I’m on another vacation week. While I’m off until next Tuesday, the Aggie Soccer girls will be working
their tails off with three games in seven days, of which I hope to attend all
of them. In honesty, I didn’t pick this
week for the soccer. The soccer
scheduling was just a coincidence.
Otherwise, I probably would have picked a week with a mid-week
volleyball game.
It was a beautiful day without literally a cloud in the
sky. The announced game time temperature
was 87 degrees. It was warm, but a
steady, light breeze kept it from being miserable. The 2:00pm start put the sun behind the
stands and easy to cover up from. It was
a light crowd of friends, family, hardcore fans (is that me now?), and the old
man. Mario Moccia said on the Coaches’ show that the soccer team had
already exceeded attendance goals for the season, probably due mostly to having
1,600 fans hosting UTEP and UNM.
I have to admit there were several handsome young men
there. Movie star handsome even. They may have been with the baseball
team. (I thought I heard some hitting
going on at the nearby ballpark when I came in.) A couple of members of the softball team were
there. I hesitate to name them, since I
might be wrong. It wasn’t Kelsey Horton or Kayla Green, which might have motivated me to go over and chat. There weren’t any kids present. This had the bad side effect of not having
any ball kids to shag the balls down, especially behind the goals. At one point, a goalie had to go get a ball
that went up the hill behind the north goal.
The referee had to ask someone to put balls by the goals. A security officer was retrieving balls in
the second half. Given the number of
staff present at the match, this was an embarrassingly overlooked game
detail.
Introductions were interesting. The referees were introduced. I gave them polite applause, as I usually do,
and was the only one doing so. There
were few enough people there that they actually acknowledged me. (These guys did a pretty good job this
afternoon, if lack of heckling from the crowd is a good indicator.) The Arizona
Christian (ACU) Firestorm goalie was the obvious standout in the
lineup. Tahlia Miears was listed a 6’ on the program (and thank you to
whoever does the stat-filled soccer program and please takeover doing the
volleyball programs), but she was literally a head taller than everyone else on
field, including the four male referees.
The rest of the team looked fairly small and wiry.
On the Aggie side, keeper, Dmitri Fong, was back. From
the program schedule, she must have been back since the SMU game last
week. Audriana (Audrey) Chavez, Rebecca
(Becca) Mazzie, and Devin Hart
started. I didn’t recognize the
rest. Aileen Galicia was not in. Reilly Marks was still not in
uniform. But here’s the main question
for this Monday afternoon game: Why weren’t these girls in class?
First Half
You couldn’t miss the change in the net. Dmitri was very vocal with the team and took
charge. Early in the half, she came out
of the box in a risky-looking move to kick the ball away, and did so without
any hesitation. Dmitri’s a red-shirt
freshman with a lot of leadership qualities.
It was also quiet enough with the small crowd to also hear the Aggie
bench occasionally pipe up with an “Aggie Up!” cheer. There was more chatter on the field too. At one point, I was startled by a guy’s voice
yelling across the field. It was the
coach, soft-spoken, Freddy Delgado. The old man was also chiming in with a
taunting, “Aggie Ball! Aggie Ball!”
Another change with the Aggies was that they were much more
aggressive than I’ve seen them. They
were offsides on a good chance with 36’ left in the half. Their effort paid off at 35’ on a Devin Hart goal. It was a good, coordinated attack in front of
the net that the goalie had little chance on.
1-0 Aggies. ACU drove right back down the field and just
missed on a shot in front of the net at 31’.
The Aggies got in a couple of weak shots at 27’. An ACU breakaway came back on the second one. A foul was committed in the box to stop the
shot. The penalty kick missed wide
right. Whew! Dmitri did have it tracked right. A couple of minutes later, she made another
risky kick with opposing players around her.
She has no fear.
22’ the Aggies got a couple of corners in a row, but nothing
came of them. 24’ Mariah Baker (and her great hair, as Jim Rome would say, “What a head of lettuce,”) and Tuti Tirado came in as subs. Either one or the both of them got
wolf-whistled as they came on. That had
to be embarrassing and provocative for the girls. 17’ Becca got in a shot that was turned away. That started a two-on-one ACU breakaway that
was broken up. 14’ had another such
breakaway. Dmitri screamed at the girls
after that. 13’ an ACU free kick from
outside the box just went high and wide.
