Sept. 4, 2005

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ATHENS, Ohio - The Ohio offense exploded for a 5-1 victory over Cleveland State in a women's soccer match at Chessa Field on Sunday. Junior forward Tiffany Horvath (Strongsville, Ohio) scored two goals while three other Bobcats - Maggie Rojas-Alford (Minnetonka, Minn.), Stephanie Crosby (Cincinnati) and Alyssa Zimmerman (Troy, Ohio) - all recorded their first collegiate goals.

Precisely 12 minutes into the game, Horvath took a pass from freshman midfielder Erika Schmitt (Wyoming, Ohio), turned and fired a shot from 15 yards out that bent into the upper left corner of the net, giving Ohio an early 1-0 lead.

"I crossed the ball in originally and I was just bouncing around the box," said Horvath. "Erika had it up top, beat her player and then left it for me. I just shot it and it curled right in upper 90."

With just over five minutes before halftime, the Bobcats struck again as junior defender Larissa Najjar set up Rojas-Alford for her first career score to put Ohio up 2-0 at the break.

"Larissa wanted me to play quick so she played me the ball," said the freshman forward. "I took a couple touches, looked up and saw not too many people in the box so I just took a shot and it went side netting."

After a Cleveland State goal by Abbie Kakias early in the second half made it 2-1, the Bobcats reeled off three goals within a span of 20 minutes to put the game away. The first of those three came when Rojas-Alford was dragged down in the box, resulting in a successful penalty kick by Horvath in the 67th minute.

Just over five minutes later, Crosby found the ball at her feet when a corner kick bounced off Viking goalkeeper Erin Withrow's hands. The sophomore forward tapped it in for a 4-1 advantage. The game's final goal came in the 85th minute when Najjar dribbled through the Cleveland State defense and slid a ball out to a wide-open Zimmerman, who finished it off from five yards out.

"We had more movement off the ball and I think that we were just more ambitious with our attack," said Ohio head coach Stacy Strauss about her team's overall performance on Sunday. "Our midfield and our forwards got wider earlier and that opened up the space and we were able to get some serves off of that and we were able to find our forwards' feet better, especially in the second half."

Until Sunday, the Bobcats had not scored five goals in a game since a 5-1 victory over Northern Illinois on Sept. 20, 2002. That game three years ago actually marked the fourth straight match Ohio had scored five goals in a game, their best four-game output of all-time.

With Sunday's win, the Bobcats improved their record to 2-1 while the Vikings fell to 0-3 on the season. Ohio's next match will be a 4 p.m. home contest against Michigan on Friday. All regular-season home matches at Chessa Field are free and open to the public.