Rutgers had played 120 minutes of Big Ten field hockey this season without a goal. At Ohio State on Friday, Anna Cogdell scored 44 seconds into the second quarter and Olivia Fraticelli scored 23 seconds into the third. Ohio State answered twice in 5:23, once with Rutgers a player short and once from a penalty stroke, and finished with 15 shots to Rutgers’ 14. Nobody scored in overtime. Then three Scarlet Knights shot in the shootout and three scored, and Emily Nicholls stopped all three Buckeyes
she faced. Rutgers is 7-6 and 1-2 in the Big Ten, has beaten Ohio State 10 straight times, and No. 19 Michigan is Friday.
Rutgers Led 2-0 but Ohio State Needed Five Minutes
The first quarter produced one shot between the two teams. Ella Gandy inserted a corner at 1:24, Martha Goodridge put it wide at 1:31, and that was the quarter. Ohio State spent most of it rotating its bench.
Rutgers asked for a video review at the start of the second and got a corner out of it. Frederique Vernooij inserted at 15:34 and Maddie Stevens saved Cogdell at 15:39. Vernooij inserted again at 15:40, the ball was stopped at the top for Cogdell, and she put it into the top of the net at 15:44, four seconds after the insert. Talia Schenck and Vernooij had the assists. It was Rutgers’ first Big Ten goal of the season, after 135 minutes and 44 seconds without one.
Ohio State did not take a shot until 20:56, when Carmela Maro went wide. Nicholls saved Emily Barker at 25:05, Autum Kernechel inserted Ohio State’s first corner a second later, and Maddie Olshemski made a defensive save on Phillippa Jowett at 25:13. Martha Goodridge, green card, 27:47. Kernechel inserted again at 27:55 and Philippa Schipper’s shot was blocked. Nicholls saved Maro at 29:21. Senna Schot, green card, 29:52. Ohio State outshot Rutgers 5-2 in the quarter and went in down 1-0.
Ohio State sent Avery Alleva into goal for the second half. Twenty-three seconds in, Rutgers forced a turnover on the Ohio State side and Fraticelli beat two defenders to make it 2-0, unassisted. It was her 11th goal of the season and the 22nd of her career, tying Rachel Yaney (2013-16) for ninth in program history.
Ohio State spent the next nine minutes shooting into bodies. Sienna Golden was blocked at 32:22, Kernechel inserted a corner at 32:23 and Jowett was blocked at 32:27. Anne Marie Krebs went wide at 33:11, and Jowett was blocked again at 37:38. Lauren Iaccio, green card, 38:59.
Sixty-seven seconds later, it was 2-1.
Golden, Ohio State’s leading scorer, found open space in the circle and redirected a long ball from Victoria Kutz at 40:06 with Rutgers still a player down. Rutgers won another review before 42:36, Gandy inserted, and Fraticelli went wide at 42:40. Alleva saved Fraticelli at 44:13 and Sophie Kuiper a second later, and Kuiper went wide at 44:45. Rutgers took six shots in the quarter and led by one going into the fourth.
The fourth took 29 seconds to undo it. Nicholls saved Barker at 45:28 and Ohio State was awarded a penalty stroke. Rutgers asked for a review, the call stood, and Barker put the stroke into the corner at 45:29 for 2-2.
Rutgers did not take another shot in regulation, and it did not earn another corner. Ohio State took one more, at 56:02, and Maro put it off the post.
Three Shooters, Three Goals
Overtime opened the way the fourth quarter should have. Gandy inserted a corner at 61:04 and Alleva saved Schenck at 61:40. Gandy inserted again at 61:42 and again at 61:53, and Alleva saved Cogdell at 61:55. That was three corners in 49 seconds and nothing to show for them.
A corner call was reversed on an Ohio State review shortly after 67:03. Alleva saved Kuiper at 69:25 and Fraticelli at 70:33, and Fraticelli went wide at 72:09. Barker sent Ohio State’s first overtime shot high at 72:45, and Nicholls saved Maro at 73:57. Rutgers took five shots in the period to Ohio State’s two, and Alleva finished with six saves after conceding to Fraticelli 23 seconds into her afternoon.
Then Ohio State changed goalkeepers again.
Stevens, who had played the first half and made one save, went back in for the shootout. Fraticelli scored on her. Nicholls stopped Barker. Cogdell scored. Nicholls stopped Schipper. Schenck scored, Nicholls stopped Kernechel, and that was the game.
In the shootout against UConn last month, Fraticelli was the only Rutgers player to convert. This time all three did. Rutgers is 2-1 in shootouts this season, has won 10 straight against Ohio State and four straight in Columbus, and leads the all-time series 13-6. It was Rutgers’ third overtime game of the season and the sixth time since 2018 that these two programs have needed extra time.
Seven to Three
Last weekend the penalty corner count ran 18 to six against Rutgers. On Friday it ran seven to three in its favor.
Kernechel inserted all three of Ohio State’s, at 25:06, 27:55 and 32:23, and they produced a defensive save and two blocks. Neither Ohio State goal came off a corner. Golden’s came from open play 7:43 after the last Ohio State insert, and Barker’s came from the stroke.
At the other end, Gandy inserted five of Rutgers’ seven and Vernooij the other two. They produced six shots, three saved, two wide and one in the net. The three in overtime produced nothing. The one that counted was Vernooij’s second of the second quarter, stopped at the top for Cogdell and in the net four seconds later.
That is how the goals against Rutgers have been arriving all season.
Cogdell took three of the six corner shots. Four games into the season, this column noted that she had led Rutgers in shots in three of them and had one goal. She scored three goals across her first two seasons at Rutgers. She has five in 13 games this year, and on Friday she scored the program’s first Big Ten goal of the season and the second goal of the shootout.
The Card Count Came Back on the Road
Last week’s card section noted 16 cards in 12 games, three straight clean games, all of them at the Bauer Complex, and the observation that Friday was in Columbus.
Rutgers took two. Martha Goodridge, green card, 27:47. Lauren Iaccio, green card, 38:59. Ohio State also took two, Schot’s green at 29:52 and Schipper’s at 49:48.
Both Rutgers cards turned into Ohio State chances.
Kernechel inserted a corner eight seconds into Goodridge’s suspension, and Schipper’s shot from it was blocked. Golden scored 67 seconds into Iaccio’s. Iaccio, who did not appear against American, came on to start the third quarter and played 11 minutes. At the other end, Rutgers did not take a shot in the fourth quarter, including the two minutes after Schipper’s card.
That is 18 cards in 13 games. The clean stretch lasted three games, all at home, and the first road game after it produced two cards, a blocked corner and a goal against. Rutgers is home for both games next weekend.
No. 19 Michigan visits the Bauer Complex on Friday at 3 p.m., and Michigan State follows on Sunday. Sunday is Senior Day, and the program will welcome back its letterwinners and mark five years since the 2021 Big Ten Tournament championship team. Rutgers scored two conference goals in one afternoon after none in its first two Big Ten games, and Fraticelli needs one more to pass Yaney and stand alone in ninth.
Rutgers found out on Friday that they can give back a two-goal lead in the Big Ten and still win.
No. 19 Michigan asks whether it can keep one, at home, in 60 minutes.
