Toledo dominates opening weekend

The University of Toledo women’s soccer team kicked off its first two home games of the season this weekend. UT took a 3-1 win over Oakland on Friday and shut out Wright State 2-0 on Sunday.

Toledo (2-5-0) got the scoring going early and often against Oakland, running out to a three goal lead goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.

Junior Kirsten Johnson started off the scoring with a goal in the 7th minute from the middle of the box. A minute later sophomore Regan Price earned her first goal of the season after the ball hit of the post and bounced toward the back of the net.

The Rockets kept attacking as Johnson recorded her first brace as a Rocket, scoring in the 11th minute.

“We just fired on all cylinders. It was fun to see,” Head Coach T.J Buchholz said. “It has been a progression all year; we’ve been knocking on the door all year and it finally clicked.”

The Rockets were in another physical match as UT committed 19 fouls and Oakland 16. Toledo was shown two cards, sophomore Isa Escheverri was shown a yellow card in the 34th minute and junior Lauren Taylor was given a red card right before the half in the 43rd minute.

The Rocket offense suffered in the second half resulting from the red card to Taylor. Being a player down, UT was unable to keep up the attacking pressure.

The Golden Grizzlies capitalized on this disadvantage with a goal from Joan Seija in the 78th minute, canceling the shutout. Toledo’s defense was stone cold, not letting another shot go by for the rest of the game.

“We’ve played strong defensively the past couple of games but we were more consistent this game,” Buchholz said.

On Sunday, the Rockets would earn their first shutout of the season defeating Wright State 1-0.

Toledo junior Brooke Maletic scored the only goal of the match finding the game winning goal in the 85th minute.

“The goal was crossed in by Kirsten Johnson and deflected by Isa Eschverri,” Buchholz said. “Brooke was right there, shot it and it deflected off of a defender.”

The tone of this match differed from the previous game. The first half was a slow defensive battle, with not a lot of chances from either team. There were 10 shots in the first half with five apiece. Senior goalie Sam Tiongson had five saves in the match.

The pace of the match quickened in the second half as Toledo applied more attacking pressure. UT would outshoot the Raiders 7-3 with the last shot being the goal by Maletic.

“The momentum will carry,” Buchholz said. “Anytime you get two wins, your confidence goes up. I like how our team is playing so hopefully we can get a win on Sunday [at Northern Kentucky].”

The Rockets will return to the road on Sunday for their final non-conference matchup against Northern Kentucky at 1 p.m..