The No. 12 Texas A&M soccer team was bested by No. 10 Brigham Young University in its first loss of the season on Thursday in Provo, Utah.
As the Aggies faced their first Top-10 opponent, the Cougars took an early 2-0 lead in the first half which they kept through the rest of the game.
While the Aggies only accounted for 4 shots in the game – to BYU’s 22 – and no shots on goal, they could only do so much defensively. Freshman goalkeeper Shantel Hutton met some of the Cougars’ shots and tallied 8 saves on Thursday.
At 34 minutes, just moments after the A&M defense had made a stop following a series of connected passes, BYU junior Josie Guinn made her way into the penalty box and assisted senior Elise Flake as the ball deflected off an A&M defender, earning the lead for the Cougars.
About three minutes later, Flake was able to find control of the ball again with a couple of touches and take her shot to the bottom left of the net for the second goal of the game.
After the game, A&M head coach G Guerrieri said that his Aggie defense did its best to hold ground while going up against its toughest opponent of the season so far.
“As far as our play, I was pleased with the defensive effort of our backs,” Guerrieri said. “I thought Karlina Sample was awesome keeping us in the game. The same with Briana Alston. They both had terrific nights. Our goalkeeper had a great game. Shantel played well back there. There wasn’t much she could do about the first goal, which was essentially an own goal, and the second goal was set up by an inability to clear a ball.”
The Aggies (4-1-2) return to Ellis Field at 6 p.m. on Sept. 15 as they look to get back in the win column against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.