It took a little longer than usual, but the Bobcats survived with a 2-1 (3-2) overtime shootout victory against Indiana, splitting its two games in Bloomington, Ind.
After playing to a shutout in the first half, Indiana delivered the opening goal 10 minutes into the second half, as sophomore forward/midfielder Audra Heilman buried a rebound opportunity.
The Bobcats countered eight minutes later when junior Jessica Jue passed the ball from the right side of the net to sophomore Ashley Cureton who evened the score.
The game remained scoreless through the first two overtime sessions, which led to a penalty shootout, which adopted new rules for the 2012 season.
The old format was similar to soccer penalty shots, where the player takes a shot at the goalkeeper from a designated spot in front of the net. In the new setup, which is similar to the shootout rules in hockey, the player has eight seconds and can take multiple attempts to put it past the goalie.
“In the old system both teams would work so hard on the pitch and you ended up in a situation where you have to take penalties and it’s not really a hockey situation,” coach Neil Macmillan said. “The actual one-on-one is part of the game and hockey’s a part of it instead of it being something else.”
Sophomore goalkeeper Brittany Walker stepped up in the penalty shootout and made three saves to preserve the lead and give the team a victory.
“I was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in my entire life,” Walker said. “We worked really hard on one-on-ones because my coach really wants me to become an aggressive goalkeeper. We’ve been working stepping out, driving and tackling through and I think if we hadn’t worked on that I wouldn’t have had the confidence I did today.”
Overall, Macmillan was pleased with the way his team played over the weekend and was happy to see his team’s hard work result in a victory.
“I think we played really well today,” he said. “I think if it was one area that was lacking, it was in front of goal. But overall, we really moved the ball well, played to our strengths and were really running them (Indiana) all over the field.”
The Bobcats won’t practice Monday in an effort to heal their wounds of a 100-minute game and rest up for rival Ohio State on Wednesday.
“We have to recover,” Macmillan said. “We had a long game today and everyone’s a little fatigued. But if we do all the right things and get ourselves healthy, we should be ready to go.”
ch203310@ohiou.edu
