On a cold and rainy Sunday night, the No. 23 Texas A&M Aggie soccer team was defeated 4-3 in a wild shootout against the No. 13 Ole Miss Rebels at Ellis Field.
After opening the game slow and conceding a goal in the second minute, the Aggies fought back and appeared to have guaranteed themselves at least a draw after scoring back-to-back goals in the second half to take a 3-2 lead. A lapse on defense enabled Mississippi’s CeCe Kizer to score two quick goals over a span of 1:11, giving the Rebels a 4-3 road win and ending the Aggies 14-match home winning streak.
The Aggies (13-5-0, 6-4 SEC) outshot Ole Miss 17-14 but lacked a finishing touch in front of goal. Of the nine shots on target, many were directed right at the keeper.
The Rebels (13-3-2, 7-3 SEC) played well in possession and took their chances wisely, scoring all four of the shots they put on frame.
Ole Miss opened the scoring immediately after the opening kick off in the second minute after Gretchen Harknett received the ball in the box and slotted it past goalkeeper Mia Hummel.
Mikaela Harvey scored her sixth goal of the season and tied things up for the Aggies at 1-1 in the 20th minute. The midfielder fired a rocket from 25 yards that swerved passed the Ole Miss keeper into the top left corner of the net.
The second goal for Ole Miss occurred when leading scorer Addie Forbus provided an instant response three minutes later. The forward made her way into the box and linked up with Olivia Harrison. Harrison put the ball in a perfect position for Forbus who trapped the ball, and released a quick and calm finish into the goal.
The Aggies opened the second half strong and equalized the count yet again via a Haley Pounds penalty in the 54th minute. Ally Watt made a racing run into the box and was tackled from behind. Pounds stepped up to the spot and fired her penalty into the upper left side of the goal past the keeper.
Pounds scored again in the 63rd minute which gave A&M a 3-2 lead. Pounds sneakily swung in a powerful corner kick that curved into the goal past the Ole Miss keeper.
The sophomore discussed the team’s play in the second half and what went wrong giving up the final two goals.
“The second half I thought we played a lot better,” Pounds said. “We had the wind at our backs so we were able to play forward a little bit more and possess better. I just think we could’ve held the ball a little bit better in the end to prevent the last two goals.”
CeCe Kizer then scored the decisive two goals of the match in the span of just over a minute for the Rebels. The freshman tied things up at 3-3 after receiving the ball with no pressure, enabling her to place a firm shot past Hummel. Immediately after kick off, the Rebels were in business again. Forbus found Kiser who was wide open a second time. Kiser drilled a low shot past Hummel that put the Rebels up 4-3.
Coach G Guerrieri was not happy with his team giving up the four goals during the Aggies final regular season home match.
“It’s a really disappointing [result],” Guerrieri said. “[There] was some really poor marking by us and they had three easy shots with no pressure on them. They’re too good to give a team that from inside 14 yards. I thought our fight to come out at the start of the second half was really good to put us in the lead. But our quality just wasn’t there. It’s an unfortunate lesson, we’ve got to learn from and get better from it.”
A&M finishes its regular season Thursday night on the road against Missouri. Kick off is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the match will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
