Stephanie Rowland leads the Bobcats with five goals this season.
One of the biggest story lines coming into this season was how all eight freshmen would adjust to the college game: the answer came Sunday when two of Ohio's stand-out freshmen, Taylor Smith and Stephanie Rowland, proved essential for the Bobcats.
Rowland proved her worth to the Bobcats by scoring the opening goal and Smith made a massive save on a penalty to keep the game close, but despite their valiant efforts, Ohio dropped its fourth game in Mid-American Conference play, 2-1, at Ball State.
Ball State was aided by two penalties in the win and, while coach Aaron Rodgers conceded that the first penalty was justifiable, he was less happy about the second, saying that it didn't merit a second spot kick being given.
But it was and, although Smith guessed the right way, the goal was enough to lift Ball State past Ohio.
The Bobcats only managed one shot after Rowland opened up the scoring in the sixth minute of a blocked shot by sophomore forward Hannah Jaggers. That goal revitalized the Cardinals' (10-2-2, 6-0 in MAC) offense, however, and despite the Bobcats' (4-9, 2-4 MAC) best efforts, Ball State would equalize in the 25th minute off a deflected shot.
It took 64 minutes for Ohio to force a save out of Ball State's goalkeeper and get a corner. The cleared corner resulted in a penalty call for the Cardinals, but Smith produced a save to keep the Bobcats in it.
Ohio, who struggled to create something offensively all game, gained momentum after the save and duly challenged Ball State for the next few minutes.
But an inadvertent handball in the box would ruin all that momentum, as Smith once again guessed the right way, but Chelsy Swackhamer dispatched her penalty and locked up Ball State's sixth-straight win in conference play.
The Bobcats did well to keep the scoreline down, as they were outshot 20-10 and forced Smith into eight saves. Rodgers has made mention of Sundays being a grind in the MAC, and the game against Ball State proved no different. The Cardinals were forced to play with 10 women after Lauren Hall was shown a red card on the bench, but the Bobcats were unable to take advantage.
"You look at our last three games and ... honestly, if I had to rate our performance, I wouldn't say we were at our best," Rodgers said.
Ohio will now focus its attention on Eastern Michigan on Friday and Bowling Green on Sunday. Both teams are in similar positions to Ohio in the MAC standings, and if the Bobcats hope to make the MAC tournament, they will need at least one win this weekend.
"We're a very young team, and we competed neck and neck with the two best teams in the league," Rodgers said. "So for us, we can come home and put our best team out there and ... we can get results."
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