Central Michigan University
Oakland
Chippewas Open With a Draw
8/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
ROCHESTER, Mich. - Alexis Pelafas and Samantha Maher scored the Central Michigan goals Sunday as the CMU women's soccer team played Oakland to a 2-2 double-overtime draw in the Chippewas' season-opening match at Oakland Soccer Field.
"It's a good first step for the team," third-year CMU coach Peter McGahey said. "I thought the team responded very well to adversity throughout the game."
The Chippewas play at Nebraska and at Creighton in non-conference matches next weekend.
Oakland (0-1-1), which was picked to finish second in the Horizon League preseason poll, outshot the Chippewas 21-13. But CMU held a 3-0 edge in the overtime periods.
The Grizzlies finished with six corner kicks to CMU's five. In the extra sessions, the Chippewas had two corners while Oakland had none.
Senior Maddy Bunnell made 11 saves in goal for CMU, one shy of her career high which she set last season at Illinois State. Oakland keeper Alison Howard made five saves.
Alice Palmer gave OU a 1-0 lead at the 11-minute, 48-second mark when she scored off a corner kick.
The Chippewas responded seven minutes later when a pair of freshmen, Pelafas and Madison Pogarch, combined for their first collegiate points to tie it at a goal apiece.
"Pogarch broke in, persisted through a couple of tackles, and served the ball off the left flank and Alexis headed it home," McGahey said. "The goal was well earned and very well taken."
Less than three minutes later, junior Samantha Maher scored off a Christen Chiesa corner kick to put the Chippewas up, 2-1.
"Sam's goal off a corner kick was a really good composed finish to slot the ball," McGahey said. "Good bit of skill and a good bit of confidence. I thought she was a player who, over the course of the game, did a really job. She's playing a new position and in a new role for us."
Brianne Horne scored on a penalty kick in the 76th minute to knot it 2-2.
The game was delayed for about 45 minutes because of a tornado warning between the end of regulation time and the start of overtime.
"It's incredibly difficult to re-warm up the legs, but I thought we did an incredible job of getting after it," McGahey said. "After you give away the PK (goal), momentum's clearly with Oakland and we held on to take the point.
"The silver lining today was we got some good performances, got some grass stains on our socks and responded well to the difficulties as they came. I felt like we responded well to both the OT and the weather delay.
"Good performances from a lot of newcomers today. You could really see some of the high ceilings that exist and that's really exciting."
