If someone were to look at the sideline of Wednesday's practice and gave a quick glance at Ohio's last game at Robert Morris, they would think that the Bobcats have an injury crisis on their hands.
Vanessa Cordoba, Alexis Milesky — whose injury seems more short-term than the others — and Megan Niebuhr all sat out of practice while the Bobcats ran drills that emphasized distribution and smart attacking strategies. For many teams, losing their starting goalkeeper, their best attacker and one of their best defensive players might be cause for major concern, but coach Aaron Rodgers has no such doubts of his team.
"We have such good depth in this team and good unity within this group," Rodgers said. "Everybody is just ready to step in and play when they’re called upon. So it’s a great team chemistry thing going on. So hopefully those key players will be back and if not, then we have people that will step in and do a good job, I’m sure."
Having his key players might be handy if he wants to end the non-conference schedule with some momentum. Ohio returns Friday to Chessa Field to play Xavier for its last game before Mid-American Conference play starts and Rodgers acknowledged that the game gives his team a good opportunity.
He said that he's looking forward to facing another in-state rival and that the Musketeers have provided the Bobcats with good games in the past. He also mentioned that only playing one game this weekend, then having a full week to rest and prepare for the Bobcats' first MAC opponent, is helpful as well.
Rodgers also said that Ohio has played teams who use a similar style to Xavier already this season and his team now knows what to look for.
"I think they present a shape very similar to the shape Butler plays and very similar to the shape to what Dayton plays," he said. "So we’ve seen it before already this season, so we just know that they have a good strong attacking presence. But we also know that we have to figure out the places on the field where we can exploit them, and I think we kind of have some ideas."
If the Ohio can limit Xavier the way it limited Dayton earlier in the season, then it can add another signature win over an in-state rival.
And with MAC play starting in a little over a week — Ohio opens the conference season at Bowling Green on Sept. 23 — a big win over an in-form Xavier team would give the Bobcats a major boost.
If Ohio gets Milesky back soon and avoids more injuries, it can defy expectations in conference play.
