Penn State Women’s Soccer Shutout 1-0 by Ohio State
The No.12 Penn State Nittany Lions fell to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the wear white game by a score of 1-0.
Senior defender Izzy Rodriguez had the only goal of the game which came in the 66th minute on a free-kick.
The Nittany Lions had two goals taken off the board after they were offside. Junior midfielder Ally Schlegel would have scored both goals if they had stood.
Penn State head coach Erica Dambach was not pleased after the game.
“We got our chances and we didn’t take our chances,” said Dambach.
In the first half, Penn State controlled had a lot of possession time and had many chances to find the back of the net.
Being offside was the main theme today with the blue and white as they were ruled offsides four different times.
Dambach questioned whether all the calls were correct but if they were all good calls said “we need to work on our timing because those are too many offsides calls.” Dambach said.
Ohio State capitalized on their chances by scoring on their first shot on net which came on a free kick with 24 minutes left in the game.
Ohio State goaltender Bailey Kolinski made a key save on Schlegel after that goal which proved to be a game-saving stop.
For Penn State, the star of the game was Ellie Wheeler’s defense. She was a part of a group that shut down Ohio State’s Kayla Fischer.
Wheeler was involved in almost every defensive play and contributed heavily to stopping the Ohio State attack in the first half.
One of the reasons why Penn State was not able to break the Ohio State defense was the poor passing at the start of the game. Most of the passes downfield were too far in front of the person who was supposed to be receiving the pass.
Penn State also played very conservatively and passed it amongst the back three defenders with no pressure from Ohio State a lot in the first half.
Ohio State’s Talani Barnett proved to be a very tough defender in the last ten minutes of the game by constantly stopping the Penn State attack on the edge.
Cori Dyke was also shaken up on a few plays but stayed in the game every time.
This game was crucial for Penn State as they are now 0-3 in conference play and have lost three consecutive games.
Ohio State is now 2-1 in Big Ten play and made up for losing to Minnesota on Thursday.
James Morrison is a second-year majoring in communications. To contact him, email jpm6920@psu.edu.
