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THE BASICS
Score: Ohio 2, Saint Francis 0
Records: Ohio (1-0), Saint Francis (0-1)
Location: DeGol Field â€" Loretto, Pa.
Short Story: Senior Clarissa Leickly (Gahanna, Ohio) tallied three points with her first goal and first assist of the year, and redshirt junior goalkeeper Lina Trucco (Lake Bluff, Ill.) recorded a career-high six saves and her first career shutout in her first career start as the Ohio field hockey team (1-0) shut down Saint Francis (0-1), 2-0, on Friday (Aug. 28) in the 2015 season opener at DeGol Field in Loretto, Pa.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Leickly provided the Bobcats with their first goal of the season in the fourth minute when she fired a shot from up top off of a corner. Senior Adele Sammons (Upminster, England) assisted on the play. The goal marked the second of Leickly’s career.
• Trucco came up with saves in the 21st, 22nd, 31st and 34th minutes to keep the Red Flash off of the scoreboard and send Ohio into halftime with a 1-0 lead.
• Ohio found the back of the cage again in the 46th minute as sophomore Maria Russell (Hudson, Ohio) tallied her third career goal courtesy of a deflected shot from a shot off of a corner chance. Leickly picked up an assist on the goal that gave the Bobcats a 2-0 advantage.
• It was all Trucco and the Ohio defense from there, as Trucco tallied two more saves.
• Saint Francis outshot Ohio, 12-11, but the Bobcats won the corner battle, 8-7.
• Sammons led Ohio with three shots -- two of which were on goal. Junior Kristen Buchanan (San Diego, Calif.) matched Sammons for the team lead with two shots on goal. Redshirt sophomore Kennedy Farr (Virgil, Ontario) and freshman Kendall Ballard (Charlottesville, Va.) also added shots on goal.
• Senior midfielder Selena Adamshick led the match with four shots for Saint Francis -- two of which were on goal. Freshman forward Irene Fritschy, junior forward Mackenzie Ruth and freshman midfielder/forward Brianna Govia each totaled two shots. Fritschy had two shots on goal while Ruth and sophomore midfielder Shannon Pereira each had one.
• Senior goalkeeper Samantha Zeiders surrendered two goals in 70 minutes of work for the Red Flash. She posted six saves.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
• Ohio improves to 19-15-1 (.557) in season openers since the NCAA era began in 1981 -- including 5-6 (.455) under 11th-year head coach Neil Macmillan since 2005.
• The Bobcats are now 2-0 (1.000) all-time against the Red Flash. Both victories have come in season openers.
• Ballard earned a start for Ohio in her Bobcat debut. Fellow freshman Emma Eggleston (Houston, Texas) and Illona Hartman (Eindhoven, Holland) each saw action off of the bench, with Eggleston tallying a shot.

QUOTABLE
"It's great for us, because the last couple of years, we haven't started with a win. Getting that gives the team a sense of belief right from the start of the season. That then will, hopefully, translate into confidence as we go into Sunday's game and future weekends as well." -11th-Year Head Coach Neil Macmillan

"Lina's positioning was great. She was right where she needed to be pretty much the whole time. She did a great job with that in the first half. Second half, she made one fantastic save off a corner. She deflected it over the top. Solid, solid play all around. It's really easy for a defense to set themselves up if the goalkeeper behind them is doing a solid job." - Macmillan

"That was an outstanding way to start the game, with getting a corner. We did a really good job on execution of those. We couldn't have started any better. Clarissa took a deflection from Adele and just buried it in the left side of the goal. The second goal was well executed as well." - Macmillan

"Superb from Clarissa. What a great way to start, with your two captains combining on the first goal. That was excellent. Clarissa is certainly a player who could be extremely important part for us throughout the whole season. To score a goal off a corner early on will just give her a lot of confidience. Maria's someone who's been practicing extremely well. She's the type of player that can really have a breakout season for us this year. She scored three goals in our two scrimmages, she's been scoring well in practice, so scoring when it really matters is a big way for her to start the season." - Macmillan

UP NEXT
Ohio closes out the opening weekend of the 2015 season by visiting Lock Haven on Sunday (Aug. 30) in an 11 a.m. ET contest. The Lady Eagles open the season at home on Friday at 7 p.m. against William & Mary.

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