Buffalo’s goal in the 109th minute evened Ohio’s record in MAC play on Sunday
Trading his athletic apparel and neon shoes for a shirt-and-tie, coach Aaron Rodgers referred to Ohio’s Mid-American Conference opening weekend as a new chapter in a season-long book.
On Sunday afternoon, the Bobcats were one missed tackle away from the brilliant beginning to their conference campaign. But a perfectly finessed shot from Buffalo’s Katie Roberts in the final minute of overtime was enough for the Bulls to edge Ohio 1-0.
“To say that it was a total loss, I’d say no,” Rodgers said. “I thought we did some good things. But it’s obviously frustrating to lose in the manner that we did.”
Throughout the 109 minutes of play, both sides flirted with momentum, but never thoroughly took advantage in front of goal.
Both teams had moments when all their field players — excluding the goalkeeper — were on the opposition’s side of the line, only to fall back and dig in defensively in front of their own goal.
“That was a pretty physical team and I think we battled and matched their intensity,” Rodgers said. “We got in counter attack situations, but we needed to be more clinical and finish those and have better runs for easier chances on goal.”
For as much as the Bobcats struggled in front of goal, the backline and senior keeper Nicole Amari made up for it, silencing charges from the Bulls for most of the match.
Although the biggest takeaway from the match for Ohio was the blown chances in the final third, something that looked corrected in Friday’s 3-1 win against Akron to open MAC play.
Following that win, redshirt sophomore forward Carly Manso said the forwards had found their confidence, something that was lacking during most of the nonconference matches.
“With corner kicks, we know those are huge chances for us, and today we converted them,” she said.
Fast forward to the weekend and Ohio had seven corners, but failed to get make anything out of them. Senior midfielder Annie Beard and sophomore forward Alexis Milesky were both able to win the ball, but never got a clean attempt on target.
The Bobcats’ best chance to score came in the final two minutes of regular time, as Ohio bombarded the Buffalo goal, winning throw-ins, corners and shot attempts.
In the end, it was the Bulls’ 6-foot keeper Laura Dougall, who was able to win balls in the air and pick up the clean sheet.
“Every book has a lot of chapters in it, and some are better than others,” Rodgers said Friday. “This is a new chapter and it’s going to be a great chapter.”
@charliehatch_
gh181212@ohiou.edu