8’ Dmitri came out and stopped a breakaway. The Aggies made a good attempt inside the
last minute, but it was 1-0 going into halftime.
Halftime
The Aggies were up 6 shots to 1 on goal, so they were pretty
aggressive. The Firestorm was still
getting their chances. Two fans behind
me that I’m tagging as Angry Mom and Angry Dad, didn’t find much to criticize
this half. The girls may have been
yelling at each other more.
There wasn’t any halftime entertainment, not even any kids
playing around the goals. However, there
was a student giveaway. A tandem stadium
seat set with an umbrella was brought out.
The PA said, “Make some noise and show us your moves, and this is
yours!” A couple of the handsome guys
jumped up and yelled and sort of danced.
The set was handed to them without any delay. They took it right out on the field and sat
on it. This was actually a heck of a
gift, worth $100 (as per a staff member’s comment). Thank you Gatorade for your sponsorship.
Second Half
The Aggies started right off attacking (as did some bugs swarming
around my face). Their second attack at
43’ left in the half had Devin Hart again in front of the goal in a
one-on-one. Goooooal! 2-0
Aggies. Becca and Devin made a
couple of more shots over the next few minutes.
It was an onslaught. 34’ Audrey
made a great header into the net, but it was waved off on an offsides. She was rubbing her head afterward.
Okay, suddenly out of nowhere ACU had their own one-on-one
in the Aggie end. Dmitri stayed back on
this one, but the ball flew into the top corner, out of reach. 27’ Veronica
Cruz made it 2-1 Aggies. The Aggies started stumbling on offense and
falling back into passing the ball backward and not facing the opponent’s
goal. Then it happened, the moment I’d
been waiting for. Angry Mom shouted out
to Audrey, “Come on, #3!” At which
point, Audrey turned around, looked up at the stands, shrugged her shoulders
and threw up her hands, What! It was worth showing up just for that. I kind of presume these two knew each other
in some way.
19’ Tuti came in for Devin.
I was sort of hoping to see a hat trick.
A minute later, Tuti was almost fist-fighting with a much taller player
moving the ball into the ACU end. 15’
the ACU goalie got caught outside of the net, but the Aggies couldn’t finish the
play. 12’ ACU caught Dmitri out of the
net. The ball was kicked away, but not
cleared. With a second chance in front
of the net, Dmitri had no chance and Marisa
Ortiz tied it at 2.
Devin was put right back in.
6’ the tall ACU goalie kicked one over the stands. I’d noticed that another player was actually
doing all of static goalie kicks for her this half. Maybe there was a reason for that. 4’ an Aggie player got carded for rough play
by the sidelines, didn’t see who. The
Aggies picked up the intensity. 3’ Becca
made a shot on goal. 1’ Devin passed to
Audrey for another good shot. Just
before time expired, Devin got off a shot outside box that just missed. Shots on goal at regulation: Aggies 13,
Firestorm 7.
Overtime 1
By this point, my butt was getting sore, even with a seat
and a cushion. Extra soccer was not a
welcome development. One minute in and
the match almost ended. Dmitri came out
to stop a shot and the ball got past her.
Another player managed to kick it out.
7’ Devin to Audrey again for a good chance in front of the goal. Finally, 5’ Audrey in the box repeats her
header shot from earlier and this time it was good. Goooooal!
And a 3-2 Aggie win! And she paid the price. Audrey got leveled to the ground after the
shot. The girls went over to
congratulate her and quickly called for the trainers and the coach. After about 10 minutes, she was finally able
to get up and could only painfully hobble.
The rest of the team came to midfield while Audrey was still
down. They thanked the fans, while still
looking off to the side at her prone form.
The handsome guys stuck around, and I got impression they might have
girlfriends on the team. I didn’t stick around
to find out. I did see Aileen. She was limping with an ankle heavily
wrapped. Two good players down and two
more games this week. I never even saw Cristina Bertoldo. If there’s one thing that could drive me away
from watching women’s sports, it’s seeing these girls get injured. Well, conference play starts Friday afternoon. I hope to be there.
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