Rainy night ends in loss for CMU soccer
The dark clouds rolled into Mount Pleasant towards the end of the first half, as Central Michigan soccer trailed the Ohio Bobcats.
It was quickly followed by rain which beat down throughout the second half as the Bobcats (7-5-2, 3-3-1) poured it on the Chippewas (2-9-3, 1-4-2) with a final score of 4-1 on Thursday.
Six minutes in, Ohio took a 1-0 lead when senior midfielder Hailey Miller kicked it high over freshman goalkeeper Emma Shingler's hands and into the net.
“Just really disappointed,'' said head coach Jeremy Groves. “I don't think we really showed up until like the last 10 minutes of the game which is really disappointing. I don't think we competed hard enough, and we didn't win enough first and second balls. I felt like we were a little bit off today with how we wanted to play and do things as well.”
The Chippewas took advantage of a Bobcat mistake tying the game at the 18-minute mark. When junior forward Elizabeth Chlystun raced to the open goal, rebounding the ball into the back of the net as Ohio senior goalkeeper Sam Wexell was still down following a block.
“At that point I was hoping we were gonna kick on,'' Groves said. “They lost a little bit of momentum but they kind of regained it on a really soft goal going the other way which was a mistake on our goalkeeper. We’ve gone through I think three or four weeks now where we’ve limited our mistakes and tonight, we made too many and that's what ended up costing us.”
The tie did not last long as Miller answered right back and scored her second goal of the game, hitting the top left corner to take a 2-1 lead.
In the last minute of the first period, Shingler stopped the Bobcats from upping their lead with a diving save.
“I think it's good that we continue to fight it,” Groves said. “It shows the character of our team which is a good thing. We just didn’t lay down and die, which is good so they just gotta keep fighting, and like I said, you know if we compete, we’ll be fine.”
37 seconds into the second period, the Bobcats extended their lead 3-1, as senior Regan Berg scored through the legs of Shingler. Ohio added on another goal at the 54-minute mark with a shot from junior forward Shae Robertson.
“I think we have made some big strides with what we’ve got right now over the last couple of weeks,” Groves said. “It just feels like a step back.”
The Chippewas head to Akron on Sunday at 1p.m
