ATHENS, Ohio-- The Ohio field hockey team (5-8, 2-2 MAC) defeated Bellarmine (1-10, 0-3 MAC) in a 5-4 comeback-win in overtime on Friday afternoon at Pruitt field. The Bobcats scored two fourth-quarter goals and one in overtime to storm back from a 4-1 deficit.

Ohio took an early lead as junior midfielder Katelyn Whittle converted the first shot of the game into a goal, but heading into half, the Bobcats trailed by three goals after giving up four goals on seven shots.

At halftime, Ohio coach Ali Johnstone stressed defense to the team, willing the Bobcats to play more organized and more sound on the counter attack that landed four goals for the Knights in the first half.

"We talked about the way we tackle. If you go in with a half tackle you're never going to come up with it, so being more gutsy and more physical with tackles," Johnstone said. "The other part was just not letting them receive- to stand in front in the first place. They had large hits down the middle and we were letting them receive and then we're playing one-on-one."

Ohio began to chip away the Bellarmine lead in the second half with a goal by freshman Noa Desmaretz just three minutes into the half. The Bobcats slimmed the lead to one goal when Whittle struck again early in the fourth quarter as both teams scrambled in front of the Knights' net.

The goal to send the game into overtime came from fifth-year senior Jillian Shive, who batted a cross-net pass from Maggie Lawrence into the back of the net for her seventh goal of the season.

Whittle knew the Bobcats had to keep focused and score one goal at a time to get back into the game.

"After halftime we knew as a team we needed to unite and find something deep down, our grittiness," Whittle said. "Together as a team just put it in the cage one by one, we weren't trying to do it all at the same time we were just trying to get one goal at a time and try to build that momentum as a team."

The junior who started the scoring for the Bobcats was also the one to finish it as she scored the game-winning goal to complete her first-career hat trick just a minute into overtime.

The Bobcats will be back in action at 1 p.m. on Sunday as they travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State.

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