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Eve Berish dribbles the ball in Ohio’s win over Oakland. [HG Biggs | WOUB Public Media]

Ohio Soccer continues to win with clean sheet against Oakland

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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB)— Fresh off a narrow 2-1 victory over Western Kentucky on Thursday night, the Ohio Bobcats (5-1-1) returned to Chessa Field with a dominant 7-0 win over the Oakland Grizzlies (1-6-2). It was the Bobcats their fourth clean sheet of the season.

The Senior day victory stretches the Bobcats’ winning streak to four games in a row and, Ohio is still undefeated on their home turf following the win. 

Ohio forward Aubrey Rea got the scoring started 19 minutes in with the first of two goals that she had during the afternoon, with an assist from Rayann Pruss. Midfielder

Hailey Jeng followed up almost immediately with a goal of her own only a minute later to put the Bobcats up 2-0, with an assist from Jaimason Brooker. Brooker was credited with two assists on the day.  

The Bobcats came out of half time up 3-0, thanks to a Sydney Crowe goal with just under seven minutes left in the first half. Oakland adjusted their gameplan during the break, and the Grizzlies’ defense was much tougher to open the second half.

Sydney Crowe celebrates after scoring a goal against Oakland. [HG Biggs | WOUB Public Media]
Despite this, Oakland still could not get anything going on the other side of the ball, and their defense crumbled quickly. The Bobcats more than doubled their offensive production from the first half, putting up four more goals, including two by freshman Sania Dearing.

Ohio’s defense did more than its fair share to keep the Grizzlies down, allowing Oakland to mount only a handful of offensive attacks, none of which were fruitful, taking the pressure off the offense from the beginning, all of which culminated in an all-around win for the Bobcats. 

“I think it’s a really good step forward. I know last year we had some trouble scoring goals and this year it’s just a complete 180 and we’re finishing goals that we should be finishing,” Rea said postgame. “Honestly, I think the past few games I struggled with getting in the box, so my goal this game was just to get in the box and be going forward more.” 

“Part of who we want to be is intense and being intense in our thoughts and our actions, and I think we were able to execute on those moments,” Ohio head coach Aaron Rodgers said. “There were times in the first half where we were forcing the ball and kind of playing into their hands defensively, and I give credit to them for doing that, but we just had to be a little bit sharper and a little bit smarter in our decision making.”

The Bobcats will look to continue their win streak when they welcome the Western Michigan Broncos on Thursday at 4 p.m. as they open MAC play.