Last Saturday at Memorial Stadium the Otterbein women's soccer team unleashed a record-setting performance against the Manchester Spartans of Indiana. Otterbein controlled the game from start to finish, beating the Spartans 9-0.
The first record of the game to fall was the quickest goal to ever be scored in OAC history. Junior Erica Meier beat the Spartan keeper on an assist from Senior Megan McCabe to put the Cardinals on the board just 12 seconds into the game. The previous record was 14 seconds which had been achieved twice in conference history.
Meier scored again in the 14th minute off another assist from McCabe. The third and fourth goals of the first half for Otterbein both came from freshman standout Hayley Hotchkiss. The first one came in the 15th minute off of an assist from Meier, it was her first career goal at Otterbein. The second was the second record-breaking goal of the game. It was the 800th in the program’s history.
The Cardinals would score three more times before the half, taking a 7-0 lead into the break. Goals came from junior Madison Burchfield, freshman Emma Haussler and freshman Jennie Wenger respectively. Freshman Makenna Allman and Junior Ashley Meade scored the two goals for Otterbein in the second half bringing them to the 9-0 victory.
Since that victory, the Cardinals have split two results, losing 2-0 on the road against Kenyon before coming back home to defeat Mount Saint Joseph 2-1. Burchfield scored the first goal of the game against Mount Saint Joseph in the first half, but the lions answered just 30 seconds later evening the score at one apiece. Hotchkiss would come up big for Otterbein before the end of the half with what would turn out to be the game winning score in the 2-1 win.
When asked about her role on the team as a freshman, Hotchkiss said "I'm very pleased with the amount of playing time that I've received. The fact that I've been able to contribute some goals and an assist is fantastic."
"It was really cool scoring back-to-back goals that game and that’s all I was really thinking about, not that it was the 800th goal," Hotchkiss said. "I feel very honored."
She then went over Sunday's winning goal "When [Erica] got the ball I made a run around her on the opposite to open up some space. I called for it and she played me a great ball. I took a touch then aimed for the back post and it went in."
Coach Brandon Coons spoke about the upcoming OAC opener, "After we lost a couple games and our chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament went away, it was time to mess around, tinker with some things, try some people in different places. If you look at our lineup today it was massively different than any we've had up to this point. We're going to try some things on Wednesday, but then we should have it all sorted out."
He also spoke about the freshman "Our freshman group is awesome, they play all the roles we want them to play. They're great kids, they just say what can I do today and then they go do it. They've been a great addition."
With the win, Otterbein improves their record to 3-4 on the season. They will play at Hiram on Wednesday before they open up the OAC season against Heidelberg.
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