An Ohio win on Friday is negated by a Sunday afternoon loss.
The Bobcats are developing patterns, and not the type coach Aaron Rodgers wants to see.
For the second straight weekend, an impressive Friday win rolled over into a late goal and a frustrating loss Sunday.
“At the end of the day, if we split every weekend and win our last game at Kent, we’ll finish fifth or sixth in the league, I would imagine,” Rodgers said. “We just need to get a six-point weekend.”
Ohio jumpstarted the road trip with a 1-0 victory at Western Michigan on Friday, as a 64th minute goal from senior midfielder Liz Finley was enough to give the Broncos their first Mid-American Conference loss this season.
Two late goals from Northern Illinois defender Jess Wooldridge was the difference Sunday, when the Huskies beat Ohio 2-0 to remain undefeated in MAC play.
“I’m disappointed and thought we could ride our momentum from our win on Friday,” Rodgers said. “There are a lot of ways to win a soccer game and NIU plays a way that’s difficult to play against … they scored a goal and we didn’t.”
Heading into the weekend, Rodgers said he wanted to break the Bobcats’ streaky play up front, hoping his forwards would churn out goals on a more consistent basis, and hopefully provide two wins for the team on its first MAC road trip.
Instead, the score lines were similar to those of last weekend, which read as a 3-1 win against Akron and a 1-0 loss in double overtime to Buffalo.
And so Ohio’s biggest problem continues: a lack of scoring.
That’s not to say Rodgers hasn’t tried to fix it. In practice he’s shifted more focus on finishing in front of goal and becoming more clinical with the chances the team creates.
Against Northern Illinois, freshman Hannah Jaggers, a quick forward who slithers around the opponent’s defense and drags defenders out of position, made her first career start.
Ohio (5-7, 2-2 MAC) used an attacking 4-4-2 formation on Sunday, with sophomore forward Alexis Milesky lined up as a right mid and Finley to the left, in an effort for the Bobcats to also attack from the width.
The team is making all the right moves, just not in front of goal.
“We have a good team,” Rodgers said. “ We play well and we can be successful. We just need to be a little bit sharper. We have to be able to dictate a rhythm to the game and we didn’t do that [Sunday].”
@charliehatch_
gh181212@ohiou.edu
