Sept. 26, 2008
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ATHENS, Ohio-
The Ohio field hockey team opened Mid-American Conference play with an exciting 4-3 victory over the visiting Central Michigan Chippewas (1-6, 0-2 MAC) Friday afternoon at Pruitt Field. Ohio senior Rachelle Coetzee (Bloemfontein, S.A.) scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner, to preserve the Bobcat victory, despite a furious comeback by the Chippewas. All three of Ohio's wins this season have been by one goal.
"You have to give CMU a lot of credit," Ohio head coach Neil Macmillan said. "That was a fight back. That was a really good effort on their part, getting back into the game. We made some mistakes and we had some people out there who were probably not being as smart as they needed to be."
Both teams started slow out of the gates, but Ohio (3-5, 1-0 MAC) found the back of the net first on Estienne Coetzee's (Bloemfontein, S.A.) third goal of the year. With a crowd in front of the net, Coetzee put her stick on the ball to push it past Central Michigan goalie Melinda Curran. Freshman Jenna Green (Wescosville, Pa.) earned her first-career assist on the goal.
The Bobcats would strike again six minutes later, as Rachelle Coetzee blasted a shot into the goal for the first of her two goals on the day, to give Ohio a 2-0 lead. Junior Katelyn Shelley (Ephrata, Pa.) garnered her fifth-career assist on the goal. Ohio would maintain their 2-0 lead heading into the half, despite being outshot 5-3 in the first period.
Ten minutes into the second stanza, the Bobcats extended their lead on sophomore Brittany Zorn's (Millersville, Md.) first-career goal. Zorn found space in the circle, but her initial shot was deflected. She caromed her own rebound and stuck the ball past Curran for the 3-0 lead.
"It was very exciting because I've only been playing forward this year," Zorn said. "In the past I played in the back, so it was pretty exciting to finally score instead of stopping goals."
The three-goal deficit would not scare the Chippewas, however, as Central Michigan mounted a rally that would see the game become tied at three. Senior Samantha Sandham scored twice in five minutes for CMU, the second coming off a penalty corner, to make the score 3-2. Junior Kim Erasmus and freshman Brooke Sihota earned assists on the second goal, with the first goal being unassisted.
With less than five minutes remaining in the game, Sandham again came up big for the Chippewas, as she fired a shot that was deflected by senior Alison Kist past Ohio goalie Jessie Martin (Louisville, Ky.) to knot the game at three. Sandham's assist gave her five points in the game.
"I think we just lost our focus in the second half. We thought we had it in the bag and we didn't. We just need to make those changes for Sunday's game at Kent," Rachelle Coetzee said.
The Bobcats would not let the game slip away, however, as Rachelle Coetzee ripped a shot off a penalty corner with under two minutes left that found its way into the cage, giving Ohio the 4-3 victory and Coetzee her second goal of the match.
"I think it's good to get that extra confidence now that we've scored a few goals," Rachelle Coetzee said. "Neil (Macmillan) told us what to do on the final corner and we executed to win the game."
Seniors Lauren Stahlhuth (St. Louis, Mo.) and Nikki Gnozzio (Flanders, N.J.) each tallied their third assist of the season on Rachelle's game-winning goal.
"We talked about assists and we had four on our four goals today and that's exactly what we want," Macmillan said. "Our attack I really had no issue with prior to the game and it proved that way, which is homage to the level of competition we've been playing."
With the win, Ohio has won their last four conference openers and is 16-12-1 in MAC openers since 1980. The `Cats also improved to 32-21 all-time against the Chippewas.
Martin made six saves in goal for Ohio, while her counterpart, Melinda Curran did not register a save.
"I think what you see with Jessie (Martin) is she's a very aggressive keeper," Macmillan said. "Most of the other keepers you see tend to hold back. It's the style I teach, it's the style I played and it's successful."
Central Michigan did outshoot the Bobcats 15-7 in the losing effort. Sandham led the Chippewas with six shots, four of which landed on goal, while Rachelle Coetzee paced Ohio with three shots, two of which were on goal. Both teams earned six penalty corners in the match.
"When you've got a player as good as (CMU's Samantha Sandham), she can finish, we've got to cut down on the opportunities," Macmillan said. "I'm disappointed we gave up as many shots as we did. Our defense, which has been so tight against the best teams, wasn't there today when we needed it. Luckily we didn't need it as much as we could have."
The Bobcats and Chippewas will face off again on Sunday, Oct. 19 in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.
Ohio returns to action this Sunday, as they travel to Kent, Ohio to take on the Golden Flashes of Kent State. Game time is set for 1 p.m. Live stats are available for that match by clicking here.
