NM State Aggies vs Texas A&M Commerce Lions Soccer 8-24-24

That was a religious experience.  After two games against Power Four opponents and the Lobos, who picked this as the game of the year?  This wasn’t a game against Texas A&M (in spite of what the local media would say later).  It wasn’t even a game against Texas A&M Prairie View.  Was Texas A&M Prairie View not available?  I’ve never even heard of Texas A&M Commerce.  All I’d known about them was that they’d played UTEP on Thursday and lost 1-0. 

 

I was wearing a lavender dress shirt to the game tonight.  It was a “Purple Out” in memory of Thalia Chaverria.  My only other option to being overdressed was a big, thick purple sweatshirt.  I was leaving a NASCAR Daytona race and other events on TV and radio for this game, but anything for the cause. 

 

Out on field, I could see Ariana Leamons walking around in a cast.  I’m not expecting her back anytime soon.  Xitlaly Hernandez was running around in practice.  That was hopeful.  There was no Band today.  There was a good crowd.  Not quite overflowing and late arriving, but good.  A troop of little girls were working as ballgirls today. 

 

I had a chat with Rito from Aggievision before the game.  We were both pretty pleased with Aggie Soccer this season.  He was shocked when I told him that Oregon was winless on the road last season.  I asked him if he knew what Thalia’s cause of death was because I’d never found out.  He didn’t know either.  Before the start of the game, the team came out from the locker room carrying her picture, which they put on the bench.  A tearful player (maybe Bianca Chacon) read a moving statement about Thalia before the Anthem.

 

First Half

I knew this was a trap game going in.  After three huge matches, this one against a fairly unknown opponent was going to be a letdown.  Even with the emotional involvement, it was going to be hard to get up for this game, especially after a quick turnaround from that bruising battle with Oregon.  The only equalizer was that AMC was also coming in on short rest.

 

The crowd was quiet to start.  I could even hear Adam Young doing his play-by-play briefly, though he was not close to the stands.  42’ left in the half, Shila Rasoul got the offense started with a shot into the side of the AMC net.  41’ Aggie keeper, Valerie Guha, was briefly in a one-on-one with a Lion player, but kicked it away. 

 

40’ Brooke Schultz made a pass with Shila, who was double-teamed.  The Aggies got a corner, but the Lions’ countered.  Marlee Cavitt was the only defender, but she took out the attacker.  35’ Lauren Machuca was taken down by a hard tackle.  Off the resulting free kick, Brooke took a shot that AMC keeper, Gillian McKenzie, fell on.  33’ Shila and Brooke nearly beat a backpass back to the keeper for an easy shot.

 

Then the disaster.  32’ AMC made some good passes and Mya Mitchell was all alone in front of the net for an easy shot.  1-0 Lions.  The Aggies had only been leaving one defender back during attacks.  AMC executed well with the Aggie defense having to rush back.  Team captain, Mya Hammack, huddled the team on field for a short talk.

 

The Lions were playing hard.  Right after the score, they took down Meredith Scott on an attack and knocked down Caetlyn Johannes in the AMC box.  (Caetlyn started today’s game with her sister, Jena.)  26’ Ariana Ellison came in and the Aggies went on the offensive.  24’ an Aggie corner was headed out. 

 

Behind me, a guy, who’d never watched soccer before, sat down with his girlfriend.  He then proceeded on with a steady stream of inane statements and questions.  Thankfully, he decided not to ask the guy taking notes any questions, but a woman sitting in front of me jumped in and started answering him.  (I think my response might have been, “How much would it take to get you to leave?”  You have no idea irritating this guy was.) 

 

Meanwhile, a guy in front of me apparently lost something and looked around for it.  This completely OCD triggered me, as someone who hates to lose things.  I looked around too, though I didn’t know for what.  The guy left to look under the stands and came back later.  I don’t know if he found it or not.  I hope I can sleep tonight.  I should have asked.   

 

Over the next few minutes, the Aggies made several attacks.  The best was a long shot by Caetlyn.  It was on target, but knocked down.  17’ the Aggies sent in mass subs.  Xitlaly came in with them.  The Aggies got a couple more corners.  Loma McNeese made a running shot.  The Aggies had three more corners and there were more subs.  Only a couple of starters were still in. 

 

10’ Mya made an attack.  She had the ball stolen from her and then stole it right back for a shot on the wing that was caught.  There was a little girl’s team chanting, “Let’s go, Aggies!”  They’d be cheering on and off for the rest of the game.  5’ off a free kick, X made a long pass to two players by the AMC net.  McKenzie caught it.

 

3’ a Lions player got a yellow card for pulling the jersey of Milana Eyrich, who’d blown past her on a charge.  Another long Aggie shot was caught.  Milana led another charge, which gave the Aggies another corner kick.  The final Aggie attack was Mya just missing a connection with Andrea Alvarenga for a tap in.  1-0 AMC. 

 

Halftime

The stats were a little absurd.  The Aggies were up 2-1 in shots on goal and 11-0 in corners.  They were dominating in possession, but still losing.  I almost choked drinking my courtesy water.  I hoped to God, I wouldn’t be using that as a metaphor after the game.       

 

The Aggie coaches held a conference away from the players.  I walked out for more water and a trip to the bathroom.  I saw a young woman wearing a purple evening gown at the concessions.  I no longer felt overdressed.  When I got back, Coach Baarts was addressing the team while they were sitting on the bench. 

