Rio women advance, nip Mighty Oaks in OT

Rio Grande Sports Information
     EVANSVILLE, Ind. - More often than not, in the latter stages of its regular season schedule, the University of Rio Grande found itself dominating the stat sheet but losing the battle on the scoreboard.
     In Saturday afternoon's River States Conference Women's Soccer quarterfinal against Oakland City University, the injury-riddled RedStorm flipped the script.
     Cloe Johnson's goal with 2:46 gone in the second overtime period lifted head coach Tony Daniels' club to a 2-1 victory over the fourth-seeded Mighty Oaks at the Goebel Sports Complex.
     The game was moved from Oakland City's on-campus facility after heavy rain left the pitch unplayable.
     Rio Grande, the No. 5 seed in the six-team tourney, improved to 5-10-3 with the victory and advanced to Wednesday's semifinal round at top-seeded Point Park University.
     The Mighty Oaks finished 9-5-2 with the loss.
     Oakland City tallied a 16-4 advantage in shots overall and an 11-2 edge in shots on goal - but the RedStorm made both of their shots on frame count by scoring on each of them.
     The first was an unassisted marker by freshman Emma Hinkle (Marengo, OH) with 41:19 remaining in regulation which knotted the score at 1-1.
     The Mighty Oaks, who also were responsible for seven of the eight corner kick chances in the contest, had taken a 1-0 lead just 18:25 into the match when Rhiannon O'Looney found the back of the net off of a touch by Maddie Myers.
     The contest finished regulation time in a 1-1 deadlock, forcing collegiate soccer's new postseason format of two 10-minute overtime periods played to their conclusion.
     Neither team scored until Johnson - a graduate senior from Valencia, Spain - netted her go-ahead goal in the second extra session off a pass by junior Megan Schmidt (Beavercreek, OH).
     Neither team managed another shot the rest of the way, allowing the RedStorm to advance.
     Rio Grande, which also posted a 2-1 win over the Mighty Oaks in their October regular season meeting at Evan E. Davis Field in Rio Grande, recorded two of shots in the second half of regulation and the remaining two in the second overtime.
     Freshman keeper Aina Lopez (Barcelona, Spain) was credited with nine saves for the RedStorm.
     Annabelle Lansdale failed to record a save in goal for Oakland City.
     Rio's semifinal matchup with Point Park is set for a 6 p.m. kickoff at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh.