W Soccer: Buckeyes Drop 4-2 Battle to No. 12 Duke – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
COLUMBUS, Ohio There are certainly some positive things happening with the Ohio State women’s soccer team, but try telling that to 18-to-21 year-olds who just lost a 4-2 game to Duke Sunday at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. A win will resonate with the Buckeyes, who are now 0-4-2 on the season, much more than some positives from a hard-fought loss to the No. 12 team in the nation that is now 6-1 on the year.
“There are some positive things happening,” Ohio State coach Lori Walker said. “Lots of kids are getting an opportunity to play. We kept fighting today against a very good team, even down by 4-1. The final score should have been 4-3 and we would have felt much better.
“We came out and executed a game plan, though, and that called for scoring the first goal of this game. But each game we are experiencing a different growing pain. Friday it was our front line and today it was our midfield. We’ll just have to go back to work.”
Junior Ashley Bowyer assisted on both Ohio State goals and freshmen accounted for a total of six points. Duke was led by Elisabeth Redmond who had six shots, four on goal and two goals, her seventh and eighth of the season.
Ohio State led 1-0 at halftime on freshman Taylor Moront’s first goal of the season. Freshman Brooke Taylor, fighting for control of the ball, was fouled at the far right side of the field setting up a free kick. Ashley Bowyer sent a cross to the far side that Caitlyn Martin headed to a wide open Moront, who settled and slammed the ball past Duke keeper Cassidy Powers from about five yards out.
Duke tied it just six minutes into the second half, sending four shots toward Ohio State’s goal in the first five minutes before leading scorer Redmond dribbled into the box, just to the right of keeper Lauren Robertson, and scored from about 10 yards out.
Duke kept the pressure on and was able to keep play in the Ohio State zone, even with Robertson getting a goal-kick workout. The stiff breeze blowing out of the south and into Robertson’s face kept most of her balls from going much more than past midfield and the Blue Devils were all over the Buckeyes and those kicks.
Still, Ohio State had a couple good opportunities to break the 1-1 tie. Courtney Jenkins sent a nice through ball into the box that was just out of Paige Maxwell’s reach. Lauren Beachy chipped a short corner kick from the left side into the box that Cassidy was able to punch away.
Then in just under eight minutes Duke scored three times to put the game out of the reach of the young Buckeyes. KayAnne Gummersall buried a cross from Lorraine Quinn in the 68th minute. Redmond scored unassisted from 25 yards 30 seconds later and Cody Newman headed in a corner kick by Meaghan FitzGerald in the 76th minute.
Ohio State kept playing hard against this excellent Duke team and it was good to see. The work paid off, too, when Bowyer hit a free kick to the top of the box that was headed by the 5-10 Paige Maxwell. The ball deflected past everyone toward the open net and Taylor kicked it in from on top of the line for her first career goal.
Moments later the Buckeyes had a golden chance to score again as Lisa Collison was tackled in the box and awarded a penalty kick. She pounded a low drive that Cassidy ranged right for and was able to smother. That would be the Buckeyes last opportunity to score this game.
Duke, which trailed Dayton by a goal before tallying three second half markers in a win Friday, had 16 shots and 10 on goal as compared to 11 Ohio State shots and six on goal. Each team committed nine fouls. Duke also led in corners, six to five.
Game Notes and Other Notes of Interest:
- The game was played in 87-degree and humid weather with a strong wind from the south featuring gusts up to 27 mph. Ohio State had the wind in the first half and Duke played with it in the second. Five of the six goals were scored going with the wind.
- Emily Esbrook had four shots (one on goal) to lead Ohio State. Brooke Taylor had three shots coming in off the bench with a team-high two on goal.
- Ohio State started a total of eight sophomores (five) and freshmen (three) against Duke.
- Ohio State used 18 players this game and 15 were either freshmen or sophomores.
- Ashley Bowyer leads the team in scoring with seven points off two goals and three assists. A quartet of players – Lisa Collison, Genna Brand, Paige Maxwell and Caitlyn Martin – have three points each.
- By 4 p.m. at a virtually empty Jesse Owens Stadium the wind was blowing so hard that everything in the stadium was blown over: goals, track and field landing pits, trash cans, sideboards, scoreboard signage, team benches…everything.
- By 4:21 p.m. the wind had blown one of the benches back to its upright position.
- Friday against Evansville is “parents night” at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
###OhioStateBuckeyes.com###
