I’m still not caught up at work from being gone on Friday. Taking another day off this week wasn’t a good
idea. This Friday I’m going to be very busy
at work. However, after missing the last
two soccer matches, I wanted to see the Soccer girls. Those missed games have been a nil-nil tie and a 3-1 win respectively.
Today, I only managed to go to Legend Burger (so much for the diet, but it was worth it) and I
watched the D&D movie
finally. It had its moments. There were a bunch of Easter Eggs for the
long-time game fans. (I’m assuming the
kids from the 80’s D&D Cartoon
escaped the trap they were caught in somehow.)
Hugh Grant and Chris Pine were great.
Otherwise, it wasn’t worthwhile. I wasn’t thrilled over the rest of the casting and the story was questionable in how the heist was set up. They made sure to give all the characters motivations and yet, they still felt poorly motivated. I’m glad I didn’t pay to see it. I was still pissed off over the OGL thing at the time. The movie is worth watching once (for free). If only they’d done a live action movie about the 80’s cartoon.
I also listened to a local podcast featuring Mya Hammack (my favorite) and Brooke Schultz. They talked about their careers and how they
got on the team. They are from the
Pacific Northwest and played together up there on a club team in this offseason. Mya mentioned she’d been converted to defense
this year. I thought I remembered she was
an offensive player last year. She’s
also played every minute this season. Coach Baarts must like her, too.
It was at least a nice night for a game. It was warm, maybe a little muggy, but there
was a cool breeze blowing across the field.
There were some dark, scattered clouds.
It looked like it might have been raining outside of town, but there
wasn’t a threat of rain in town. I went
wearing my new Aggie bucket hat. (I
probably looked like an idiot.) I picked
up a tea and popcorn, which would be my dinner after that heavy burger. The ref waved to me when I came in. I smiled and nodded. It was the same ref I’d said I told to have a
“good game” at an earlier game.
A good crowd turned out (over 600). I was worried the NFL Kickoff would take away from it, but even some of the Aggie Football team came. The UNLV
Rebels (I guess they dropped the “Runnin’” part) brought a few fans,
including one beautiful blonde that might have been a player’s sister. She sat somewhere behind me, so she wasn’t a
distraction, however another beautiful girl sat in front of me that was a
spitting image of KerolSmile,
one of my favorite Twitch
streamers. A friend of hers came in and
sat next to her, so I didn’t get to meet her, which was probably a good thing.
The warmup music was horrible, as usual. The worst was a sampling/remix of House of Pain’s classic Jump Around. It was bad and remaking sampled songs is
distasteful in and of itself. Valerie Guha was back starting in goal
for the Aggies. It was strange that she
came in as a sub late in the previous game.
Brooke also started the game. She’d
been out with injury this season. Two of
the Rebels were kneelers during the Anthem.
That’s way more embarrassing than my floppy hat.
First
Half
The Rebels got an early corner, but nothing came of
it. Both teams seemed to be feeling each
other out for the first 10 minutes. 38’
left in the half, a hard kicked ball went straight into the stands. It missed an older woman across the aisle. Worried it would hit someone behind me, I
reached out to deflect the ball, which I did.
It went to the bottom of the stands, where another fan put it back in
play. Ow! Those balls are hard and that was a hard kick. I was fine for the rest of the game, though
I’m typing this with sore fingers now.
(And they’re still sore the next day, I already had a high degree of
appreciation for goalies and that’s only increased now.)
36’ Sydnee Johnson
made the first real Aggie attack on a rush, which the Rebels’ goalie, Lucia Guemes, fell on. 35’ Mya H. made a nice breakup of an attack
and a rear-facing kick. 34’ Ariana Leamons took a high shot on the
Rebel’s goal. Then, disaster! Right after that shot, a high bouncing goalie
kick came down to the Aggies’ end to a Rebel player. Two defenders were chasing it and Valerie
came out to get it, but all they could do was watch helplessly as the ball was chipped
into the goal. Cassie Villanueva was credited with this very soft goal. 1-0 UNLV.
The Aggies redoubled on offense. 31’ Jena
Johannes took a long shot from the wing.
29’ the Aggies made some good passing on an attack. Gia
Valenti took a shot that went high and wide. 25’ here we go. Bianca
Chacon made a rolling free kick on the outside wing of the Rebels’ box to
Gia, who rolled it right past Guemes, 1-1 tied.
I was glad that the Aggies at least wouldn’t be losing because of that
first goal.
23’ Villanueva made a blatant grab on Ari’s jersey. That was an easy yellow card call. 21’ the Rebels took a shot on the wing. It went high, very high. I think the wind caught it, as the ball flew
into the excavation pit behind the south goal.
19’ there are mass subs for both teams.
17’ Rebel corner kick, Valerie made a good save on the
follow up shot that was right in front of the goal that might have been kicked
with a knee. 16’ off an Aggie corner,
there was a foul in the Rebel box. I
didn’t see the foul, but there was no argument as Bianca was given a penalty
kick. (It was a handball.) She buried it with anger. 2-1 Aggies.
13’ Tati Jerman
and a Rebel player had each other in headlock on the far side of the
field. The ref broke them up. 12’ Aggie corner. Guemes made two nice saves. 9’ good Aggie passing caught the Rebels off
guard. Shila Rasoul had a nearly open shot on goal. Guemes managed to cutoff her angle to stop
the shot.
