The Texas A&M soccer team took on the powerhouse No.6 Florida Gators at Ellis Field Thursday night. Under a fiery crowd of 2,345 screaming Aggie fans, A&M came away with a 2-1 win over the premier SEC favorite. The Aggies improved to 5-2-1 and 1-1 in SEC play, while the Gators fell to 7-2-0 and their first loss in the SEC 1-1.
“We’ve been good to enough to beat everybody this year, we’ve played some teams that have scored some great goals against us. Leave it to our players to save some of the best, for arguably the best team on our schedule, they don’t leave you with anything cheap,” Texas A&M head coach G. Guerrieri after the big win.
The anticipated matchup between the two teams was really dominated in both halves by the Aggies. Florida had its sudden spurts of pressure in the backfield from senior midfielder Gabby Seiler and freshman forward Deanne Rose. Seiler, who leads the team in goals, had only one shot on goal in the 81st minute. Rose scored the Gators only goal of the night coming out of the second half in the 46th minute, which was her fourth goal on the season.
“The goal they scored was a lack of concentration by five different players and it was a lack of communication. That was only flaw, hats off to our girls because they didn’t let it get it down and they took care of business the rest of the game,” Guerrieri said.
The Aggies really controlled the tempo of the game by keeping the ball down on the Florida side of the field for the majority of the first half and toward the end of the second half. A&M had eight shots on goal on the night, three from both sophomore forward Ally Watt and senior forward Haley Pounds. Watt hit the crossbar in the 24th minute, and Pounds was consistent throughout the match.
Both the goals scored on the night were from about 35+ yards out with the first goal being scored in the 33rd minute by team leader sophomore forward Cienna Arrieta.
“I definitely saw the space, I really didn’t even look at the goal you should know its there I took the shot and when you take the shot and you know its going to go in it will.” Arrieta said.
The winning goal was scored on a free kick from about 45+ yards out from junior defender Kendall Ritchie.
“I originally was going to cross it, we usually work on set pieces and we aim for a certain spot on the backside,” Ritchie said. “Then I saw the goalkeeper about 6-7 feet off her line so I changed my mindset to chip it over her and it went in; it was very exciting.”
It was Ritchie’s first goal on the year as it came in the 65th minute. This is the second consecutive game where A&M had 15 fouls, the Gators had 10.
The Aggies travel to Columbia, Missouri, where they will be back in action in a SEC conference matchup against Missouri. Kick-off is set for Sunday at 5p.m. from Walton Soccer Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
