OREGON — Bowling Green girls soccer coach Erika Kimple knew that if the Bobcats had a shot at winning a league championship, they had to get past Clay.

Last year, BG finished 8-2 in the Northern Lakes League Cardinal Division, losing both league games to Clay, which finished 10-0 and won a conference title.

Clay was also the BG boys soccer team’s nemesis, but on Tuesday the Bobcats defeated the Eagles, 6-1, at Bobcat Stadium behind Tomas Meek, who scored four goals and had an assist. Jack Hover and Hayden Fox also scored, Adin Metzger dished out two assists, and Hover and Owen Cleland had assists.

On Ted Federici Field at Clay Memorial Stadium Wednesday, the BG girls did not have the same fortune, falling to the defending champs, 3-0.

It didn’t help that BG was down three starters less than 13 minutes into the game.

A starter was scratched at gametime, then less than 10 minutes into the game a defender went down after making a non-goalie save to keep the game scoreless, and senior captain midfielder Ella Koester left the game with an injury with 28:26 left in the first half.

“I thought if we hadn’t lost two of our starters in the first 15 minutes — we were down three starters just after the start of the game, and that affects them,” Kimple said.

However, Kimple liked the fight she saw in her team, even though they lost their second straight game by an identical 3-0 score.

On Saturday, the Bobcats fell to Lima Shawnee, 3-0. Shawnee (Western Buckey League) and Clay are perennially strong programs in their respective leagues.

“I thought they played hard. Everything I asked them to do was great,” Kimple said. “They made all the improvements I asked from them from (Lima) Shawnee (game). There was a lot of frustration with this game, but I’m not frustrated with the girls. I thought they played great.”

The game remained scoreless for nearly 32 minutes, although Clay had nine first half corner kick opportunities to BG’s none and outshot the Bobcats, 6-1.

“About 10 minutes into the match I said to my assistant coach, ‘It looks like two equal teams to me,’” said Clay veteran coach Don “Duck” Hess. “Who is going to make a play here or there?”

Finally, off a throw-in, Clay senior midfielder Addison Csehi headed the ball past BG freshman goalkeeper Kylah Crawford with 8:16 remaining in the first half.

BG remained just one goal down until the 65th minute of the game, and there were scoring opportunities for the Bobcats on rare occasions.

Finally, a 15-yard shot by Clay junior midfielder Olivia Haas found the back of the net to put the Eagles up, 2-0, with 14:23 remaining, and BG had to go from a possession game to a direct game to have a shot at scoring twice in the waning minutes.

Hess, who saw his team gets its first win of the season after two losses, saw his offense finally come alive.

“It was a throw-in with a header off of it, so that helps to have the short field on plays like that, and we Addy Csehi, who made a play,” Hess said.

“Then Olivia Haas, who is a two-year starter, she was an outside back for the first two games, and we were just not getting it done in the middle of the field, so we tried her at holding mid in the first half, and then said, to heck with it, let’s start her at the attacking mid, and she did a really nice job and got that second goal.”

Clay senior defender Gianna Cuttaia sent a long direct free kick from midfield, which was handled by sophomore midfielder Aleah Simon, scoring the third goal with 3:23 showing on the clock.

Clay outshot BG 16-5, including 13-4 in shots on goal, fully exposing BG’s lack of offense, which still has not scored this season.

“If we get our players that we lost at the beginning healthy, I think it makes a huge difference in our attack,” Kimple said. “I thought we defended great. We just didn’t have much of an attack. We had moments, but we didn’t have much, and we were missing some strong attackers, so we had to do what we had to do.”

Crawford finished with 10 saves and Clay sophomore keeper Rily Chambers needed just four saves to complete the shutout.

BG junior forward Josie Rigel had the Bobcats’ only shot on goal in the first half, and senior midfielder Claire Rieman and sophomore midfielder Corinna Kramer had second half scoring opportunities saved by Chambers.

A clean first half saw not a single free kick because there were no fouls of any kind, but the second half saw 14 fouls, including eight whistled against Clay and six against BG.

BG senior midfielder Katie Howick and freshman defender Hayley Baker both came off the bench to provide a spark by booting free kicks, and senior midfielder Allison Wiles filled one of the starting positions vacated by one of the team’s injured players.

For Hess, it was nice to get in the black after season opening losses to Sylvania Northview and Rocky River Magnificat.

“Winning is more fun, that is for sure,” Hess said. “Two real good opponents that we played, and those girls know soccer and they are good at it.”

However, Hess warned his girls that BG will seek revenge when the two meet again in league play at 7 p.m. on September 15 at Bobcat Stadium, complimenting Kimple and how far the BG program has come after last year’s winning season and runner-up league finish.

“I just love the way they work, and I think the coach has them going in the right direction,” Hess said. “They will be better.”