Midway through the second half, another period of attacking play had broken down. UC Davis had recovered the ball and was pushing toward the Ohio goal when goalkeeper Lina Trucco decided to come out of goal to deny the opportunity.
The only problem was she miscalculated the attacker's intentions, as the Aggies player easily took a step back and deposited the ball into the net for an Aggies' goal. It was their third of the afternoon.
Friday's game was full of those little moments, a miscommunication in front of the net that led to the second goal or the giveaway that led to the first. All of those mistakes coalesced into a 3-0 loss for the Bobcats at Pruitt Field and a prolonged wait for coach Neil Macmillan's record-breaking win.
"We did a great job with 90 percent of the play but didn’t finish off," Macmillan said. "It’s really disappointing because we put ourselves in a position to be successful in that game ... but unfortunately you have to play a complete game and we talked about that as a team before we started and we certainly didn’t do that. Now we’re sitting on the wrong side of disappointing loss."
The Aggies (1-1) were dominant from the beginning, forcing Ohio (1-2) into bad spells of possession and poor passes. In turn, UC Davis calmly possessed the ball, probing for openings and switching the ball with short, quick passes that the Bobcats simply couldn't handle.
So when the first goal came from an Aggies' corner in the ninth minute, it didn't come as much of surprise.
It did seem to enliven the Bobcats, however, as Maria Russell began really trying to provide some much needed spark to Ohio's offense. But her efforts didn't bear much result, as the offense sputtered for much of the afternoon.
Even a succession of corners late in the first half proved futile, as the Aggies calmly reclaimed possession and drove into Ohio's defensive third on the counter.
Speaking of corners, the Bobcats had plenty — 10 to be exact — and the corners provided them their best chance of getting back into the game. But Russell's energy and good opportunities just weren't enough to get Ohio back on track.
With a game against in-state rival Ohio State looming Sunday, the Bobcats will need their offense figured out by the end of the weekend. The Buckeyes have dropped their first three games of the season by an average of 2.7 goals, but those came against a nationally ranked Delaware team and a strong Wake Forest team.
But if Macmillan can get his record-setting win against a big school like OSU, it'd surely put Friday's stumbles behind him and his team.
