I hate to be unenthusiastic, but after waking up at 11:30 today, I was not into anything. I was barely ready to watch *volleyball* on TV at noon after a shower. I was grateful that the weather was pleasant for today’s match. It was partly cloudy with rain clouds hovering the area and a cool breeze, but a bright, warm sun when it poked through.
The tailgate outside was full and cooking up a storm. They might be that Lady Aggie Tailgaters Club, whose website I’ve raided for pictures. The courtesy table was back out. Still no program, but there was a really cool new Men’s Basketball poster. At the entrance to the field was new large rock with a plaque on it. I’ll get to that later. The crowd looked about the same as Friday’s rain-soaked match, but filled in nicely after the match started. Regrettably, we could have done without a few of the loudmouths, who were back in force today.
Athletic Director Mario Moccia, sans his little girls, walked by and sat in the stands. Uh oh, I don’t think I’ve never seen him here before. As it turned out, he was here for another reason involving the plaque, but I’d have to think Coach Baarts just got some more motivation to win this game.
I took a look over at the Aggie bench. I think I counted four girls that were immobilized with various leg injuries. The Chicago State team looked a bit undersized, like high school players. During the introductions, it was hard not to notice one of their girls #6 Lilla Kisvari had a really butch haircut. Before play started, some people behind noticed too and commented that it was guy. I took second look and watched. Well, I was convinced it was guy too, but I asked a co-worker later to check on the Internet and did verify that the player was female. “I can definitely see why you were confused,” said the co-worker after looking at her picture.
First Half
Okay, weirdness and apathy aside, here we go. The sun came out completely right as play started. I was suddenly aware that I wasn’t wearing any sunblock. As much as I thought that getting some fresh air and warm sun would help me get over my cold, I didn’t want to get burned and I put my jacket hood up. I was hiding from the sun off and on during the half.
As for the play on the field, pretty much nothing happened to prompt me to put pen to paper for the first ten minutes. I was briefly worried the players were as unmotivated as I was to be there. Finally, the Aggies started mounting attacks. 37’ left in the half and at 35’, Kelly Burton, a defender, took two shots on the Cougar goal that went wide. 34’ Emma Smith shot a roller that also went wide. 33’ Audrey Chavez took the first official shot on goal that the goalie, #13 Judith Sorribes caught.
31’ and it begins in earnest. The ref blew a quick whistle on some rough play. Right after, 30’ Grace Olson pushed down a Cougar and was called for it. Some members of the crowd, annoyingly right behind me, decided the referee was being too tight in calling fouls and was pretty sure that he was being biased towards Chicago State. These complaints and others would continue for the rest of the match. Was he a bad referee? I don’t know; I’m not a soccer “expert” like the yokels behind me. This heckling got tedious immediately.
28’ my dear Aileen Galicia took a long shot that went high and wide. 26’ she dribbled well and got past a defender and passed to Audrey, who took a shot that was caught. 21’ Chicago State got their first good chance of the half. A free kick outside the box hit the scoreboard over the goal. The crowd was infuriated by the ref’s foul call. Someone in the crowd called down to the line official at midfield near the stands to complain. He turned around, smiled, and acknowledged them.
20’ Samantha Alfonso was yellow carded for a mid-air collision. You can imagine how that went over with the crowd. One guy called the ref, “Dagwood,” an oddly 40’s era insult. 19’ Aggie goalie Ashley Martin caught a long shot on goal. 17’ Emma passed to Audrey in a scrum in front of the Cougar net. Judith made a good save. The crowd started complaining that Katie Martinez was punched in the face. I didn’t see it. Apparently the ref didn’t either.
16’ Goal! PA Alexia was again doing the duties today. She did a short, enthusiastic call of Audrey finally getting one in. There were three shots, two by Audrey, right in front of the goal on the play. 1-0 Aggies. 15’ Let’s do it again! Goal! Emma found Audrey on a pass from the corner. Audrey headed it in. 2-0 Aggies. The crowd finally approved of something. 14’ this time, Judith fell on the ball to stop Audrey from putting in another one.
Some of the volleyball girls came in late and sat below the stands in front of me. I wanted to ask them how their Saturday night match went at UTRGV, but I made no effort to do so. I wasn’t feeling confident and didn’t want to bother anybody. Some little girls walked over to them and talked to them a bit. They were clearly in awe of them. Megan Hart seemed really sweet chatting with them. It was so cute.
On field, 8’ Audrey made a falling header at the goal that the keeper tipped out. 6’ Katie was hit again and went down. I saw the end of that one. The ref considered, after some shouts from crowd, and then yellow carded #23 Lola Arreola. 5’ Emma took a point blank shot, but Judith stopped it again. Under a minute left and Emma took a shot to the nose. I’m not sure who did it. She was not doing well afterward. Needless to say, the crowd was unhappy. They may have been right here, but I’ve come to the conclusion, I’d rather sit in the rain than listen to a bunch of angry parents at a soccer match.
