goal and the ability to finish those chances off,” he said. “We’ll work on some finishing this week and hopefully we’ll get it right a week from today.”
Ohio will play the final game of its three-game home stand against the University of Detroit on Friday, Sept. 12 at 4 p.m. before traveling to Dayton to take on the Flyers on Sept. 19.
“Looking forward to Dayton, obviously they are a great team. But we’ve got to worry about scoring some goals and keeping a shutout against Detroit on Friday,” Rodgers said.