Feb. 27, 2005
Athens, Ohio – Notre Dame’s junior All-American candidate Crysti Foote (Suffern, N.Y.) got her 2005 season off to a fast start, scoring a career-high five goals and eight points to lead the Irish to a season-opening 16-10 win at Ohio University on Sunday afternoon.
Foote got help from teammates Caitlin McKinney (Fr., Lafayette Hill, Pa.) and Meghan Murphy (So., Centennial, Colo.) as each scored a career-best four goals on the afternoon. Jackie Bowers (Sr., Springfield, Pa.), Lindsay Shaffer (Sr., Seneca Falls, N.Y.) and Heather Ferguson (Fr., Newtown Square, Pa.) added single goals for the Irish. Dana Dobbie paced the Ohio University attack with five goals and an assist in the game.
The win gives Notre Dame a 1-0 record to start the season while Ohio falls to 0-2 on the young season.
Head coach Tracy Coyne was pleased with the opening game’s results.
“The game was closer than I would have liked. Ohio really played us close. We got the early lead and let them back in to it, we didn’t put them away,” said Coyne.
“We played much better in the second half, taking the play to them. We did a good job distributing the scoring. Crysti (Foote) played the way we expect her to. She scored and distributed the ball. For the first game of the season, I was happy with some of the things we did, but we have plenty of things we need to improve on.”
Foote got the Irish off to a fast start scoring the first three goals of the game in the first 4:10 of the game. McKinney scored her first collegiate goal and the Irish had a 4-0 lead after just 5:21 of play.
After a Caitlin Link goal broke the shutout, Murphy got her first of the season to make it 5-1 before Ohio scored three in a row to cut the score to 5-4.
McKinney (her second) and Ferguson (the first of her collegiate career) sandwiched goals around Dobbie’s first of the afternoon for a 7-5 Notre Dame lead at halftime. Foote assisted on both of McKinney’s first-half goals.
The Irish quickly built the lead to 10-5 just 3:51 into the second half as Murphy scored twice in a 1:31 span and McKinney notched her third of the game to build a five-goal lead.
Dobbie did her best to keep Ohio in the game as she scored four times and assisted on the fifth Bobcat goal of the half. She scored her three times in seven-and-a-half minutes to offset Foote’s fourth goal of the game to make it 11-8 with 17:20 left in the game.
Murphy (her fourth) and Shaffer upped the lead to 13-8 only to see Dobbie get her fifth of the game with 7:35 left to make it 12-9.
That was as close as the Bobcats would get as Foote (fifth goal), McKinney (fourth) and Bowers closed out the Notre Dame scoring with three goals in a 3:05 span. Shannon Hadaway closed the scoring with a goal with 1:32 left for the 16-10 final.
Notre Dame out shot Ohio, 28-24 in the game. Carol Dixon (Sr., Pennsauken, N.J.) made seven saves in the game while Jayme Levy had eight stops for the Bobcats.
The Irish will have little time to enjoy the victory as they now return home to face 3rd-ranked Northwestern at the Loftus Center on Thursday, March 3. Game time is 4:30 p.m.
Game Summary: 1 2 - F#20 Notre Dame (1-0) 7 9 - 16Ohio University (0-2) 5 5 - 10
SCORINGNOTRE DAME:GOALS: Crysti Foote (5), Meghan Murphy (4), Caitlin McKinney (4), Jackie Bowers (1), Lindsay Shaffer (1), Heather Ferguson (1).ASSISTS: Crysti Foote (3), Jackie Bowrs (2), Lena Zentgraf (1).
OHIO UNIVERSITY:GOALS: Dana Dobbie (5), Shannon Hadaway (2), Caitlyn Link (1), Kelley Windle (1), Molly Wurdack (1).ASSISTS: Dana Dobbie (1), Caitlyn Link (1).
First Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistND 27:53 1-0 Crysti Foote Jackie BowersND 26:42 2-0 Crysti Foote (2)ND 25:50 3-0 Crysti Foote (3) Lena ZentgrafND 24:39 4-0 Caitlin McKinney Crysti FooteOU 22:19 4-1 Caitlyn LinkND 21:51 * 5-1 Meghan MurphyOU 20:26 5-2 Shannon HadawayOU 19:12 5-3 Molly WurdackOU 7:22 5-4 Kelley WindleND 5:07 6-4 Caitlin McKinney (2) Crysti Foote (2)OU 4:09 7-4 Dana DobbieND 0:02 7-5 Heather Ferguson
Second Half ScoringTeam Time Score Goal AssistND 28:01 8-5 Meghan Murphy (2)ND 26:30 9-5 Meghan Murphy (3) Jackie Bowers (2)ND 26:09 10-5 Caitlin McKinney (3) Crysti Foote (3)OU 25:03 10-6 Dana Dobbie (2)ND 20:04 11-6 Crysti Foote (4)OU 19:19 11-7 Dana Dobbie (3) Caitlyn LinkOU 17:20 11-8 Dana Dobbie (4)ND 13:34 12-8 Meghan Murphy (4)ND 11:30 13-8 Lindsay ShafferOU 7:35 13-9 Dana Dobbie (5)ND 6:15 14-9 Crysti Foote (5)ND 4:43 15-9 Caitlin McKinney (4)ND 3:10 16-9 Jackie BowersOU 1:32 16-10 Shannon Hadaway (2)
* denotes free position goal
GoalkeepersND: Carol Dixon (60:00 min; 10 goals against; 7 saves)OU: Jayme Levy (60:00 min; 16 goals against; 8 saves)