4’ a well set up Aggie attack was spoiled by a slip on the
turf in the Rebels’ box. 3’ a very hard
liner shot on the Aggie goal. Val caught
it, no problem, though I think I felt it from the stands. 1’ Rebel counter against one defender. The shot went wide across the goal.
Disaster struck again!
With under a minute left, a Rebel free kick at midfield ended up by the
Aggie goal. Two Rebels were right
there. Where were the Aggies? Heading to the locker room? Michelle
Madrid made a great pass and Marley
Salveter headed the ball right in.
Halftime and we were suddenly tied at 2. Shots on Goal were even at 3 and Corners at
2.
Halftime
I’m glad I wasn’t in the Aggie locker room. Coach Baarts was probably already planning on
letting the team have it for that first goal.
He must have been apoplectic after the second. Both goalies were warming up during the half,
likely glad to be out of earshot of their coaches.
[Annoying Monday Edit: Okay, I was pretty sure I saw that
I saw the backup goalies warming up at halftime, which would make sense given
the game situation. However, it’s hard
to get the goalie’s number in play, which is why I write it down at the
beginning of the match. They didn’t post
the official stats that night, when I wrote out this out, nor the next
day. I went with what stats were posted,
which didn’t mention the goalie change, even though I was pretty sure it had
happened. I’ve since edited the post.]
The Outlaws Pep
Band and the Drum Line performed
enthusiastically and . . . oh my
goodness . . . the Hot Pan Am Girl was
there putting the performance on Aggie Social Media. Be still my heart. Between her, the two hot girls in the stands,
and Mya (and some other girls on the team), I don’t know how I concentrated to
take notes. (I didn’t. I missed naming all of the goal scorers. If I got some other names on plays wrong
that’s just normal for me.) PAG was in a
black tank top and little black shorts.
After the performance, she walked across the field by herself like a
dream. The Band could have played her
out with Dreamweaver.
Second
Half
The Aggie girls returned to the field still holding their
red ears. Karolanne Lafourtune subbed in for the Aggies in goal and Hanne Breur came in for the
Rebels. I don’t know if I’d necessarily
blame either first half goalie for the four total goals, but both coaches
probably thought it’d be better to make a change. 43’ Mya H. moved up on offense and took a
long shot, which sailed over the Rebel’s goal.
40’ a great pass downfield by Mya
Gonzales to Bianca and then to Xitlaly
Hernandez, but there was no shot taken.
39’ a Rebel attack in the Aggie box was foiled and a
corner after. 38’ Shila made a rush into
the Rebel box, but was blown offside.
37’ near disaster. Karol punched
away an accidental own goal attempt by Jena and then fell on another shot. Jena seized up in front of the net after
nearly giving the Rebels the lead. 36’ Karol
made another point blank save.
The action going up and down the field at this point was
furious enough that I couldn’t keep up.
34’ Karol made another stop from a shot on the wing and caught the
corner kick that came after. 33’ Loma McNeese did some fancy dribbling
front of the stands to the delight of the crowd and passed to Bianca, who
passed to Shila for a shot. Breur fell
on it.
It’s a disaster movie!
29’ another high bouncer from the other side of the field (apparently
off an Aggie header) went past Mya H. and over Karol. Villanueva was right there behind them to
shepherd the ball in with a nudge for her second goal. 3-2 Rebels.
(Up to this point, I was going to say Karolanne probably won the
starting goalie job. Afterward, I wasn’t
so sure.)
26’ Xitlaly got hurt away from the ball. There was a stoppage as she limped off field,
though she’d return later. 25’ Loma
turned and took a quick kick off a corner.
It went just high. 24’ Bianca
took two shots. One was blocked by a
defender. The goalie fell on the
other. 21’ with some good passing, the
Rebels got into the Aggie box and took a shot across the goal. They got a pair corners with the attack, but
nothing came of them.
18’ Ari took a long shot that was caught. 17’ a shot off an Aggie corner was
caught. 14’ Loma took a
desperate-looking long shot that went way off.
13’ Karol scooped up a rolling shot.
10’ Meredith Scott was
knocked down by the Rebel box making a charge.
No call. Right after, she took a
long shot that was caught. Meredith was
really hustling all over the field in the second half.
8’ the Band took a direct hit. Thankfully, the music didn’t stop. 7’ Mya H. made a long shot that was
caught. Mya had moved up into an
offensive role by this point. 6’ a
yellow was given for a delay by UNLV. 4’
Shila had an open shot and hit the side of the net. 2’ Mya H. took another shot that just
missed. With under a minute, the ball
took a bounce over the north auxiliary stands.
It wasn’t recovered until there were 10 seconds left. I doubt it mattered. Time expired.
Aggies 2, UNLV/Aggie Misplays 3.
That was disappointing.
Like the ASU game, I think the Aggies
beat themselves more than were beaten.
Actually, tonight, I’m sure of it.
Credit to UNLV for capitalizing on all of the Aggies’ mistakes. They also did a good job of neutralizing
Loma, Sydnee, and Xitlaly. I thought the
Aggies did a really good job of getting the ball into position to take a shot
several times, but didn’t finish. Apart
from their lapses, the defense and goalkeeping were very good. UNLV finished up 7-5 in shots on goal and 6-2
in corners.
Now, all I have to look forward to is a bunch of work on Friday and sore fingers. At least, I have the weekend off from Aggie sports reporting. I need to recover after a couple of bad losses.
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