Sports
Ohio Takes on Kent State After Opening Weekend Sweep
By: Robbie Dipaola
Posted on:
After a convincing sweep of John Carroll last weekend, the Ohio Bobcats will look to continue their success at home this weekend against the Kent State Golden Flashes.
Coming into the matchup this weekend the Golden Flashes are 0-2, but played No. 4 Davenport tough both games last weekend. Kent State also has their top two goal scorers from last season back, who could cause a few problems for the Bobcats if given the chance.
“You are always nervous no matter who you are playing,” Ohio head coach Sean Hogan said. “But Kent is an improved team and we are going to have to play with discipline and not take penalties and keep them off the board. If they jump on us early and get the momentum we could be in some trouble”
As for Ohio, their offensive attack looked good in the opening weekend and a key to their early success is the fact several different players have the ability to score goals, so it is not just two or three guys doing the majority of the scoring.
Ohio’s 20 goals in their opening series were scored by 11 different players, which is something Hogan enjoyed seeing from his team.
“It shows depth, we have a lot of guys that can score goals so that always helps,” Hogan said.
Once again this week, Hogan used the Bobcats practice time to work on and improve their penalty kill, which was an area he admitted still needed some work heading into this next series of games.
A good sign moving forward for the Bobcats is that the ice conditions at Bird Arena, which have caused some problems so far, seemed to have improved which makes both the players and coaching staff happy moving forward.
Hogan expects this weekend’s matchup against Kent State to be tougher than the opening weekend and reiterated that it just comes back to doing the basics and sticking to their habits that are taught in practice in order to have success not only this weekend but every weekend they step out onto the ice.
“It is all going to depend on who wants it more,” senior forward Liam Geither said. “If we come out and outwork and outcompete them I think the rest will take care of itself.”
For this weekend’s games, the Bobcats will get back senior assistant captain Patrick Spellacy, who was inactive the first two games this season.
“Having Spellacy back will be a big bump for us,” Hogan said. “He’s a typical first or second line guy and that just adds more depth to our team.”
Just like last weekend, Hogan has high hopes for the nine freshmen after a very solid opening weekend performance from them. “They all have an opportunity to be a big part of what we do,” Hogan said. “The future is definitely bright with that group for sure.”
Geither, like Hogan, was happy with how the incoming freshmen played and believes they can be a huge boost to this team going forward, “They are coming in and fulfilling their job, you cant be too mad with how they have played.”
Both games against Kent State start at 7:30