Still no damn phone numbers! I keep hoping I’ll get some digits on one of
these autograph days, but it’s not happening!
At least I was happy about game, I guess, whatever.
It was hot today.
Real hot. There were a few
scattered clouds overhead, but no shade and only an occasional cool
breeze. The parking lot was full when I
showed up 20 minutes early. There was a
good crowd already in the stands for the I-25 Rivalry game with the UNM Lobos. It full be full up later when the game
started, even in spite of the heat. I
found Fan Danny there. He already looked
in bad shape before the game started.
He’d get worse.
The Rangers
were on the radio when I left. I thought
about bringing a radio, but thought it’d be too much trouble (to listen to them
lose badly again). Given that I was
sitting near the Aggie Outlaw Pep Band,
I never would have heard the game anyway.
A tubby Lobo fan was sitting in a big stadium chair on the south end of
the field. This area is sort of
off-limits for fans, but I guess he had permission. He had a team photographer with him and he’d
wave a UNM flag during the game. I was
wondering where Aggie super-fan Tom was to combat him. All of the players were standing for the
Anthem, so no controversies today.
First
Half
The Lobos were cheering right off the bat. The opening Aggie kick went to goalie, Valerie Guha. A Lobo player ran up and blocked her
kick. Nothing came of it, though. UNM wouldn’t have much to cheer about a
couple of minutes later. Ariana Leamons made a solo charge and
passed it off to Meredith Scott for
a goal that looked easy, 1-0 Aggies. The
crowd let off a big cheer. Brooke Schultz ran to midfield and
played up to the crowd.
41’ left in the half, the Lobos had a corner. A resultant kick went straight to the
sidelines and scattered the Folklorico dancers performing with the band. Jena
Johannes got knocked down hard in the Aggie box and had to come out. The Lobos made a couple attacks afterward
that went wide and then high on the goal.
33’ it was Ariana again on a solo charge. She made a chip shot that floated over the
goalie and in to make it, 2-0 Aggies.
Funny thing is that she was completely nonchalant about it heading back
to midfield. A minute later, she made
another rush at the net, but this time the Lobos double-teamed her.
30’ Shila Rasoul
was in the middle of traffic in front of the UNM net and pounded a line drive
straight in. 3-0 Aggies! By this point, the crowd was getting tired from
doing the Aggie fight song in the heat.
The Lobos came back with a corner kick and then a free
kick on the Aggie net. On that second
attack, Val knocked the ball away and Marlee
Cavitt made a header to get it out of the box. 25’ a cloud passed overhead putting everyone
in the shade. There was almost a round
of applause for it. After an Aggie
corner, the players took a hydration break.
The sun unfortunately came back out. 20’ a long shot by the Lobos flew wide by the
net and a diving Val. Several Aggie subs
came in. Jena cycled back into the
game. The band stopped playing for a
minute to erect a pavilion over their stands to give themselves some
shade.
17’ off a Lobo free kick, Natalie DeGagne buried a long, top shelf shot into the corner. 3-1 Aggies.
It was a great shot. Team captain
(and my favorite), Mya Hammack,
huddled the team together on field and gave them a quick talk.
There was another cloud for cover. It was nice while it lasted. Danny was having a problem by this
point. The heat and some medication he’d
had were taking him out. He asked for
help to leave, but found he was having trouble just getting up and he asked for
an EMT. I quickly found a security
guard, who came over and talked to him.
She called over another guard and they were able to escort him out. I’d have to wait until later to find out
about him.
I wasn’t watching the game much while this was going
on. There was a collision in the Aggie
box and an Aggie player went down. A fan
yelled out, “Better spend some more time in the weight room!” Maybe that was a Lobo fan. 7’ Val blocked another shot. There was another round of Aggie subs. There was a last second Aggie corner before
the half ended. Aggies up 3-1.
Halftime
The conflict wasn’t entirely over. Mya ran over started wearing out the ref
about something. Finally, Coach Baarts had to run out and save
her. The stats were the Aggies up 3-1 on
shots on goal, but down 3-2 in corners. And
there were two Aggie girls who took headers and got knocked to ground on
them. (No names.)
There as a Student $1k giveaway. The first name drawn wasn’t present. They called another name and luckily, the guy
finally ran out on the field from the bathroom or the concessions before they
pulled another name. The Outlaw Pep Band
came out and performed a few numbers to keep the crowd enthusiastic. After playing, a couple of the band guys
started dancing to the PA music and it was pretty hysterical.
I’d gotten a cup of water from a barrel up front when I
came in. (It was either that or $4 water
at the concessions.) I went back and
found the barrel was empty.
Disappointing, but not as disappointing as the scuttlebutt I was hearing
in the stands. Some students behind me,
who were tight with the Football
team, were talking about how bad the team was going to be this year.
Specifically, they were talking about the new starting
quarterback. He’d had a nervous breakdown
in front of one of the girls and said (and she prefaced this saying, “Don’t
tell anybody this”), “I’m no good. I’m
not ready. I’m nowhere near as good as
Diego. I can’t handle it. I’m gonna suck.” I hope the team has a sports psychologist on
staff. Yeah, I said it was a bad sign
when they put the tee-fetching dog on the poster instead of a player, but, hey,
let’s play the games first and see how it goes before we bury the team.
