Ohio has found its groove, now winning three consecutive games after a dominating performance against Mid-American Conference foe Ball State Saturday.
The Bobcats defeated the Cardinals 7-0 in a contest that seemed barely that close. Ball State only managed one shot and one penalty corner in the entire game and put no shots on Ohio’s standout sophomore goalie Brittany Walker.
Junior Jessica Vaeth opened up the scoring in the eighth minute, tapping the ball into the net amongst a scrum of Bobcats and Cardinals. Five minutes later, senior Taylor Brown rocketed a shot from the top of the box off of a penalty corner past Ball State freshman goalie Shelby Henley.
Sophomore Ashley Cureton and junior Luli Gomez Teruel also added goals for Ohio before halftime and gave the Bobcats a chance to try and mix things up in the second half and get other players involved.
And in the second half Ohio did just that, as senior Cathryn Altdoerffer scored her first two goals of the season while junior Riley Higgins recorded the first goal of her career on a deflection of another shot from Altdoerffer.
“It’s really exciting being a junior and scoring one for my team,” Higgins said of her first goal as a Bobcat. “We’ve been doing game situations with (the deflections) and stuff, so I feel like I’ve gotten more comfortable with it … I wanted it and I was willing to do anything to put it in there.”
Ohio coach Neil Macmillan couldn’t have been more pleased with the effort put forth by his team, whether from his starters or reserves.
“It was a great team effort,” he said. “We did a really good job of involving everybody today, not only involving people off of the bench, but involving them with how we move the ball. I thought we did a really good job of passing. And our team play, which is what we’ve tried to set the tone with all year, just clicked very well today.”
Games like Saturday’s, which permit involvement from the whole team, are a chance for the Bobcats to lighten some players’ load a bit, Altdoerffer said.
“It’s just really exciting to see everyone score, not just the usual people,” Altdoerffer said. “In a game like this, where you’re dominating so much, you get to see people who aren’t typically in the game have some minutes and get some touches.”
Ohio’s ability to finish plays was on full display as six of the seven Bobcat goals were scored on penalty corners, which is an aspect of the game Macmillan feels his team should excel.
“That’s where our execution should be at,” Macmillan said of the Bobcats’ goals on corners. “You get a great opportunity to score every time. We put in a few different looks to confuse Ball State a little bit, but it also gave us some confidence once we started scoring off the early ones. …It was nice to see them pay off.”
- Jessica Vaeth, Taylor Brown, Luli Gomez Teruel, Ashley Cureton and Riley Higgins all recorded one goal, while Cathryn Altdoerffer scored two.
- Ball State did not record one shot on goal.
- Senior Laura Mastro had three assists on the day.
ch203310@ohiou.edu
