Oct. 26, 2007

By Tim Glon

COLUMBUS — Ohio Northern won the 2007 Ohio Athletic Conference regular season championship with a 3-1 victory at Capital Friday afternoon at Bernlohr Stadium.

The Polar Bears won the league title with an undefeated 8-0-1 record and end their regular season at 11-4-2 overall.

The Crusaders end their regular season 12-5-1, 7-2.

The OAC regular season title is the third in school history for Ohio Northern and the first since 1998.

The 8-0-1 league record is also the first time that ONU has finished the regular season undefeated, as Northern won its 1998 and 1991 championships with 8-1 marks.

The Polar Bears will earn a first round bye and host a semifinal match of the OAC Tournament Thursday at 2 pm at the ONU Soccer Field.

Northern enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed. ONU would host tournament finals are on Saturday with a victory in the semifinals.

After a scoreless first half, the Polar Bears took a 1-0 lead when Erin Stapp scored from close range off an assist from Kaitlin Sanders with 3:20 gone in the period.

The goal was the seventh of the season for Stapp.

Northern made it 2-0 when Jamie Eiben scored off an assist from Angie Pisut at the 59:44 mark. Eiben's goal was her sixth of the season.

The Polar Bears put the match away when Pisut scored her team-best 13th goal of the season from 15 yards out off a nifty pass from Eiben with 14:57 left in the match.

Capital pulled within 3-1 when Paige Prescot scored with 12:22 remaining.

Barbie Kreiger had five saves in goal for Ohio Northern, while Sherry Lyle had eight saves for the Crusaders.

CU out-shot ONU 17-15.

"I'm so proud of these girls," said head coach Mark Batman. "We came out a little flat in the first half, but we really took it to them in the second half. We played hard all season and these girls really earned this."