I’m making sacrifices here. I was missing NASCAR, F1, and the Chiefs for this game. Wait.
Hold it. I’m really kind of
halfway on all of those sports right now.
Yeah, I’d much rather see adorable Mya
Hammack and the Aggie Soccer
team for the last time this year than those things. I’m happy to be here for the team!
(As long as they win.)
The week started well for Aggie Sports with the 100-th Aggie/Miner
Football game ending in a 28-7
rout by the Aggies in El Paso. Diego Pavia had two passing touchdowns to
Thomaz Whitford and two rushing
touchdowns. Monte Watkins had over a hundred yards rushing. (Diego almost had a hundred. Deion
Hankins had over a hundred for UTEP.) I was listening to El Paso Sports Talk afterward.
Their fans are justifiably furious over their season and even more so that
they lost to the Aggies.
At the end of the week, Aggie Volleyball had a shock loss to Jacksonville State in five sets.
What was the cause? Mari Sharp wasn’t available this
weekend. Our volleyball sweetheart, Maggie Lightheart, started in her place
and performed pretty well for a freshman who’d only had quick inserts in
matches previously. She had 13 kills
with only 4 errors. She also had 5
service errors and only 1 ace. From what
I’ve seen, she seems like a pretty steady server, since that’s how Maggie’s
been used previously.
It was pretty weird looking at the stats. The Aggies had five players with double-digit
kills compared to only two for Jacksonville, and the Aggies had a much higher
attack percentage. The only number that
really jumped out was the service errors.
The Aggies had 18 with only 6 aces.
That was probably the difference.
The Aggies came back with a straight-set win the next day. Ryleigh
Whitekettle led the way with 12 kills.
Back to soccer, it was a brilliant day for a game. It was sunny, sometimes partly cloudy, with a
cool breeze going later in the game.
There was a big tailgate going in the parking lot when I came in. The crowd was officially over 700, but the
grandstand was full. There were lots of
kids, teens, and their parents present.
Fan Tom was here and, strangely, had set up beside the south goal, which
Sam Houston was defending. He changed ends after the half. The Bearkats
did bring a knot of fans with them, who made their presence known during the
game.
The Band was not here.
They were missed. Without them,
you could clearly hear Valerie Guha
in goal for the Aggies. She was
screaming at her teammates for the entire game.
I didn’t notice the Football team here either. I thought there were maybe four guys from Baseball seated behind the north goal. Four girls from Volleyball were here. They walked past me on the stairs a couple of
times. I was not feeling confident
enough to say, “Hello,” as the girls didn’t seem to be in a friendly mood. (If Maggie had been there, I wouldn’t have
cared about her mood. I would have
immediately jumped up to greet her.)
Today’s officials were decked in purple. That was a bold, unprecedented choice. The main ref stood a full head taller than nearly
all of the girls on field. During the
warm ups, I saw the Aggies doing an odd one-leg hopping exercise, sort of like
the Hokey Pokey. The girls looked giddy
and happy to be playing.
First
Half
I could make this recap go a lot quicker if I just said, “Nobody
scored in the first half. There were no
shots on goals and there were two Aggie corner kicks.” That said, there was plenty of action in this
half.
The Aggies dominated on offense at first. They got their two corners in the first 10
minutes. They had a “pop up” shot that
was caught by Savannah Hall, the
Bearkat goalie, and Loma McNeese had
an awkward mis-kick at the goal on the other.
37’ left in the half, Jena
Johanes made a good strip of the ball on an attack, which led to an Aggie
counter. Gia Valenti and a Bearkat defender started grabbing at each other
as Gia got near the goal, which foiled the charge. A couple of minutes later, Xitlaly Hernandez, sporting braids
today, broke up an SH attack by the Aggie goal.
33’ the Aggies made a good, coordinated attack, but it didn’t result in
getting a shot off.
31’ Megan Ormson
took a header off her nose. Ouch! She was rubbing it afterward. 29’ Loma kicked roller on goal that Hall fell
on. A minute later, Mya Gonzales took a shot that went high and wide. Meredith
Scott took a tumble in the Bearkat box afterward. No call.
25’ after an Aggie free kick on the wing into a scrum at the net, the
Aggies apparently scored, but it was immediately waved off by the ref. Offsides?
Handball? I don’t know, but was
no argument on field.
24’ Hall fell on a shot, but lost the ball. The Aggies weren’t in position to make a
follow up shot. SH came with a couple of
attacks. Val got a save in a one-on-one
situation. Right after, the Bearkats
just missed connecting on a pass across the goal for an open header.
