On a beautifully sunny day at South Haven's Ratcliffe Field, the visiting Bulldogs of Otsego shone bright in a 9-1 mercy rule victory. The Dawgs had been in a bit of a funk the last week and a half, not quite playing up to their potential and having a tough time finding consistency. This was just the performance the girls needed to break out of that slump and head into next week's three match slate with the belief that they can rack up goals, control the tempo of a match, and play solid defensively.

The first ten minutes of the match were controlled by the Bulldogs, who were attacking at better than a shot-per-minute clip. Gracie VerHage hit the woodwork with 4 of those shots before finding the back of the net in the 11th minute. Five minutes later, the Rams took advantage of a turnover in midfield and played a long ball in behind the Otsego defense. A bit of confusion between goalkeeper Ambre Powell and her defenders opened the door for South Haven to level the score at 1 apiece. Knotted at 1, with Otsego carrying the majority of the play, the visitors continued to take players on and test the South Haven defensive line. On 22 minutes Sophomore midfielder Lauren Nieboer slipped a beautiful pass in to Drobny who tucked the ball into the corner of the net from close range. Erica quickly extended the lead to 3-1 as she picked up an errant pass inside her own half and dribbled 55 yards through the heart of the Rams defense to score her second goal in the span of 90 seconds. 

The Bulldogs were a bit unlucky for the next ten minutes placing numerous shots just wide or high, and forcing the South Haven goalkeeper to make a couple crucial saves. Gracie VerHage would use the final three minutes of the first half to put on a dribbling skills clinic and complete her first half hat trick. Both goals began with Gracie receiving the ball just outside the 18 yard box, cutting and weaving through defenders, and opening herself up for a nice finish inside 8 yards. Gracie doesn't miss from that kind of range, and she helped to send her squad into halftime 5-1 up.

The girls reminded each other of a few of their team goals during the halftime intermission, and the coaches encouraged them to go be as dominant as possible in achieving those. Though the second half saw more of the same Otsego dominance with the ball, and South Haven drive and sharpness on the counter attack, the goals that went in were less than ordinary. Freshman Cassidy Engels helped to begin the scoring with an intricate bit of footwork to get into the box, forcing the South Haven defender to bring her down drawing a penalty kick. Gracie made no mistake in putting it by the South Haven keeper, and the score was 6-1. Sophomore midfielder McKenzie Milton came off the bench in the second half to add the spark that Otsego needed to finish the game off. Milton had picked up a knock to her ankle in training, and re-aggravated it after a hard challenge in the first half. After some quick work by the SH athletic trainer she was back in and winning balls all over the pitch. Her beautifully lofted first time cross was headed home by Erica Drobny to give the Bulldogs a 7-1 lead. This was Milton's first assist on the year, and Erica's third goal of the match. 

After an unfortunate injury to the South Haven goalkeeper, the Bulldogs smelled blood and Drobny popped two goals in to finish the night early with a mercy rule victory. An all-around team performance, and scoring explosions from two of our Captains (Drobny-5G; VerHage-4G) led to the much needed dominant victory that the Dawgs had been searching for in recent matches. 

Shots were dominated by Otsego 41-4 with 27 of them being on frame. The South Haven starting keeper had 13 big saves, and the posts and crossbar came to her rescue 5 times. Ambre Powell, in her second Varsity start recorded 2 saves for the victory. Assists were added by Milton, Engels, and Nieboer. Player of the Game honors went to the entire back line for their controlled and confident play.