Monday, October 31, 2011

Northern Goes 9-0 in the OAC!

For the first time in program history, the Polar Bears completed the OAC regular season with a perfect 9-0 record. The win at Marietta College was the 11th consecutive win for ONU and improved our record to 15-1-2 overall. With the intent to mark a program first, Northern wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard. In the 5th minute Sami Atkinson would take a flicked on header from Lauren Brown to her feet, she would turn the corner on her defender and fire a shot into the Pioneer net for the first goal of the afternoon. Atkinson would also score the second goal, her 12th of the season, in the 28th minute off of an assist from Kristin Klusek. The ONU defense, with Erin Waehner in goal, would only allow a single shot from the Pioneers in the first half. The Polar Bears continued their pressure in the second half and in the 50th minute Lauryn Zielinski would earn her first goal of the season, and career, off of a fantastic corner from Senior Alyssa Merrick. Set pieces would continue to be dangerous for Northern as just 3 minutes later Tara Tokar would get on the end of another Merrick corner; this would mark Merrick's OAC leading 13th assist of the season. Northern would continue to press as each Polar Bear that stepped on the field kept up the tempo and pressure on the Pioneers. Sara Rutherford would finish off the scoring after converting a free kick sent in by Paige Garber to alse earn her first goal of the season and career. Kristen DeWees and the Northern defense would preserve the clean sheet in the second half. ONU would take the 5-0 win by allowing only 3 shots from the Pioneers and firing 27 of their own. Having already booked a ticket to the Semi Final, Northern awaits the result of the Quarter Final match between Baldwin Wallace and John Carroll which takes place Tuesday. The Semi Final which will be hosted at ONU is slated for a 2pm kick off this Thursday.

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