The teams traded a couple of more opportunities. 11’ Lauren
Machuca made a cross-goal pass to an open Shila Rasoul, but Shila mis-kicked it. There was a nasty SH shove on an Aggie in
their box. 5’ Shila laid out a Bearkat
defender in their box. She did help her
up afterward. On another play, a foul
was called on the Aggies, blowing the play dead. Brooke
Schultz buried a shot into the goal anyway.
3’ Lauren took a tumble in the SH box on an attack. No call.
2’ freshman sub Azalie Floriano was
hurt on a play and had to come out.
Another freshman that I hadn’t seen before, Emma O’Neill, came in.
Having lost four players this season, the Aggies were really reaching
down into the depth chart. Lastly, SH took
a shot on the wing. A header went just
over the net. 0-0 at the half.
Second
Half
Both teams came out threatening early. 40’ SH took a hard shot on the Aggie goal
from outside the box. Val caught
it. That was the first official shot on
goal in the game. Soon after, Valerie
tried to kick out a ball from the box.
It rebounded off a Bearkat back towards her, but she scooped it up. SH made a follow up attack. Valerie had to catch another hard shot from
outside.
The Aggies took a couple of wide and high shots by Mya H. and
Ariana Leamons. On the second, an Aggie player and Hall slid
into each other in the box going for the ball.
29’ Val grabbed at the ball from the ground on an attack, before forcing
the ball out. This led to two SH
corners, but no shots. A turnover on the
Aggie end right after did result in a shot that went wide.
27’ Mya H. took another long shot. Hall juggled the ball before finally corralling
it. On the next Aggie offensive series,
two Aggies were knocked to the ground.
24’ some great passing as Loma went to Meredith, who gave it back to
Loma. Hall and Loma slid into each other
going after the ball, which broke up the attack. The crowd was excited on the play. After, Loma took a long, running kick that flew
into the scoreboard. A Bearkat was
injured on the play and had to come out.
18’ Jena did some fancy dribbling in front of the stands
and was fouled. The crowd cheered for
her and the show. 17’ Gia Valenti took a shot at the top of
the SH box that was caught. Back the
other way, Xitlally went down on defense in the Aggie box. Play continued and Val caught the Bearkat
shot. X stayed in.
The Aggies started really pressing the attack. Both teams were continually subbing new
players in to keep fresh legs in. 16’
Lauren kicked to Shila for a header that missed. Next, Shila had a breakaway. Hall was caught out of the goal, but Shila
wasn’t able to handle the ball to shoot it.
Mya H. took a wide shot across the SH goal. Another shot went high and landed on top of
the net.
The crowd was really into it. The Aggies got a pair of corners. Mya H. took another shot. Hannah
Draper deflected it high into the scoreboard. The Aggies had another corner, but the ref
blew it dead as Megan shoved Hall into the goal during the kick.
7’ Bearkat Ariana
Carrington took a shot over the Aggie net on a charge. 6’ back to the SH end, Megan almost tipped a
ball in off an Aggie corner. Mya H. was
yelling encouragement on field during these corners. All these of these Aggie attacks were coming
with only Jena back on defense. 4’ SH
finally managed a rush that completely outnumbered the defense. Val fell on their only shot.
2’ a great pass to Loma and she had only the goalie in
front of her. Hall smothered the
shot. 1’ Val caught a low shot on
goal. In the final minute, events were
happening too fast for me to keep up with.
Loma and Shila had a breakaway.
The Aggies had a final corner with the seconds counting down and brought
everyone except Val in on it. The ball
went all over the SH box, but the Aggies weren’t able to get a shot off before
time expired. Nil-nil was our final score.
I think I once said, “If I ever sit through a nil-nil tie,
I’m never coming back.” I think this is
first time it’s happened to me, though it did happen earlier this season when
I wasn’t there. Still, the crowd
seemed reasonably okay with the result.
It was pretty exciting, like the last
game, which was also a tie.
Both teams had plenty of chances, especially in the second half. Shots on goal were 4-3 and corners were 9-2, both for the Aggies. I’m pretty sure the Aggies dominated in time of possession. Hats off to both goalies, Valerie Guha and Savannah Hall, for keeping their cool under pressure. Sam Houston may have played more physically than the Aggies, which would be a rarity this season and may have surprised them. Judging by these last two games, the Aggies really seem to be missing Bianca Chacon and her timely assists.
Well bottom line, this draw wasn’t pointless. The Aggies get a first round bye in the
conference tournament with it. In their
last game on the road, they now need either a win or a tie to win the regular
season championship and only lose it on a loss.
They’re going to be facing a tougher opponent than today in Western Kentucky, though.
For good or ill, this was my last Aggie Soccer game of the season. I’ll miss seeing the girls. I used my final Burger King coupon afterward and had a great meal there. That made the tie more palatable. I’ll keep track of the team in future posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment