Oakland City, IN- On August 28, the Mighty Oaks women's soccer team traveled to St. Louis to play Harris Stowe State University in their season opener at 1pm. Both sides battled hard in the first half to keep it 0-0. Harris Stowe dominated the first half, but the Mighty Oaks back four consisting of
Kayla Nunes,
Madison Ward,
Megan Knox, and
Madison Nicolas, were a force to be reckoned with; especially
Kassidy Elkin in goal who pulled off four whopping saves to help keep the score at 0-0 by halftime.
Coming out strong to start the second half, the Mighty Oaks had a couple goal scoring opportunities which were blocked by the opposing goalkeeper. Harris Stowe had an opportunity from a corner four minutes after halftime which they scored on from a tap in at the back post. After losing the ball in the midfield, the ball was played out wide and produced an undefendable ball to a runner from midfield who half volleyed the ball into the bottom corner to make the score 2-0.
The Mighty Oaks pressured high forcing Harris Stowe to play back to the goalie where
Kennedy Hospelhorn followed resulting in her blocking the clearance and won the ball for a chance to shoot. The shot was blocked by the recovering backline of Harris Stowe.
Harris Stowe's third and final goal came from a ball over the top from the right hand side left an open path for their quick striker to go through 1v1 with the keeper to score and make it 3-0.
The Mighty Oaks found it within themselves to raise the intensity and press high which created 7 opportunities in the last 20 minutes. The Mighty Oaks were unlucky, but got a consolation goal in the 89
th minute.
After a poor clearance by the back four,
Claudia Melgar won the ball at the top of the box creating an overlapping run with Nicolas on the right-hand wing. She then beat the defender and put in a cross/shot that the keeper hit into her own net.
By the end of the match, the Lady Oaks had recorded 10 shots with 6 on goal while Harris Stowe recorded 14 shots with 9 shots on goal.
Kassidy Elkin finished the game with 6 saves.
The Lady Oaks will look to bounce back and go again when they play away at Berea College on Saturday September 3 at 1pm in Berea, Kentucky. GO MIGHTY OAKS!!
