Final Stats

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ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio women's soccer team (1-1-0) opened the home part of the 2016 schedule with a thrilling 2-1 victory against in-state rival Dayton (0-2-0) Sunday afternoon at Chessa Field.

The Bobcats jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game when freshman midfielder Sydney Leckie (Medina, Ohio) scored a goal on an assist from Remi Eades (New Albany, Ohio) from the right to beat the keeper to the right side of the goal in the sixth minute.

“We kind of changed our set up a little bit,” head coach Aaron Rodgers said. “But really, its just personnel and it’s the willingness to take the chances to score and to be dangerous. I think we lacked a little bit of that killer instinct last year, but I think we’ve found it this year.”

Junior midfielder Allie Curry (Fairfield, Ohio) scored Ohio’s second goal on an assist from Bryce Hueber (Cincinnati, Ohio) on a shot straight away to draw the keeper out of the goal.

“We have a lot of new forwards and they bring a lot of dynamic elements to us.” Curry said. “We have a really deep bench, so anybody who comes off the bench, they’re confident going in. We’re able to get a lot of goals and it’s awesome, it’s what we’ve been wanting. We have a really good attack this year.”

Dayton would cut the lead in half in the 22^nd minute, when Alexis Kiehl scored to cut the Ohio lead to 2-1.

Both squads were aggressive for the remainder of the game but neither team could put another ball in the net in the second half. Ohio would tally six shots in the second half as well as two corner kicks.

Overall, Ohio outshot the Flyers 17 to 12, with both Leckie and Alivia Milesky reregistering three. Olivia Sency, Courtney Daugerdas, Megan Niebuhr and Alexis Milesky all added two to the Ohio shot total while Eades, Mandy Arnzen and Curry each added one.

“Credit to these ladies for their work and their intensity and most importantly, their unity throughout this pre-season.” Rodgers said. “We’re not 11 strong or 12 strong, we are 25 strong. We have 25 ladies on this squad that can really help us win if they play 90 minutes or if they play zero minutes. We are all in this together.”

The Bobcats registered a total of seven corner kicks while Dayton recorded six.

Junior Vanessa Cordoba (Bogota, Cudinamarca, Colombia) played all 90 minutes in goal for the Bobcats allowing one goal and registering six saves.

Up next, the Bobcats are set to host High Point on Sunday, Aug. 28. First kick is set for 1 p.m. at Chessa Field.

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