Wednesday, September 21, 2022

NM State Aggies vs Seattle U Redhawks Soccer 9-18-22 Part 1


We had our second day game of the Aggie Soccer season.  The first was an exhibition, and it was kind of unpleasant.  This was worse, much worse, we’ll get to it.  I can see why they’re scheduling night games as much as possible.  When Ron and I arrived Sunday at noon, there was a Softball game already in progress.  It was a High School camp (the girls were all in different uniforms) with members of the Aggie Softball team coaching.  However, it was winding up.  They won’t run Softball and Soccer at the same time, due to the proximity of their facilities.

 

It was Youth Soccer Day at the stadium and there were a bunch of little kids.  The Army National Guard had set up a rock-climbing wall.  There were giveaways, too.  Ron picked up a little fan.  (I’d gotten one last year.  It sort of worked.)  We both picked up earbuds.  Cool.  It was also supposed to be Autograph Day with the team, which I was looking forward to.  Sigh.  (Foreshadowing.)  I had to content myself with these casual pictures of the girls from the team Twitter.  (Sorry if I misidentified anybody.  You guys were out of uniform.)   


Here we have Loma McNeese and, I think, Bella Garcia

Here's Makenna Gottschalk, Megan Sheehan (Ron's favorite), and Landy Williams

And there's Mya Hammack

We got there way early and sat around in the heat too long waiting.  There were dark clouds to the east, but they seemed small and looked like they wouldn’t build up until later.  In any case, they weren’t blocking the sun.  The good news about all the rain we’ve had this summer is that the soccer field grass and the berm on the football stadium looked really good.  By the way, Men’s Basketball Coach, Greg Heiar, tweeted that he was watching Friday’s game.  I’m not sure if he was there or watching video, but it was a nice show of support.

 

A decent crowd came out for an NFL Sunday.  For the introductions, wow, the Seattle U Redhawks’ goalie, Jessica Berlin, was tall.  She towered over the refs at 5’11”.  There was a Moment of Silence for a deceased local high school football player, Abe Romero.  The media was sort of blaming a hit he took during a game, however he collapsed on field 20 minutes after it happened.  For the Anthem, White, blonde Emily Bunnell on SU took a knee.  Mya Hammack led the Aggies in a pregame cheer and danced in the huddle. 

 

    

First Half

It was a rough game right from the start.  42’ left in the half, Xitlaly Hernandez was kneed in the gut for a foul.  41’ after some good passing, Sydnee Johnson took a shot that was caught.  37’ on the other end, Xitlaly and Sydnee blocked shots.  35’ Aggie goalie, Makenna Gottschalk caught a long free kick.  She was really vocal in this game, urging the team to talk to one another. 

 

32’ the Aggies broke up a corner kick.  Makenna caught another shot.  31’ Loma McNeese was pushed down and another foul was called.  The crowd approved of the refereeing to this point (ominous foreshadowing).  By this point, a drum started up on the south bleachers, along with a long horn, which sounded a little sickly.  30’ Bianca Chacon took an outside shot.  Berlin (I gotta use that cool name here) made a flying dive stop.  Right after on a corner, Xitlaly took a header shot that went just high. 

 

There were some SU fans here cheering, which unfortunately included a loud, obnoxious dad.  25’ SU had a corner kick.  Makenna blocked a point blank header shot and fell on the ball.  A follow up outside shot hit the crossbar.  Tania Tapia received a Yellow Card for pushing Emily into the turf.  This led to a free kick that hit the Aggie goal post.  Whew!

 

23’ there was more good Aggie passing and a shot into traffic that was kicked out.  There was Hydration Break right after.  It was pretty hot and muggy.  19’ the Aggies were still on the attack.  Bianca took a shot that went just high.  A cloud passed in front of the sun and provided some shady relief (the foreshadowing is flashing in bright red letters). 

 

14’ defender Landy Williams made a nice block in the Aggie box.  11’ more good passing and Tania took a shot that was kicked out.  She also had some great dribbling into the corner and took another shot.  Bella Garcia unsurprisingly ended up on the ground after a rough encounter with Berlin in the SU box.  Bella came out, but was subbed back in a couple of minutes later, and she then pushed Emily down.  Nil-nil at the half.  Some of the youth soccer kids walked by to gather for a parade.  The large black guy that’s with Thalia Chaverria’s family gave them a fist bump as they went by.   

 

Halftime

Let’s check some out-of-town scores.  The Aggie Football team was defeated by Wisconsin on the road, 66-7, in front of 73k fans.  At least they scored and earned $1.5M for Aggie Sports.  Listening to AD Mario Moccia on the pregame, I didn’t realize there was controversy about last week’s loss to UTEP.  He questioned some calls by the officials and that some time wasn’t put back on the clock late in the game.  It must have been pretty bad for Mario to risk an NCAA reprimand by saying something.     

 

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Aggie Volleyball, after a couple of tough losses, won 3-1 over UW-MilwaukeeKatie Birtcil, Mari Sharp, and Molly Johnson all had double digit kills.  Katie also had 19 digs.  And there were other good performances.

   

Both Soccer teams stayed on field for the break.  Coach Baarts demonstrated for the team how to elbow and push someone while going for a header.  (I’m not kidding.)  A parade of kids teams were introduced and ran by the foot of the stands.  After the parade, an adorable itty, bitty little girl danced to the PA music.  Ron wandered off and went over to the rock wall.  Meanwhile, ominous clouds were now rolling in overhead.

 

Second Half

The Aggies were up 2 to 1 in shots on goal, but there obviously weren’t many chances for either team.  The Aggies had an early one with a corner with 42’ left in the half.  Jessica used her height in the SU goal to reach over everyone to snatch it.  Emily went down again, this time at midfield.  Play continued for a while before it was stopped to attend to her.  

 

What an odd place to stop this commentary.

 

Continued in Part 2.

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