Monday, October 28, 2019

NM State Aggies vs UMKC Roos Soccer 10-24-19



Even after a 3-11-2 season, surprisingly the Aggies still had something to play for.  With a win, since they were 2-4-0 in conference, they would make the WAC tournament.  They’d won last weekend at Chicago State, albeit just barely, 2-1.  They’d fallen behind 1-0 until Shea O’Connor scored the equalizer in the second half.  Eli Gonzalez scored the winner in overtime.  If they’d lost to the Cougars, I’m not sure if Coach Baarts would have been on the plane back to Las Cruces.  They were playing a much better team in UMKC who were 9-3-4, except they were only 1-2-2 in conference.

They were doing the Senior Day ceremonies when I walked into the Soccer Complex.  I’d missed this last year (10-27-18).  It’s still a sore spot with me.  The Roo seniors were introduced first, then the five Aggie seniors.  When Kaitlyn May was introduced, the PA said she’d had a career-ending injury.  Kyleigh Cox was introduced as the team co-captain with Kelly Burton.  Amy Gulczynski was introduced as having come back from an injury.  Jess McDow was the other senior. 

University President John Flores came out for the coin flip and was thanked for supporting Aggie Soccer.  The four seniors that could play were all starters.  The Roos looked sharp in their blue and yellow uniforms.  Their goalie, Erin Roth, was in yellow.  I was glad the weather wasn’t as forecast yet.  It was cloudless and sunny with a cold breeze.  El Paso looked dusty to the south.  There was supposed to be a stiff, hard cold wind this afternoon. 

The crowd was “friends and family” level.  This was a 3:00pm match on a Thursday.  Dad said he looked for me on the NMSU news show later in the evening when they did coverage of the game.  He didn’t see me or anybody in the stands.  Tom didn’t make it out again.  Danny was there.  He told me they held the senior ceremony up until I got there.  I asked him if he’d heard about the UNM Lobo quarterback getting suspended.  He had and we chuckled.  The quarterback had been caught . . . umm . . . practicing some solo drills in public on the campus.  Okay, what is wrong with young women at the university that even a quarterback can’t get laid?      

First Half
The Aggie reserves let out a big cheer at the start.  They were fired up.  You could tell their energy level was high.  Goalie Dmitri Fong was yelling instructions and encouragement so loud you could clearly hear her in the stands.  (The lack of much of a crowd might have also made it easier to hear the players on field.) 

43’ left in the half, Amy was making the most of her start by taking a shot on goal.  40’ the Roos brought it back down with a free kick on the wing.  The ball was stopped and kicked out.  39’ Hannah Leitner took a hit and was on her hands and knees at midfield.  Play was stopped, but she was okay.  I didn’t see the incident.  Maybe the wind was just knocked out of her.  The Roo attacks continued.  37’ Dmitri stopped a low shot.  36’ Hannah was knocked down again.  She shook it off to help Kelly on defense.

35’ Kelly took the ball away from a Roo attacker, who was otherwise unblocked in the Aggie box.  Said Roo was Lindsey Prokop.  I’d noticed her since she was working on the near sidelines.  She was cute and had the best hair on the field, blonde with dark highlights, very fetching.  There was another immediate attack that Dmitri caught.  33’ Dmitri then caught a free kick that came from the top of the box.  32’ a Roo corner kick was headed out, but that led to another corner that was also headed out.

Amy and Kyleigh were subbed out.  They seemed to be doing a good job.  The Roos apparently thought so too.  30’ Lindsey beat Aggie defender, Analise Pacheco, who had just checked in, and found Amanda Sampson in front of the net for the goal.  1-0 Roos.  Dmitri had no chance on that one.  After that, the Aggies’ spirit seemed to deflate.

28’ Dmitri fell on a ball that rolled into the Aggie box.  27’ Shea and a Roo defender both took a tumble fighting over the ball at midfield.  26’ Hannah made a determined charge into the Roo box.  She was ridden out, but this led to a corner kick.  Kelly took a chip shot that was caught.  24’ Dmitri knocked down a long shot.  23’ Dmitri poked out a Roo corner shot.  22’ another Roo corner was broken up in the box.  Eli charged out with the ball, but was knocked down at midfield.  At a fan’s suggestion, the ref issued a yellow card to the offender.    

18’ after a ball touched two other Roos directly in front of the Aggie net, there was Lindsay again to tap it in.  2-0 Roos.  There was no defense there to help Dmitri.  She was again left helpless.  18’ back at the other end, Shea ran into the Roo goalie, who was trying retrieve a ball in the air.  The ref didn’t issue a card, but take Shea aside and gave her a talking to.  16’ Corey Kizer took a shot over the net.  On the play, Katie Martinez was injured.  The trainers had to come get her and help her off.  It was something with her foot or leg. 

13’ Jody Hernandez took a shot from the wing that went way over the net.  She immediately took another one that did the same.  9’ Sarah Trent, just into the game, had a collision with the Roo goalie Erin too.  1’ Alexa Barerra was right in front of the Roo net with the ball, but was blocked before she could get the shot off.  With under a minute left, Sarah took a shot, Erin mishandled the ball, but there was no one there to follow up on the attack. 

Halftime
The Aggies had 3 shots on goal to the 5 by the Roos.  It was 4 to 2 Roos in corners.  The wind was picking up and was getting colder, but it wasn’t uncomfortable yet.  There was another horse racing/ball kicking contest for entertainment.  I was enjoying the view of marketing intern Emerson presiding over the event.  There had been some music next door at the football field.  I think the football team was practicing.  The music at the soccer field for the half was the worst of the mainstream.  No music would have been preferable.

