Field hockey falls to Wooster in overtime

The women's field hockey team ended their season in triumph. At least in jest.

Thursday night, the team enacted scenes from the inspirational football movie Rudy while decked out in Halloween garb. The team dropped their 4th place seed to Wooster Tuesday, but they did not drop their spirit.

The team took the field at Wooster with the mind and will to win, but it fell short by one goal in the last five minutes of overtime.

The game began evenhanded with Wooster scoring 23 minutes into the first half and Oberlin answering within three minutes. First-year Emily Johnson scored the first goal unassisted.

Wooster took the lead into half-time with 16 minutes left in the half. But with 35 minutes remaining in the second half, Oberlin tied the score at twos with Johnson revisiting the scorecard off an assist from sophomore B Chatfield. That score out-lived regulation time and sent the teams into OT.

Again the teams battled evenhadedly, but Wooster prevailed with three minutes remaining.

Oberlin had 19 shots on goal and nine corners with Wooster only racking up 15 shots and 11 corners.

With that loss Oberlin finished up their season at 5th place in the NCAC despite having held the 4th place seed for four weeks straight.

Overall this was one of our best games of the season. We really played to win," assistant coach Lucinda Tokarski said.

"We played hard for 90 minutes," head coach Mindy Manalovich said.

In Saturday's game against Denison, Oberlin played a superb defensive game, holding Denison scoreless through the first half despite their 12 corners. At half-time, the teams were tied 0-0 and remained so for half the next period. Not surprisingly, Johnson took control with a again whipping the ball past Denison's keeper.

Ten minutes later, however, Denison came back scoring two goals to top Oberlin 2-1.

The only win of the week came against the Mercyherst stickers. Going into half-time with a 2-0 deficit, Oberlin's prospects did not look so good, but junior Jesse Robinson broke the ice followed by Johnson's two goals, one assisted by Wirth, the other unassisted.

As if a battle between teammates, Robinson scored another off a direct corner with sophomore Maggie McFalls assisting. Wirth scored with 11:44 remaining off an assist from Robinson who in turn rounded out the rout with an unassisted goal.

The game ended 5-2 in favor of the Yeowomen.

The first game over fall break against Houghton College in New York started the week off hard with the 5-1 loss. McFalls scored the lone goal while in the other goal Yeokeepers first-year Pam Walker faced 30 shots in the first half and senior Liz Breakstone tallied 20 saves.

Not today, sister: Oberlin field hockey tries to stick it to Wooster. (photo by Heidi Good)

Butting heads: The Crimson Thunder square off in practice on North Fields. (photo by Matt Maddy)by Jacob Kramer-Duffield Faraway, and yet so close! Though Oberlin football lost their past three games, the Yeomen came so close to victory last Saturday that they could taste it, losing to the Earlham Quakers 19-14 in Richmond, Indiana. The Yeomen held a 14-13 lead going into half, but the defense surrendered one score and the offense was stifled in the second half, leading to another frustrating defeat. The victory would have been the first of the season for Oberlin, and the first since last yearıs opening-game victory over Thiel. Instead, Oberlinıs losing streak was extended to 16 games. ³We should have won,² defensive lineman first-year Mike Runshe said, ³[But] we made some mistakes we shouldnıt have. We learned from our mistakes, though.² The game started in more encouraging fashion than any other this season. The Yeomen defense held Earlham to one first down before shutting them down and forcing them to punt. Oberlinıs offense also showed more promise earlier than it has in any other game this season. The Yeomen got the ball at their own 25 and drove the ball down to the Earlham 28, fueled by a strong ground game and a 15 yard run by first-year J.J. Gilmore. The drive stalled there, with the Yeomen turning the ball over on downs. The Quakers took advantage of Oberlinıs inability to capitalize, covering 72 yards in 7 plays, all on the ground, for the gameıs first score. They could not, however, convert the point after, and so the score stood at 6-0. The teams exchanged the ball several times, but neither put together a drive for the rest of the first quarter. However, Earlham defensive back Nate Norton intercepted a pass by sophomore quarterback Geno Walker on the first play of the second quarter, giving the ball to the Quakers at the Yeoman 38. Earlham took advantage of the turnover and good field position, crossing the goal line after six plays. This time, the point after touchdown flew through the crossbars, and Earlham led 13-0. Though the Yeomen had played tough football up to that point, it appeared that they might fall into the same pattern of getting behind big early and becoming frustrated, digging themselves an even bigger hole. That was not the case this fair Saturday. Instead, Oberlin put together a 37 yard drive following the kickoff, but ultimately had to punt. But on the very next play, junior Jabari Spruil picked off an Eric Schuemann pass, and returned it 19 yards to the Earlham 31. Five plays later, Walker connected with senior wideout Anthony Johnson for 14 yards into the end zone for the first Oberlin score, Johnsonıs first touchdown catch of the year. The two point conversion attempt failed, and the score sat at 13-6 in favor of Earlham. After getting the ball back, the Yeomen put together one of their best drives of the year. Starting at their own 29, they drove down the entire field, 71 yards, in 13 plays, capped finally by another scoring pass from Walker to Johnson, this one 8 yards. And this time, the Yeomen successfully converted the two-point conversion Johnson finished with his best day of the year by far, showing the form that led him to set school records in receptions and yards receiving last year. He ended with 8 catches for 111 yards, including the two touchdowns. Teammate wideout senior Felix Brooks-Church had an off day, finishing with only one catch for 13 yards, that catch coming in the first Yeoman scoring drive. After several exchanges back and forth without a score, the Quakers got the ball on their own 29-yard line. On the first play of the drive, running back first-year Jeremy Swank broke loose down the field, and didnıt stop until he reached the end zone with a 71-yard touchdown run. Though the Quakers again failed to convert on the point after, this time a two-point conversion attempt, this was the last blow to the Yeomen. Swank finished the day with 15 carries for 182 yards, out-rushing the Oberlin ground attack by himself.