Box Score

Oct. 4 - After playing three straight games on the road the Oberlin field hockey was looking for a homecoming of sorts and some resurgent offense in today's conference clash against Earlham College.  Despite another defensive first half, the Yeowomen came out firing early in the second period.

For the first 35 minutes, the Yeowomen and Quakers played fairly even each recording ten shots in the frame.  Earlham was able to get on the scoreboard first late in the half on an unassisted goal with just over four minutes remaining.  In the first two minutes of the second half the Quakers scored again to take a commanding 2-0 lead.  Having scored 7 goals in their last 9 games the 2-0 deficit looked like it might be enough to win.

But on this day the Yeowomen answered back with a terrific goal by Natasha Cohen who received a nicely redirected ball from Abigail Brox just 93 seconds after Earlham's goal.  The score energized the Yeowomen who began to dominate the play in their offensive zone.  They spent much of the next fifteen minutes pressuring the Quaker defense, getting shots off towards the cage, and drawing most of their nine second half penalty corners.  During the offensive barrage Oberlin had three different balls cross the goal line only to have had whistles stop play just before the potential Oberlin goals.

Somehow Earlham withstood the attack and scored on a rush of their own with 11:35 to play giving the Quakers a 3-1 lead.  Once again the Yeowomen would respond as Ariel Schuster scored an unassisted goal with 2:08 left.  Oberlin kept up the pressure but fell just short dropping the game 3-2.

Head Coach Deb Ranieri said, "In the second half we had a really nice stretch of offense and were able put a lot of pressure on their defense.  Emily Whitaker helped us really attack the Earlham defense, and Prunie [Brox] put a couple of great balls in front of the goal.  We just need to find someone to finish those plays and we will come out on the other end of this kind of game."

On a positive note the Yeowomen outshot the Quakers 40-19, a significant improvement from their last conference game at Ohio Wesleyan.  The defense once again played well for Oberlin and goalkeeper Manya Lulek had another game with double-digit saves.  The Yeowomen will look to build off their improved offensive performance this week when they seek revenge against conference foe Kenyon College.  The game will be played at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, October 7 in Gambier, Ohio.