Ottawa’s Georgia Kirkpatrick scores twice in 3-0 win over Princeton

PRINCETON — Already having given her squad a one-goal lead, Ottawa freshman Georgia Patrick quickly turned a steal just inside the Princeton defensive third into a hard left-footed shoot from around 40 yards out.

A split-second later the ball was nestling into the very top left corner of the goal.

“I just remember shooting it and falling down, but I did see it go in,” Kirkpatrick said of the highlight-reel score. “It was pretty exciting.”

Ottawa held the two-goal lead until halftime, then added a third tally just over five minutes into the second half and eventually posted a 3-0 win over the Tigresses at Bryant Field on Friday.

The victory improved the Pirates to 4-7 overall, while Princeton dropped to 7-9.

“I feel like regardless of the results on the scoreboard we’ve seen this season we’ve progressed as a team, gotten better,” Ottawa coach Kevin Olesen said. “This is the time of the season where things should start clicking and they are for us.

“I loved the way we transitioned from offense to defense and defense to offense. In the first half we did a great job of spacing the field in the offensive third and that allowed us to a get a number of really good shots on net. Our defense played a very overall great match as well.”

Ottawa, which held a 20-12 overall advantage in shots, including 11-8 on goal, took the lead for good in the 14th minute on Kirkpatrick’s 15-yard shot from the right wing that got past Princeton keeper Maddie Oertel (eight saves). After Kirkpatrick’s aforementioned second tally, Princeton had a prime chance to cut the lead in half with two minutes before the break, put had a penalty shot sail wide and over the crossbar.

“We got off to a very slow start today,” Princeton coach David Gray said. “I feel like we came into this match too casual, and Ottawa came out ready to play. We struggled in the first half to get the ball cleared out of our own end and allowed Ottawa to pack us in defensively. We didn’t really start getting out of our funk until 10 minutes left in the first half and by then they were up two goals.

“I thought we did a better job in the second half of being the aggressors, moving our feet, finding feet with passes and created a number of pretty good chances, but we just we unable to convert them into goals.”

The Pirates scored for the third time 4 minutes and 19 seconds into the second half as a Kirkpatrick midfield steal and lead pass found Kindley Moore running up the east sideline. Moore then found Chloe Caroma running down the center of the field and Carmona chipped to ball past a rushing Oertel.

“Both of Georgia’s goals were very solid efforts on her part, but our third goal was just as fantastic because of the fact that everyone in that sequence did exactly what we’ve been working on since the first day of practice,” Olesen said. “That one was great to see.”

Olesen also credited his backline defenders Sienna Banushi, Taylor Brandt and Bella Petty, as well as keeper Shaelyn Miller (eight saves) for their solid play.

“We had really good teamwork today and that was a big reason we won the match,” Kirkpatrick said. “We all played together and did the things we’re supposed to do. We’ve gotten better progressively throughout the season and our goal is to keep doing that with every match we play.”

Princeton is quickly back in action at the Bryon Tournament on Saturday. Ottawa is at Morris on Monday in an Interstate 8 Conference match.