By Philippe Chauveau
Transcript Reporter
The Ohio Wesleyan women’s soccer team started their game against the Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets last Saturday night Sept. 21, at the jay Martin Soccer Complex looking to end a three game losing streak.
At the end of the 90 minutes, Baldwin-Wallace outplayed the Lady Bishops, leaving Delaware with a 2-1 victory and the Ohio Wesleyan team with four consecutive losses.
“In the end we can only control how hard we work and I’m proud of the effort,” said sophomore midfielder Claire Lofgren, the only Bishop to score a goal in the last four games. “…They were a very physical team and came out strong.”
Senior goalkeeper Hannah Zacharias did her part in goal as she recorded 11 saves, seven of them in the second half.
The Yellow Jackets came out strong and ended the half with nine shots against the Bishops. Zacharias made four saves, but just six minutes into the game, the crossbar saved OWU.
A Yellow Jacket player hit a shot from just outside the box that hit the crossbar then bounced on the goal line before getting cleared out of the box.
OWU’s only shot on target in the first half came from junior midfielder Liz D’Amelio, with 22 minutes left in the half. The shot was saved by the Baldwin Wallace goalkeeper.
Despite the number of shot attempts from the Yellow Jackets, the first half ended tied at zeros.
After a scoreless first half, the two teams were practically equally matched on the field, the second half started off with excitement.
Only four minutes into the half, the referee called for a penalty kick as the ball hit Ohio Wesleyan sophomore defender Caroline Bonee on the hand inside the box.
“We had a few unfortunate calls against us,” Lofgren said about the penalty kick call. She disagreed with the referee, as did most of the Lady Bishops both on the field and in the stands.
“I think she was just protecting her face, I don’t think it should have been called,” junior forward Lindsay Reed said.
Baldwin-Wallace senior midfielder Lindsey Mikula stepped up to take it and hit a powerful shot into the upper left corner of the goal and scored.
Zacharias had to make five saves to keep the score just at 1-0, and the Yellow Jackets had a number of shots that went wide.
With 21 minutes left in the game, Ohio Wesleyan had a breakaway down the sideline from senior midfielder Emily Sattler. She hit a low cross into the box trying to find one of the Bishop strikers, but the Baldwin Wallace goalkeeper was faster to it.
Yellow Jacket senior forward Heather Keller took advantage of a confusing play between Zacharias and the Bishop defenders and beat Zacharias with a low shot. The score was now 2-0 and the Bishops were looking at another defeat.
“I think we’re always improving,” junior forward Kristie Prendergast said. “It was unfortunate that we lost again, but we are looking better each week.”
The Bishops have now lost four consecutive games, but the players have not lost their optimism.
“We have some games coming up that I am really excited about; they will be a good test of our progress,” Lofgren said.
Pendergrast said she thinks the team will be ready for conference play later in the season.