It was a tale of two halves. And boy howdy, did the second half favor the Buckeyes. Ohio State didn't play clean all game, racking up an insane amount of turnovers (22), but the Buckeyes really kicked it into high gear in the final 30 to score in bunches. And they earned a much bigger win than I anticipated they would have.
It all started with Jack Myers. Myers is now a legitimate Tewaraaton candidate, and probably the frontrunner at this point. Myers had an absolutely bananas 11 points for Ohio State today. Remember when I said that OSU had never had a Chris Gray? That was incorrect. Because Myers is better than Chris Gray. And you can see it.
Myers scored 5 goals, dished out 6 assists, and is proving he probably should have been the focal point of Ohio State's offense the moment he stepped on campus. That might be slightly hyperbolic, but not very.
Myers' passing is such a deadly part of his game that it opens up his dodging. And he will get points either way. Myers may not have the career stats by the time his career at OSU is done, but there's no doubting he has evolved into one of the all-time Buckeye greats.
Adding to the cause were Jackson Reid, who was a perfect 4-4 shooting the ball today, and Colby Smith, who recorded a hat-trick on 9 shots. The impact of the return of both Smith and Reid cannot be understated. They are such great pieces in the offense that it will be very hard to replace them when they move on.
Defensively, it was a mixed bag. Ohio State allowed the Crimson to score 12 goals on 38 shots, good for a .315 shooting percentage. That said, the team also forced 20 turnovers by Harvard, only 4 of which were credited as "casued." Say what you want, you're going to have a lot of success when you have an opponent turn the ball over 20 times.
Harvard had tremendous players. Lots more 5-star talent than the Buckeyes. But the defense stood strong time after time. Austin Madronic, a Canadian senior, was the most successful Crimson player, putting up 3 goals and 2 assists. He was 3-8 shooting, however, and only one other player had more than 2 points.
Caton Johnson was solid in goal, putting up 10 saves, but only posting a .455 save percentage. He made the saves Ohio State needed to win, including a stop on Harvard during their late Man Up opportunity. It's really nice to have a solid goalie once again.
Faceoffs were outstanding again. Justin Inacio won 68.9% of his faceoffs, and Drew Blanchard won both of his draws. Can't ask for much more out of that unit.
Special teams were a bit of a letdown this week, but that's because both were functioning so highly above the norm. Buckeyes converted 2 of their 5 opportunities, which is pretty decent, but also allowed Harvard to put up the same mark. One game doesn't make a trend, so we will chalk it up to a bad day today.
I will be honest. I have been extremely critical of Coach Myers for the coaching jobs that have happened in various Buckeye losses since 2017. His assistant hires were not great for a while. This is the best stretch of games we have seen from a coaching standpoint in a long time. The season is young. But the Buckeyes look like real contenders. Onto next week.
Go Bucks!