There was an odd occurrence after the competition.  A well-dressed middle-aged couple wandered on to the field.  They stopped at midfield, seemingly lost.  The PA gently and then more forcefully told them to get off the field.  They left, but would not be hurried, dragging out each step.

Second Half
I’d noticed the field cart moving on field in the first half.  It came back and delivered Katie to the Aggie bench.  She was now on crutches.  43’ Dmitri was right back into action.  She caught a roller off a throw-in and caught another shot from the wing.  Back at the other end, Sarah took a shot at the top of the box.  Erin fell on it.  39’ there was an Aggie corner, though Jody was confused as to which corner to take the shot from. 

35’ Roo Lindsay took a shot that hit the scoreboard as the Aggies were now defending the north end.  33’ there was a long shot on the scoreboard.  I tell you, opposing players can’t resist shooting at it.  32’ there was a Roo shot into the side of the Aggie net.  The Roo bench wanted a corner out of that.  With the wind speed and direction, Danny noted that Dmitri’s goal kicks were now flying to the other end of the field, instead of dying at midfield.  It was getting stiff. 

31’ Sarah was leveled at midfield and another card was issued.  30’ Sarah took a weak shot on goal that was caught.  24’ Andrea Ridgely came in.  Once again, I think I misidentified her as someone else last time.  I shouldn’t have mentioned players not in the uniform or on the roster no matter how attractive they looked.  In play, Eli accidently kicked the ball into the back of Lindsay’s head.  She didn’t even seem to notice. 

26’ Hannah caught Erin way out the goal, but only managed a wide shot.  24’ Sarah took a roller shot that was caught.  22’ Hannah was dramatically tripped.  The free kick by Jess went high over the Roo net.  The Aggies got a corner, but didn’t get a shot on goal off.  Danny had left by this point to get ready for volleyball later.  The wind was now cold and hard enough to make the last 20 minutes of Aggie home soccer this season miserable.  Danny also had a bit of a cold.  This was not the place from him to be.

17’ another Roo shot on the scoreboard.  15’ Eli took a header shot right in front of the Roo goal.  It was caught, but Sarah ran into Erin following up.  This got Sarah a yellow card.  Right back down to the Aggie end, Dmitri fell on a shot well away from the goal and lost it.  The net was only guarded by a defender.  Thankfully, the ball was kicked away. 

14’ Shea came into the game.  She’d been out for the second half.  13’ the Aggies got a corner.  Erin and another Roo collided, but the ball rolled out.  10’ the Roos had a corner, but there was no ball available.  I think some Aggie Baseball players had been recruited as ball boys.  They weren’t exactly sharp here.  7’ Jess came out.  There were some cheers in the crowd for her from some friends. 

6’ Corey took a long shot that went just wide.  This led to an Aggie corner, but no shot.  A little girl with pink hair at the foot of the grandstand jumped up and down as Emma Smith ran by.  She was shouting for her.  It was so cute.  3’ Emma took a quick free kick to Jody, who took a shot that was caught.  There were mass subs for the Roos right after for whatever reason.  My last game note was that the wind was now gusting.  2-0 Roos was the final.

I could not have been more happy for this game to have ended, probably along with this whole home season.  Emma and Lindsay had been going hard after a ball before the final horn with no one around them.  They slapped hands as play was stopped.  It was some nice sportsmanship.  The team came up to the stands for one more wave.  They were a bit melancholy.  Your final game stats were 8 to 5 in shots on goal for the Roos and 6 corners each.  With a goal and an assist, Lindsay Prokop was the player of the game.  She’s only a freshman, but with UMKC leaving the conference, this is probably the last I’ll see of her.                    

Like last year, I’m not doing a separate season recap for soccer.  It was another season to forget with about the same record.  They have one more game left.  I’m not sure if they’re still in contention to go to the conference tournament.  Maybe things could suddenly turn around.  I’ll write this out based on nothing really changing.  I’ll write something they do make the tournament.    

The team has improved on defense since last season.  That can be summed up quickly: Dmitri Fong played the whole season in goal.  If she didn’t exactly win games, at least she kept them in games where they would have otherwise been blown out.  (And she’s definitely marriage material 8-25-19.)  Offensively, Shea O’Connor was a good addition, but the attacks were still generally uncoordinated.  Simply, they decreased the number of opposing goals, but reduced their own as well.  There were so many times that they were close to scoring, but the ball just didn’t find the net.  Shea is a mismatched piece with the other offensive players.  Maybe Coach Baarts can fix this in recruiting.  He’ll probably be back, but next year may be his last year without significant improvement. 

Will I be back next year?  I’ve enjoyed some of the soccer, but mostly it’s been sitting out in uncomfortable conditions watching somebody else win (or worse, tie).  I’m still a bit broken-hearted over Aileen Galicia.  I shouldn’t have met her.  Apart from the Lobo game, attendance has declined, even for the UTEP game.  I somewhat wish I hadn’t taken time off for some of these games.  It wasn’t worth the extra effort when I got back to work the next day.  I’m going to consider this carefully before next season, but I’ll probably want to see Dmitri in her final season.  Once again, another downer ending to Aggie Soccer from me.  Well, no time for thoughtful consideration.  I was off to volleyball        




Postscript: The team posted this the next day.  Ahh.  I think that’s Hannah there.      

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