Leaves littered the field on a blustery day at Chessa Field Friday, where Toledo got off to an early start and found its way to a 2-1 victory against Ohio.
Toledo junior forward Rachel Macleod scored 10 minutes into the game off a corner kick and, just like the wind, Toledo didn’t relinquish for the remainder of the game.
Toledo (7-9, 5-3-1 Mid-American Conference) scored again in the 25th minute, as Macleod netted her second goal of the match. A minute later, Ohio (7-8-1, 2-5-1 MAC) senior midfielder Cat Rogers countered on a rebound off the post for her 12th career goal. The tally tied her with Nicki Pendleton for the tenth on Ohio’s all-time goal scorer list.
“It’s always nice to see your hard work pay off a little bit and see the numbers match the work you put into something,” Rogers said.
Toledo controlled possession most of the first half because of sleek ball movement.
At half, Toledo led Ohio in shots 13-2. Ohio junior keeper Mattie Liston was forced to make nine saves in the match, and is only 15 saves away from becoming the program's all-time saves leader. The Rockets defended only three shots in the game.
Ohio had trouble getting the offense going and finding open players on crosses in the game. In the last minute of the match, Ohio had an opportunity to equalize, but Rogers’ cross to senior forward Erin Schwenke went wide.
Liston said complacent mental lapses — especially in areas of communication — hurt the Bobcats Friday. She said Toledo capitalized on Ohio’s mistakes, but didn’t think it didn’t have anything to offer that Ohio couldn’t handle, to some extent.
“Those are missed opportunities for us and those are things that we continue to work on but things that mentally need to be there.” Liston said. “Maybe just missing a little bit of the mentality in the first half.”
Liston said this loss hurts a little more that usual because Ohio was seeking revenge on Toledo after last year’s results — a combined 10-0 deficit.
“Like (coach Stacy Strauss) said after the game, it definitely stings a little bit more when you played well and I think that’s what happened today,” she said. “You have to keep your head up, you have to have a short term memory about everything but I think definitely this one stings a little bit more than some losses we’ve had in the past.”
Strauss said uncharacteristic mental lapses such as taking bad first touches and kicking the ball out of bounds plagued Ohio Friday.
“I think that was the difference in the first half,” she said. “You give Toledo an opportunity to take advantage of mistakes, then they’re going to punish you for it so we need to make sure we make fewer on Sunday.”
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