Halftime
Mario Moccia came out to midfield with Coach Baarts and Micaela Milavec’s parents. The Milavecs had made a sizeable contribution to the program in the form of some stadium upgrades. Mario and the coach presented them with a signed gameball and the new plaque memorializing their contribution. I had an opportunity to say something to Micaela’s parents shortly afterward, but just wasn’t feeling up to it. Their daughter had impressed me when I met her for autographs (9-9-18). She can play and she’s a five-year senior, so Micaela earned her spot on the team. Micaela was also playing on the near sideline for most of the second half. So, I got to see a lot of her lovely self for 45 minutes, which I appreciated.
I noticed the baseball guys were there as I came back from the bathroom, but were seated in one of the satellite stands instead of on the grass. A couple more volleyball girls showed up. Ah, Jordan Pleasants is a Houston Astros fan judging by her championship shirt. Briana Ainsworth played a little hacky with a soccer ball. Aggie photographer, Gary Mook, chatted with the girls. I think he wanted to take their picture. Who can blame him?
Second Half
Suddenly, I’m part of the action. 42’ remaining and a ball flew into the stands. I’m watching it head right for me, before a gentleman beside me attempted to field it. I ended up with it. Micaela, who was doing the throw-ins, waved to me from the sidelines, and I managed to toss it to her without embarrassing myself (probably because I didn’t have any time to think about it). Don’t they usually keep another ball on the sidelines? Not that I was going to keep it like a foul ball, but I was going to hand it down to the volleyball girls on the field (and chat for a second). Oh, well.
The crowd once again started bantering with the linesman. They were insisting that the CS coach or a player was cursing in Portuguese or something like that. See, this is where I’m at a disadvantage without a program. I didn’t know they had any Brazilian players. The linesman also seemed to be amused by what was going on between the ref and the crowd. The crowd insinuated that he didn’t respect the ref either.
36’ Audrey attempted a half-hearted bicycle kick in front of the Cougar goal off of a corner kick. That didn’t work out real well. She must have desperate for that hat trick to try it. 33’ Emma made a good rush at the net, but the kick went high. 32’ Aileen took a sniper shot outside the box, but Judith caught another one. 31’ Aileen was there around net, but the ball from the pass kept bouncing around too much for her to get a clean kick.
26’ Audrey had another shot caught. The ball came right back to the Aggie end. Ashley had to come out for a one-on-one and just kicked it away. Ominous foreshadowing. 24’ yellow card on Audrey after an attack, I think. It was at the other end of the field and hard to see who got it. Lilla was lying face down in the box in front of the goal after the play. I think Audrey may have gotten a bit less aggressive about scoring after this incident.
16’ well, this may have been inevitable. #7 Sara Quevedo, the smallest girl on the field got Ash in another one-on-one and kicked it in from the side. I’d noticed her playing earlier. She was all heart out there on the field. It was another busted, ugly defensive breakdown for the Aggies. 2-1 Aggies. 15’ the Aggies came right back. Rebecca Mazzie took a shot that Judith blocked on a flying dive. 13’ Kaitlyn May, who’d just come in, was knocked down hard. On the same play, Ash caught a high bouncer and was run into and knocked down. That was disastrous all the way around. Kaitlyn had to come out.
12’ Aileen got in another awkward shot on goal. The ball was just bouncing away from her today. 8’ Cougar #20 Jaydie Hanks got a card for a high kick on Zorena Hazen and got a lecture too. I’d noticed her earlier too, because she was very pretty with her silvery blonde hair. (Zo has nearly the same color. It’s a good look.) Somewhere late (didn’t note it at the time), there was another scuffle between the ref and the crowd over possession of the ball on the near sideline. The ref went over and consulted with the linesman, who reversed the call. Maybe the crowd was right. Maybe he didn’t think the ref was doing a good job either.
5’ Becca took a shot that was caught. 4’ Becca took a rolling shot that was stopped. 1’ Coach Baarts was going insane on the far sidelines about something. Perhaps he was precognitive, as a few seconds later the Aggies had another defensive breakdown. Ash had to come out to stop a rush and collided with the attacker. The ball got dangerously close to the net. Final horn. Aggies win 2-1.
Here’s your stat of the match: shots on goal-Aggies 16, Cougars 4. Your obvious player of the game is Judith Sorribes, the Cougar goalie. The Aggies beat this team on the road 8-0 last year. Today, even with a four-to-one advantage in shots, they only eked out a win. I don’t mean to short-shrift Audrey Chavez’s performance, but this should have been a much more decisive win. It didn’t help that the Aggie net was again left undefended, except for Ashley Martin. This isn’t happening accidentally; it’s the result of a bad strategy.
The Aggies won with some pain today. They weren’t roughhousing it as much as they were last month (9-28-18). I came up with a volleyball epiphany this season: it’s not how hard you it, it’s where you hit it. I may have another one for soccer: the team that wins the fighting, loses the match. A little more finesse on the Cougars’ part and certainly the Aggies could have been had today.
The girls belatedly came out to midfield to wave at the crowd. I think they momentarily forgot what to do after a win, since it had been so long. Whatever. A win is a win. And ice cream is for winners! Unfortunately, I’m not personally involved with the team to take them out for Caliches. I did the next best thing and took myself out for pizza. (Boy, that makes me sound really bad, doesn’t it? I’m a villain.) Chowing down on that Roadrunner Pizza was the most enthusiastic I got all day. Okay, one more home game left on the schedule and I hope to be there for Senior day.
No comments:
Post a Comment