Second
Half
The band began the half playing Tank, one of my favorites.
Val had to catch two shots right off the bat. 40’ the Aggies countered and Loma McNeese took a shot from the front
of the Lobo box that sailed high. 38’
scary moment as Val collected a loose ball and collided with Jena. Valerie went down, but was okay.
36’ Brooke took a shot off an Ariana charge that also went
high. A minute later, the Lobos were
coming towards the Aggie goal on a two-player breakaway. Mya took a yellow card putting a hard stop to
the rush. A Lobo corner led to a free
kick just outside the Aggie box. Val
made the save of the game with a flying punch to keep the ball out of the
corner of the net. The Lobos had another
corner that was knocked out.
30’ mass Aggie subs.
Coach Baarts must have felt pretty good about their chances, as he
actually took Mya out. She usually plays
the whole game. 29’ Ariana Ellison, with her arm in a cast, knocked out a Lobo
attack. Right after, UNM got a yellow
for doing a sweep tackle on the sidelines and sending an Aggie to the
ground. An Aggie player pushed down a
Lobo in retaliation, but got away with it.
The Aggies kept it in the Lobo end for a few minutes,
before the Lobos got a terrific opportunity with an unguarded player right in
front of the Aggie goal. We all know
what that means by now. Say it with me,
“Offsides.” There was a hydration break
for the players. In addition, the PA
announced the water barrel had been refilled for the fans. Since there were announced autographs
afterward, so I figured I’d better drink up.
Mya came back in.
That was a good thing. 19’ a
breakaway Lobo attack just missed a shot.
16’ more Aggie subs. 12’ I could
hear Coach Baarts screaming across the field.
There was another good Lobo attack on the wing. Mya got on the attacker and wouldn’t let her
get by. After a pass, the ball was
forced out.
11’ off an Aggie corner, Shila made an attack after a nice
crossing pass. Ari ran over the goalie
in the process. 5’ Loma was
double-teamed with the ball, well, more like assaulted. A near fight broke out. The line judge and the ref rushed in to break
it up. No cards were given. That was the last major action of the game. Aggies win 3-1. I’d be more excited,
but that was 45 brutal minutes in the sun with no scoring. We’ll take it, though, for the win.
My players of the game are Ariana Leamons for an assist and a goal in the first half and to Valerie Guha and Mya Hammack for locking it down on defense in the second half. Our final stats are 3-2 Aggies in shots on
goal (the Aggies converted on all their shots, but that was all they took) and
5-3 Lobos in corners. The team saluted
the band and the crowd afterward.
Autographs
I got down to the field quick and got in line near the
front. Let’s do these autographs before
I start to sizzle. The team huddled in a
circle with the coach. I saw broadcaster,
Jack Nixon, by the team. (He wasn’t calling the game. He was there as a fan.) AD Mario
Moccia was also in the circle. He
got sprayed with water after the coach spoke.
Coach Baarts, in turn, got a
cooler of water dumped on his head.
I saw the security guard from earlier. She told me that they took Danny into some
air conditioning and he recovered. He’d
said he hadn’t come to the Thursday night game because he didn’t feel safe
driving at night and he just about passed out here at a day game. I don’t know how much more I’ll see of him at
Aggie Sports.
Time for autographs.
Valerie Guha was all smiles
when I told her she’d had a great game.
She said, “Thank you for coming.”
Awww. I told Ariana Leamons that she needed to work on her post-goal
celebrations. Her teammates agreed. Two standout players were there injured, Xitlaly Hernandez and Bianca Chacon. I think Bianca said she was done for the
season. X thought she’d be back in a
couple games.
I congratulated Shila
Rasoul and Meredith Scott on
their goals. I called Meredith, “The
Equalizer” for her goal on Thursday. She seemed to like it. I asked Jena
Johannes if she was okay. She was
fine. I told Loma McNeese that she could have taken those girls. Loma was more focused on scoring her first
goal of the season.
When I got to Mya
Hammack, I pointed at her picture on the poster, “You look so darling cute
here. There are you are mugging for the
camera.” I might have gotten blush out
of her. Her teammates were amused. “Say, how’d that talk go with the ref at halftime?” Once again, I set her off on a tirade about
the ref, whom she’d apparently had previous run-ins with. She said was trying protect Val from being
abused on kicks. The last time I’d asked
her about an interaction with a ref (9-17-23),
this same thing had happened. I gotta
stop setting her off, even if it is adorable.
Walking back out to my truck, I noticed my belt and pants were really loose. I think I lost several pounds over the course of the match. My stomach let off a massive growl as I walked back to my truck. To fix that, I headed over to Whataburger. I drove past the Convention Center on the way there. The parking lot was full for the Comic Con. I really would have liked to have gone this weekend, but there was only like an hour-and-a-half left before it closed. Anyway, great meal and a great day to be an Aggie.
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