The Ohio State University Field Hockey team defeat Miami 3-2 at Varsity Field, The Ohio State University. September 5, 2014 Credit: Courtesy of OSU athletics

The Ohio State University Field Hockey team defeat Miami 3-2 at Varsity Field, The Ohio State University. September 5, 2014
Credit: Courtesy of OSU athletics

On her parents’ 33rd wedding anniversary, Ohio State freshman forward Maddy Humphrey scored the first two goals of her OSU career and assisted on another to lead the OSU field hockey team to its first win of the season.

The Buckeyes won, 3-2, against Miami (Ohio) on Friday behind Humphrey’s brace and a goal from junior back Emma Royce.

“Those two (goals) are for them,” Humphrey said about her parents in attendance.

OSU picked up the win despite being outshot, 15-2, by the Redhawks in the second half.

“It feels awesome. I love this team more than anything,” Humphrey said. “We’re just a family, and I’ll do anything for them. We’d do anything for each other.”

The Buckeyes came out aggressively looking for shots and struck less than 12 minutes into the game. After being denied twice early, Humphrey snuck in front of the cage and converted off a pass from senior midfielder Kaitlyn Wagner to put OSU in front.

OSU possessed the ball for much of the first half, but Miami responded with more than eight minutes remaining in the period on a goal from sophomore midfielder Geagy Pritchard from the left corner.

The Buckeyes were not satisfied with a halftime tie, however. With 6:31 to play in the first half, Humphrey showed some of her ball-handling skills. She maneuvered into the scoring zone, hurdled a defender and fired a shot from right to left to put OSU back on top, 2-1.

The third Buckeye goal of the game came with a little more than three minutes to play in the first half when Royce converted off a penalty corner from Humphrey.

“I was really proud of (Humphrey) because she put away goals when we most needed it,” Royce said. “Her goal actually fired me up for scoring the third.”

Humphrey was slowed down in the second half after receiving a shoulder to the chest area early in the period. She returned to the game, but was visibly winded on the field and had to leave the game again.

Miami mounted a late comeback behind an unassisted goal from Pritchard with just over four minutes to play. However, the Buckeyes held on for the 3-2 victory behind solid goalkeeping from freshman Liz Tamburro, who saved 10 shots in the second half.

OSU is scheduled to have a week off before its next game against the Ohio University Bobcats on Friday.

Royce said it is important that OSU uses the extra time to work on keeping its defensive pressure up for a full 70 minutes of play.

“(Miami) got that second goal in and that put a lot more pressure on us that we didn’t need,” Royce said. “We’re gonna be tightening up the defense and keep working on putting those goals away.”

OSU coach Anne Wilkinson said she’s going to let her team get some recovery time in after a hard-earned victory.

“I’m gonna just let them relax and let their bodies repair,” Wilkinson said. “We’ve really been going hard through this entire preseason so we’ll let them just relax a little bit.”

The Buckeyes’ game against Ohio is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Athens, Ohio.