I almost did it.
I almost saw every Aggie Soccer home
game. Aggie Volleyball this afternoon had run long (and
disappointing). After driving through an
obstacle course in the parking lot with the Pack the Pan-Am crowd leaving and the crowd for the Battle of the Bands at the next door
football stadium, Ron and I arrived at the soccer complex an hour after the
match had started. So, I had to settle
for seeing seven-and-a-half games this season.
I was pleased that there was finally a program out for
this match. After seeing it, I didn’t
want to look at the scoreboard. Today’s
opponent, UTRGV (who was also
playing the volleyball team today), was a much better team. I don’t know what the conference standings
are, but I assume they’re at or near the top.
But upon entering the stadium, we had to look. Surprisingly, it was 1-0 Aggies with about a minute left in the half.
The main grandstand was also full with fans, friends,
and family of the team. Just as we found
an empty spot to sit at, Alexa Barrera
charged at the Vaquero goal and just floated one into the net. Gooooal!
She did it with all of four seconds left on the clock, and it was
announced as her second goal of the match.
2-0 Aggies at the half. Well, that was a bit of a pick-me-up after
the volleyball loss. There was the odd
line on the scoreboard with the Vaqueros having a six to one advantage in shots
on goal. How did the Aggies have two
goals, but only one SOG? (The official
scoring didn’t clear that up either.
Maybe it was just wrong on the scoreboard. There were some lights out on the board.)
Second Half
Nothing of interest happened during halftime. Just to set the players here, Ashley Martin was in goal for the
Aggies. #27 Kinga Szemik from Poland was keeping for the Vaqueros. She was pretty easy to spot being tall and in
a bright green top. Actually, most of
their team was tall and, like their volleyball team, international or
Texan. I noticed #10 Emily Zapata on field because she wore
her long hair loose, which I’m not sure I’ve seen before. My dear Aileen
Galicia was out on field. She looked
beautiful. It looked like she was
wearing a bit of makeup and had her hair curled. She wanted to look good for her last game as
a senior. Our hero of the first half,
Alexa, did not start the second half.
We had a couple of distractions to begin the match. One was of our own doing. Aggie
Football was playing on the road and their game started at about the same
time. Ron and I both had radios and
earplugs in to listen. (I’ll recap that
in some fashion elsewhere.) The other
issue was a bee that started buzzing around the area. After a few nervous minutes, he finally flew
off.
The Aggies attacked first at 44’ left in the match with Audrey Chavez taking a long shot on
goal that was caught. From here the
Vaqueros took the initiative. 38’ Ashley
stopped a roller on goal. We can hear
the bands playing next door at this point.
It added a little music to the proceedings. 34’ Ash saved a close shot. There was a header off a corner right after
that went over the net.
Lovely Briana
Ainsworth came into the stadium here.
She was the only one from the volleyball that came today that I
saw. The team had announced an autograph
session after the match. They might have
had quite a few fans there for it. She’s
close to a parent or fan in the regular soccer crowd. Bri was smiling, but she’s always smiling, so
I don’t know how she was feeling about her match.
33’ #8 Kelzy
Jepsen scored for the Vaqueros. I
basically missed it, so I can’t say how it happened. I was scribbling at the time and it developed
very quickly. Ron didn’t even seem to
know how it happened, and he was watching.
2-1 Aggies. 28’ Alexa came back in.
A couple of Aggie players in vests were shagging balls
on the sidelines and by the goals.
Senior Sarina Stockton was
working by the grandstand. This was the
first time I’d gotten a good look at her; she’s pretty. Sarina played a little hacky with a ball
during a stoppage. Later in the game,
she talked to her family in the stands.
The game got a bit more aggressive. 23’ Aileen got in a shove in the back on a
player with an elbow. That’s my
girl. 22’ Alexa made a judo throw on a
Vaquero player at midfield. That
resulted in a free kick that Ash caught.
21’ on the other end, Rebecca
Mazzie got tacked to the ground.
Kinga would catch the free kick there.
I never figured out if Becca was the team captain or not.
16’ the Vaqueros fired a free kick just outside the
Aggie box. The ball hovered around the
net for a moment before being kicked out.
14’ Ashley came under heavy fire here.
