Evening Sun Report

TIOGA – Oxford’s field hockey team did not come close to scoring a goal the first 56 1/2 minutes of its Class C sectional game with Tioga. That is, until head coach Missy Nelson made a strategic change.

The Blackhawks registered just two shots on goal, but made them both count to advance past the Tigers 2-1 Thursday. The Blackhawks play at top-seeded Marathon Wednesday.

“It was looking very bleak to me, then all of a sudden, bam, bam, bam,” Nelson said. “It was a shock to me.”

The turnaround started when senior defender Erin Law had to take a seat with five minutes left in regulation after suffering a leg injury. Law sat out a minute of play and was asked an important question by Nelson before taking the field. “Erin has never played anything other than defense, but I told her we needed something different to happen and I asked her if she thought she could play forward for me,” Nelson recalled. “She is a senior and it could be her last game, and she said she could do it.”