OTTAWA – Monday night on the pitch at Titan Stadium the Perrysburg Yellow Jackets accomplished a feat teams have rarely done to host Ottawa Glandorf, shut the Titans out on the way to two goal victory.
Since Michelle Maag took over the helm of her alma mater in 2020 the blue and gold have only found themselves with a zero in their score column on six occasions in their 87 times on the pitch. O-G has doled out an impressive 64 shutouts in the same span, including 12 this season.
“Perrysburg has so many weapons on the attack and we did a great job for the majority of the game containing them” said Maag on the Jackets potent offense. “The goalkeeping from Karsyn and from Libbie was excellent, on the goals we did give up I feel we can work on a few key moments in the build up to those plays to take those kinds of opportunities away from future opponents.”
Deadlocked in a battle shifting between excellent goal keeping from Karsyn Erford of O-G, and Jera Harrington of Perrysburg, the two teams engaged in a war of attrition and were forced to earn any opportunity at a shot on goal.
Perrysburg (11-4-1), ranked #12 in Division 1 in the latest Maxpreps rankings dented the Titan Stadium scoreboard for the first time with 21:45 to go in the opening half as a set of passes and a shot from standout Sophie Mitchell found the back of the net. First team All-Ohio junior Camille Francis raced past Titan defenders to find Mitchell on the breakaway just past the outstretched hands of Erford to give the Jackets a 1-0 advantage.
Nearly the exact same point in time for Perrysburg on the second half scoreboard saw the lead swell to 2-0 as a marker credited to junior star Emma Ogdahl off of an attempted clearance and own goal by the Titans found a way home with 21:31 remaining.
Ogdahl, a returning All-Ohioan from a regional runner-up a season ago was credited for her 17th score of the season against Ottawa Glandorf backup keeper Libbie Niese.
Yellow Jacket keeper Jera Harrington turned away four credited shots on goal by the Titans (14-2) who see their 14-game winning streak snapped with the loss.
“Offensively we did not generate a ton of chances today” said Maag. “We saw some positives in our counter attacking play and made some adjustments at halftime the girls responded well to. We did not get the result we wanted tonight against a very good Perrysburg team but we did get better. We love to play challenging games against talented opponents because it accelerates our development.”
Regular season finales are next up for the Jackets and Titans as Perrysburg will resume play Wednesday night in Toledo at St. Ursula, and Ottawa Glandorf will host Defiance in their regular season finale on Tuesday evening at Titan Stadium starting at 7:15pm.
“We have a very quick turnaround going into the next game as we host Defiance tomorrow for senior night” said Maag. “I’m happy to have a chance to honor a great group of seniors and am excited for the opportunity to finish our WBL season strong.”
Scoring:
21:45 – Sophie Mitchell (P)
21:31 – Own Goal (Credited to Emma Odgahl – P)
Saves:
12 – Karsyn Erford (O-G)
4 – Libbie Niese (O-G)
4 – Jera Harrington (P)