It had been more than a month since the Wolverines celebrated a victory, heading into yesterday’s contest against Ohio State. They were riding a seven-game winless streak. After the disappointing play of the first 20 minutes of their game against the Buckeyes, it looked at though they were going to make it eight.
That’s when Michigan coach Greg Ryan looked to his freshmen for help.
“I kind of got on them, and I said ‘I’m not going to look at you as freshmen anymore,’ ” Ryan said. “And they really stepped up. I think I ticked them off.”
The freshmen answered with two assists in the Wolverines’ 2-0 win over Ohio State yesterday, showing they were the type of impact players Ryan wanted.
Less than 10 minutes into the second half, freshman Kristin Goncalves crossed the ball to senior co-captain Katie Miler, where she tallied her first goal of the season by putting the ball into the back of the net, underneath the diving Buckeye goalie.
“We’ve been practicing that play since preseason and it just finally came together for us,” Miler said.
Five minutes later, sophomore Amanda Bowery, who leads the team in scoring, netted the team’s second goal after finding the hole in the Buckeye defense, assisted by freshman Clare Stachel.
In a matter of 15 minutes, Ryan’s team had managed to turn an evenly played game into one controlled by the Wolverines.
“I think overall we just settled down and we started to play our game,” Goncalves said.
That calm started with a Michigan defense, led by senior Skylar Andrews and sophomore Jackie Carron, that stood strong despite the Buckeyes’ attempts to answer.
The Wolverines’ offense looked totally different compared to Friday night’s 4-0 loss to No. 23 Penn State. Ryan was upset with his offense’s failure to attack the net against the Nittany Lions, but yesterday his team used its superior speed to penetrate the Ohio State defense and create opportunities for teammates.
“We had Clare Stachel just running by girls, Natalie Horner turning on people in the box and shooting, and Kristen Goncalves and Amanda Bowery making those good runs behind defenses,” Ryan said. “That was the difference in the game today.”
With its victory over Ohio State, Michigan garnered its first Big Ten victory of the season and surpassed last season’s win total. And on a day to honor the seniors, it was the freshmen who sent the veterans off with a win in their last home game.