 

There were a bunch of student-athletes on the hill behind the north goal.  A photographer came by and got the Volleyball girls’ picture.  McKenzie and the Lion’s other goalie were out on the field practicing by themselves.  The photographer went back for more with the Volleyball girls.  Who could blame him?  A pretty blonde girl came by and took a picture of a bunch of girls wearing purple in the stands.  Finally, the Hot Marketing Girl came out and played up to the crowd for a t-shirt toss.

 

Second Half

The crowd was shouting before play resumed.  They knew there was a lot of pride on the line here.  The girls looked loose on the field.  After a few minutes of action, this attitude paid off.  38’ left in the game, the Aggies had a free kick by the AMC box.  Brooke took the shot and Meredith headed it right in.  That’s the Equalizer doing her thing, right there!  1-1.

 

37’ AMC came back with an attack.  An attack after a throw in by the Aggie box was popped up over the net.  36’ Loma took a chip shot that was caught.  A Lions player was hurt on the play.  Loma had knocked her aside during her attack.  It didn’t seem that bad.  Maybe she twisted or tore something on the way down.  Finally, the cart had to be brought out to take her off the field.  It got quiet enough that I could hear Adam again. 

 

A weird, smoky haze started falling over the field.  It wasn’t obscuring the field itself, but everything beyond it.  I didn’t know what to make it.  Though there was a light breeze, everything was still hazy going back home. 

 

32’ Meredith had the ball stolen from her.  Carolina Rodriguez ran down the attacker.  Back the other way, Loma kicked the ball downfield.  Milana and the Lion’s goalie both jumped for the ball in front of the net.  McKenzie came up with it.  Mya was subbed out, surprisingly.  Right after, Carolina was knocked down and limped off the field.  28’ the Aggies made a fierce attack, but got no shots off.  A minute later, Loma took a long shot that went high and wide.

 

26’ AMC came back with an attack.  Marlee headed it out.  The Lions got a corner off of it and the ball was kicked out.  Meredith then kicked out another AMC attack.  From here on out, it was pretty much all Aggies on the offense.

 

Defender Marlee got involved.  She took a long shot that was caught.  22’ Sydnee Johnson and Lauren made an attack that was broken up.  20’ Meredith was run out-of-bounds into the AMC bench.  She took a header shot off of an Aggie corner that went out.  Her hair knot got messed up by the attack.

 

17’ a Lion attack was broken up at midfield and Lauren was called for a foul.  The crowd disagreed.  I should mention that the fans were totally into the game by now.  They were making noise on every exchange on the field.  13’ Brooke to Lauren for a good chance, but it was stopped. 

 

12’ the Aggies had multiple corners, but came up empty.  Val was near midfield screaming at the team during the attacks.  10’ Marlee stopped a possible one-on-one attack on Val before it got to the box.  Right after, Marlee led a charge downfield.  She made a pass to Shila for a header that just missed.  Marlee came right back with another attack.  She passed to Brooke, who took a running shot that missed. 

 

The crowd was going crazy now.  6’ Shila made a charge that was broken up.  5’ Marlee (where was she finding the energy?) led another attack down the field.  Milana took the shot with a header that went out.  Val was back out screaming encouragement again.  With about 90 seconds remaining, the Aggies took multiple shots on the AMC goal that were all stopped.  The crowd was yelling for a handball in the box.  The attack was still going.  Brooke finally buried a shot in the goal.  2-1 Aggies.  The crowd exploded.  The Aggies had no trouble holding on from there.  They took the win for Thalia.

 

The crowd and both teams were exhausted and stunned the game.  A Lions player laid out flat on her back on the field with her head in her hands.  I think about everyone felt the same.  The Aggie girls came over to the stands and saluted the crowd. 

 

The stats were officially ridiculous.  Shots on goal were 5 to 1 and corners were 15 to 1 for the Aggies.  The ball was in the AMC end for almost the entire second half.  You have to give it up to the Aggies for their pressure offense and to the Lions for fending them off for so long.            

 

Our Player of the Game nod obviously goes to Brooke Schultz for kicking another game-winner this week.  [Pre-post edit: I heard Coach Baarts on the radio talking about the game.  Brooke was not only an Oregon Duck as a freshman.  The coach there had told her she wasn’t good enough to play D1 Soccer.  Awesome revenge!]  I’d also add Marlee Cavitt.  She is a defender, but was indefatigable on offense.  I’d also point out Gillian McKenzie did a nice job in goal for the Lions.  Finally, not to take anything away from the girls on the field, but the 12-th man (or whatever they call it in soccer) showed up tonight.  I hope we gave them a little bit of extra energy.

 

I got back home.  Finally, I could get out of that dress shirt, which was now sort of wet.  I flipped on the TV.  I missed the entire race except for finding out who had won and a crash-filled montage of the event.  I may have missed a good one, but I wouldn’t trade tonight’s Aggie Soccer for it. 

    

I watched the news.  One El Paso TV station didn’t mention the match.  Another one said NMSU got a great win tonight against the Texas A&M Aggies and showed clips from the game against Oregon.  The newscasters were amazed with the win.  (The mainstream media is good for absolutely nothing.)  For me, I don’t know if my heart can take more drama from these girls, but I’ll tempt fate and go back the next time they’re in town.