(Photo and game/team information courtesy Ohio State Athletic Department) 

Ohio State had their eye on the ball for the entire game. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t quite enough.

Unlike the previous mach where all the scoring was in the first period, this contest was scoreless until a Noah Hutchins goal at the 84:55 mark gave Kentucky the 1-0 win. Ohio State drops to 7-8-1, 3-4-0, while Kentucky improves to 8-5-2, 4-2-0 (CUSA).

This was a pretty tight-to-the vest 1st period with each team only getting off two shots. In the 2nd period, Kentucky out-shot Ohio State 9-2 and the Wildcats shots seemed to come in clusters. For example they had shots at the 50:28 mark and at 50:53. Twenty minutes later, they had two shots within 1:16 of one another. The winning goal at 84:55 was preceded by a shot at 82:50. The Buckeyes had their brief flurry at the 79:17 mark (Prosuk) and at 80:11 (Jackson-Ketchup).

This is the 2nd consecutive game where Ohio State has been shut out, 1-0. They have been out-shot 27-12.

Goalie Xavier Kennedy got his second start for Ohio State and again played played pretty well with 5 saves in 6 shots on-goal. Xavier has 4 appearances and 2 starts in his freshman season. Although he’s given up 7 goals (2.17 goals against avg), he’s allowed only three goal his last two starts (1.50 GA). So, he is improving. Unfortunately, he’s getting no help at the offensive end since the Buckeyes have been shut out Xavier’s two starts.

Briefly getting back to the offense, Nate Kohl and Joshua Jackson-Ketchup led Ohio State’s attack with 2 shots each. Michael Prosuk and Abdi Mohamed each had 1 shot. Prosuk was the only Buckeye to have a shot on goal.

Streaks

After having a six match winning streak in September, the Buckeyes are now on an October losing streak of seven matches. Ohio State’s next opponent, Wisconsin, has not won in almost four weeks with two losses and two ties. Now would be a good time to fire up the offense to get some momentum going into the Big Ten tournament the first week of November.

Next Up

Ohio State hosts Wisconsin Sunday afternoon at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. This will be Senior Day, so you may want to head over to take in the match. The match kicks off at 1:00 pm ET. This is the final regular season contest.

The Badgers are 7-4-4, 3-3-1 at this point. They score 2.00 goals per match and allow 1.47. They are averaging 13.4 shots per game and allowing 13.5. They are accurate with 42.8% of their shots on goal and are allowing 44.3% of opponent shots on goal.

This appears as if it could be a wide open game. Ohio State better bring its offense, because Wisconsin will. And, it looks to be a effective offense.