PONTIAC, Mich. (Women's Soccer) – Despite being outshot against Rochester College (Mich.) by a 31-8 tally, a fantastic effort by Michaela Garner (FR/Heath, Ohio) in the box preserved a tie for the Bears in their season opener against the Warriors on Friday afternoon at the Ultimate Soccer Arena in Pontiac, Michigan.
"We played well on defense," Shawnee State head coach Rob Appell said. "Garner was very solid in the box. Overall, it was a fair result against a good team."
From the opening salvo, Rochester was able to get shots off at will in the first half, as the Warriors shot the ball 10 times in the first half, putting five on goal. However, SSU was more efficient with its shots, as three of the Bears' four shot attempts were on goal. Of the five attempts on goal by Rochester, Garner was on the mark, stopping every shot in the box to keep the score at 0-0 after a half of play.
The second half proved to be more of the same, as the Warriors recorded 11 more shots compared to four for the Bears. However, Rochester only put three attempts on goal compared to the Bears' one in large part to the defensive efforts of Erin Phillips (SR/Mount Sterling, Ohio), Tasha Wilson (SR/Kettering, Ohio), Kaylie Ruckel (FR/Winchester, Ohio) and Adrianna Johnson (FR/Clarksville, Ohio). Behind the quartet's efforts and Garner's workmanlike effort in between the posts, the teams headed to extra frames with the score deadlocked at a 0-0 count.
From there, the Shawnee State offense was not able to muster a shot, as the Bears did not record a shot in either one of the overtime periods. Garner and the Shawnee State defense, however, were more than apt in stopping the Rochester attack. The Warriors attempted six shots against the Bears during the first overtime period, but only one managed to be an on goal shot, which was saved by Garner.
Rochester made one final rally in the second overtime as five of the ten shots taken by the Warriors were put on goal in the frame. Despite that, Garner showed a penchant for coming up in the clutch by saving all five of the on goal shots in the final frame to make the 0-0 tally final.
Offensively, Schuyler Jones (SR/Ramnicu Valcea, Romania) recorded two shots, with both coming on goal. Jenny Campbell (SO/Chillicothe, Ohio) and Leslie Marsh (JR/Springboro, Ohio) each recorded one shot, with each shot also coming on goal. Maddie Woodard (SO/Camden, Ohio) and Kyla Toles (FR/Williamsburg, Ohio) put up three and one shot for the Bears, respectively.
The Bears will be back in action tomorrow afternoon as Shawnee State will travel to Vienna, West Virginia to take on Ohio Valley University at 1 p.m. to wrap up play for the weekend.
