Oct. 11, 2013

Box Score

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The Ohio University field hockey team (4-7, 1-0 MAC) walked off with a 3-2 overtime win against the Missouri State Bears (2-10, 0-1 MAC) Friday afternoon at Plaster Field.

Sophomore Adele Sammons (Upminster, England) fueled the extra session victory for the 'Cats, posting the first game-winning goal of her career just six minutes into the overtime period. The score came after a beautiful pass off a corner from junior Caelyn Hartley (Escondido, Calif.).

Sammons also assisted on Ohio's equalizing goal midway through the second half with the Bobcats trailing, 2-1, at the time.

Ohio's first two goals came courtesy of senior Luli Gomez Teruel (Salta, Argentina). After Missouri State struck first in the game’s fifth minute, Teruel opened the scoring with a goal from a left side of the cage off an assist from freshman Franziska Schmiedel (Mulheim, Germany).

Then, with Ohio trailing again by one (2-1), Teruel notched her second goal 10 minutes into the second half, tipping a shot into the right corner of the goal off a good feed from Sammons.

The Bobcats controlled the offensive zone for much of the contest and held advantages in corners (10-6). Although Ohio was out-shot, 9-7, the Bobcats held a 2-1 advantage in the extra session.

"Overall we played a great game and I’m very excited for us to get a win in the MAC," head coach Neil Macmillan said. "It's important to start the conference season with a good result and today certainly was. It’s difficult to play on FieldTurf, and going to Robert Morris earlier in the season and playing on the surface definitely helped us today."

The Bobcats fought through close to 15 minutes of being down a player in the second half due to two yellow cards, but held their own and killed off the extra player opportunities for MSU.

“We did a good job of playing through a number of issues today," Macmillan said. "A lot of credit also goes to our trainer, Cara Rapoport. We had a few players take hits in the game and she did an admirable job of patching them up and helping us continue to compete."

With the win, Ohio improves to 50-17 in MAC contests since 2006. It marked the third time in four years the Bobcats captured their MAC opener.

I’m very proud of our team," Macmillan said. "We fought back twice from a goal down and responded almost immediately both times. To control overtime like we did was excellent to see."

The Green & White return to action Sunday at 1 p.m. with a matchup at Saint Louis.

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