She came out and made a save. She
backed up and made a catch. But another
immediate attack by Emily Zapata (with the loose hair) from outside the box
went in. Tied 2-2. She’d actually
slipped on a ball earlier that got a chuckle from the crowd.
13’ Emily got in another shot. 9’ Ash caught another shot. 6’ Aileen got another knock down of an
opposing player. I wonder if she keeps
count of those, like there’s a board somewhere with pictures of flattened
players, like a WWII pilot counting kills on their plane. 3’ Micaela
Milavec made an impressive trip of a Vaquero. With under a minute, Ashley smothered a
Vaquero free kick from outside of the box.
First Overtime
I wasn’t feeling good about seeing a win by this
point. I was perhaps hoping for a
tie. Ron received a call from his
brother about coming to a family dinner that was just starting. He had to beg off. I felt bad about that he was missing out on
that. He’d also invited me to the dinner,
but we didn’t know how long this was going to take. Much of the crowd apparently had somewhere
else to be too and left, including Briana.
We didn’t have to wait that long. My only note for the overtime was at 5’. The Vaqueros took a high bouncing shot. Ashley came out to stop it and it went over
her into the net. 3-2 UTRGV final. There wasn’t
an announcement of the scoring player.
Your stat of the match, for what it’s worth, shots on goal 12 to 3 for
the Vaqueros.
Senior Day Ceremonies?
The rest of the stands cleared with the families and
friends remaining. They took bundles of
flowers down to the field for the girls.
Next door, the football stadium was emptying at the same time to create
a bigger traffic mess. Ron and I waited
in the stands for the Senior Day ceremonies.
Which didn’t happen.
Ceremonies are for winners? The
graduating girls’ numbers were sprayed on the sidelines. Did they do something before the match? If so, they did it well before the match,
because regulation finished two hours after the announced start time. I just don’t know. Last year (10-22-17), the seniors gave
little speeches on field to the crowd.
This time, nothing. The girls had
to be coaxed back on field. They met
with friends and family by the grandstand.
And here’s where I likely fumbled the ball. After waiting for several minutes, I figured
out that there wasn’t going to be a ceremony and I nudged Ron to leave. He still needed to go to work soon. I saw Aileen on the other end of the field. I kind of hoped to catch her on the way out,
but missed her as she walked downfield.
I was initially going to try and catch up with her, but decided not to
and told Ron we could go.
He was surprised by my ambivalence. I was too.
Maybe if I’d been there by myself, I might have stayed for awhile and
met some of the girls even though it’s a bit awkward after a loss. As it was, I felt like I was holding up
Ron. But, I felt so depressed after
these two disheartening losses today and no senior day ceremony, I think I was
afraid meeting Aileen would go badly too somehow. I’m sure it would have actually been
pleasant, but at time I didn’t want any more heartbreak.
I guess I’m going to have to sum up the soccer season
here. It was bad. They finished 2-16. Aileen was the top goal scorer with four. Four.
And I’m not sure if she even scored in the second half of the
season. Total goals were 16 to 43 for
their opponents. I’m not a soccer
analyst, but the team has taken a definitive step backward in Coach Rob Baarts’ first season. Losing eight seniors from this team (and
probably a few more players) will give him an opportunity to remake the team to
his style of play. Also, the coach
wasn’t happy with the pre-conference schedule, so he’ll be able to set that as
well.
I was coming this season to see Aileen and goalie Dmitri Fong. Unfortunately, Dmitri spent almost the entire
season injured. She seems to have so
much potential, but wonder if she’ll be back or even the primary goalie. I think Aileen was injured, maybe with a
concussion, earlier in the season. After
she missed a game, she never seemed the same.
Aileen was still physically aggressive, but wasn’t attacking the
net. That might have been a strategy
move by the coach or something else. I
don’t know. I think I meant to ask
her. I had some other questions about
the team, but I don’t I think I could have asked them there on the field.
Aggie Soccer has always been on probation with me. I have some intention of going back, but I
don’t think I’ll be trying to go to every match like I did this year. That was causing me some issues going to
those 4:00 weekday games and getting to work late. I’m even questioning whether I should be
meeting Aggie players and getting autographs.
I’ve had good and bad experiences.
Aileen was a good one. Saying
“goodbye forever” in person was going to be hard. Maybe that was why I didn’t want to see her
afterward. Good luck to Aileen and the
other seniors and to the team next year.
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