Michigan offense enough in 2-1 victory over Wake Forest

Without strong action from offense, it’s impossible to score goals and win games. And on Sunday, the Michigan field hockey team kept that in mind.

Against No. 18 Wake Forest (0-2) No. 12 Michigan’s (1-1 overall) offense fired the ball left-and-right to come out with a 2-1 win.

Just a day earlier, the Wolverines’ offense struggled in the season opener against No 2. North Carolina. With 12 shots attempted, but only three on goal, Michigan’s offense is currently in the development phase.

“It’s harder than it looks,” Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz said Sunday. “As the season goes along, it’s like anything, even in football, the offense takes a little bit longer than the defense because it’s a more finite (and) difficult thing.”

Offensively, the Wolverines started off quietly as the Demon Deacons’ defense snatched possession of the ball away with forcing turnovers and intercepting passes. Until the last few minutes, the first quarter was focused more on the passing game. Just before the 13th minute, Wake Forest fired the ball into the net for the first goal.

While that goal created a deficit for Michigan, it also lit a fire under its offense. A minute later, the Wolverines responded with a goal of their own from graduate forward Kate McLaughlin on the left post, tying the game at one. 

The second quarter started off with more action for Michigan. The Wolverines went on a six-shot streak beginning in the 19th minute off of a penalty corner by McLaughlin that ended up with no goal as the ball was saved by the goalie each time. Michigan’s last offensive opportunity came two minutes later with a shot from Tamer, but it wasn’t much of a threat as the ball went wide. Nevertheless, the Wolverines’ offense was heating up.

“I think really focusing in practice on getting the goals in the net and getting the passes stick to stick so that we were ready to go for today,”  McLaughlin said. “We trusted the process. We trusted everyone’s ball movement and it really just led to success.”

At the start of the third quarter, Michigan picked up where it left off from the second quarter: a seven-shot streak that started on a penalty corner from McLaughlin and ended on a wide shot, this time by senior forward Alana Richardson. Three seconds before the quarter ended, Tamer scored the game-winning goal off of a hard pass. While the pass was deflected off a Deacons player, it didn’t matter as Tamer quickly regained possession of the ball and slotted it to the right side of the net.

Michigan’s offense was significantly quieter in the fourth quarter, only shooting the ball twice, but it didn’t matter as Wake Forest’s offense failed to pose a threat to the Wolverines’ slight lead because of Michigan’s defense putting pressure on the Deacons’ offense.

“We knew that we were up, but there was still a lot of time left in the game, so we had to control the ball,” McLaughlin said. “And we had it, and even though we might have lost it, we didn’t lose our cool, and we didn’t freak out that they got the ball… we didn’t let them score so I think that was a great team effort for the last six minutes really trying to not let them get any momentum.”

While the Wolverines’ did lose the ball at times, this development phase is crucial for success later on. While the season is still young, Michigan’s offense has shown that it’s not afraid to take shots. And on Sunday against Wake Forest, the offensive action paid off with a win.

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