Oct. 25, 2009
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The 18th-ranked Purdue women's soccer team was defeated in overtime 1-0 by 19th-ranked Ohio State on Sunday afternoon at Jessie Owens Memorial Stadium.
"We played a really talented and determined Ohio State team that is very good at what they do," head coach Robert Klatte said. "They ask a large number of questions of your defenders and midfielders. They got great pressure all over the field. I have to take my hat off to them along those lines. For us, that made it very difficult all day. We got possession in the center of the park and were able to break out of that, but we just didn't have that final punch. There were only four shots put on goal between both teams, so it certainly was a defensive battle. At the same time, we weren't dangerous enough going forward, and that's something that we are going to have to solve because we certainly will face more pressure in the four remaining matches of the regular season."
Ohio State (13-2-2, 6-1-1) scored 64 seconds into the first overtime period. Lauren Steuer sent a corner kick from the left side into the box, where Colleen Brady headed it back into the left side of the net for the game-winning goal.
The Buckeyes started out in control of possession for the first 20 minutes but could not manufacture a goal. Their best chance came in the 12th minute when a corner kick from the right side was headed by Ashley Bowyer toward the left side of the net. Jenny Bradfisch dove to her right and pushed the ball off frame, where it was cleared away by a defender.
Purdue (9-4-3, 3-2-2) had a chance in the 76th minute when a corner kick from the right side came to Katie Leinert. Leinert took a shot from 18 yards out on the left side of the penalty box that the Ohio State goalkeeper was unable to handle, but the Boilermakers were called for obstruction on the rebound attempt.
Ohio State took 13 shots, three on goal, and was awarded eight corner kicks. The Boilermakers took four shots, one of which was on goal, and one corner kick. Bradfisch made two saves to push her career total to 200, making her just the third Boilermaker in program history to reach that milestone.
In addition to Bradfisch, six other Purdue players were on the field for the entire game. Jessica Okoroafo did not rest for the first time this season and was joined by Sylvia Forbes, Katie Leinert, Lauren Montenegro, Brookley Rogers and Liz Secue.
The loss snaps Purdue's seven-game winning streak in the series and knots the all-time series at 8-8-2. The Boilermakers are now 0-1-3 in overtime games this season after playing to a tie in each of the first three games that moved into the extra period.
"We have to leave this behind us," Klatte said. "As hurtful and heartbreaking it is for some of the players, it's one soccer game. We have to look at how we move forward, and I think we need to move the ball quicker and make a couple of better decisions with our passing choices. Overall, I thought many of our players gave good performances. Our back line held up and won a lot of services. The only thing I think we can improve on there is denying their ability to turn the corner since that's how they created their eight corner kicks."
Purdue returns home to host Loyola-Chicago on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. ET. A live radio broadcast and live results can be found at purduesports.com.