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OCU 0-1 Univeristy of Evansville
The Mighty Oaks lost out in a spring game to Division I University of Evansville. Despite keeping the game tied well into the second half the Mighty Oaks could not hold on for what would have been a huge upset
The Mighty Oaks started nervously against their illustrious foes, who have been a regular attendee of the DI NCAA National Tournament, and Scott Cliff (Sudbury, Ontario) had to be quickly off his line to cut out a probing UE through ball. As the half progressed, however, the underdogs began to find their feet and, whilst conceding the majority of possesion and territorial advantage, began to cause the hosts some problems on the break. It was from one of these that the Mighty Oaks produced the best opening of the first half. A quick break down the left led to a five pass move on the edge of the Evansville box which released Fabio Patterson (Westerville, OH) for what seemed a certain goal, only for a despairing tackle rob him of the opener.
The second half saw the Mighty Oaks faced with a different proposition as teh wind was now firmly against them, making it difficult to relieve the Evansville pressure. UE also began to attack with more creativity forcing Austin Wiggins (Mt Carmel, IL) into a number of impressive saves, the most notable of which came from a deflected shot which he dived full length to palm onto the post.
OCU were finding chances hard to come by, but determined defense was restricting the UE offense to hurried and off-balance shots. The breakthrough came in the 80th minute when a ball played across the box found Nick Winters (Snellville, IN) battling with a UE forward to guide it away from goal. Under a strong challenge from behind the unlucky Winters could only watch as the attempted clearance snuck inside the post.
While the OCU players battled to try and reduce they arrears they were unable to produce anything telling as the game wound down to a tie.
"Todays game was a great chance for the team to match themselves against what has historically been a top DI program.." Stated Coach Botterill, after the match, "I thought the team battled hard today. I was a little disappointed that we didn't create a little more, but we were only ten minutes away from getting the tie. This makes me very optimistic of what we can achieve when we add this year's recruiting class"