The Texas A&M soccer team wrapped up its regular season on Thursday night with a double overtime 1-1 draw against Missouri.
After 110 minutes of play and two overtimes, A&M earned a tough draw against Missouri and ended the Tigers dreams of becoming co-champions of the SEC after junior back up goalkeeper Danielle Rice made a heroic penalty save in the 104th minute. The Aggies lone goal came from forward Ally Watt.
The Aggies (13-5-1, 6-4-1 SEC) started the match slow and couldn’t get their offense going during the first half. The Aggies are used to playing possession but Missouri’s pressure proved to be too difficult and had trouble stringing passes together. In the end, the defense saved the day for the maroon and white.
Missouri (9-4-5, 7-2-2 SEC) would have claimed a share of the SEC title had they come out victorious. The Tigers played well defensively but failed to convert two critical chances in the second overtime, including an opportunity right in front of the goal off of a corner kick and on a penalty.
Both teams were fairly quiet during the first half offensively. The Tigers outshot the Aggies 5-4 before the intermission and did have two significant chances during the first half. Senior midfielder Reagan Russell made a run past multiple A&M defenders and squared a pass across the face of goal but no Missouri players were in sight to tap it home.
The second chance came in the 44th minute before the half when junior Rachel Hignett headed towards goal and Hummel came out to gather. Hummel tried to gather and appeared to not have possession and Lauren Flynn knocked the ball out of Hummel’s clutches and calmly scored. The referee blew his whistle and called a foul on Flynn, which disallowed the goal.
Ally Watt opened the scoring for A&M in the 52nd minute. Mikaela Harvey found Watt, who was making a run in the box. Watt rifled a shot into the top right corner off the post and into the back of the net to give A&M a 1-0 lead.
The equalizer from Missouri occurred 11 minutes later in the 63rd minute after Kaitlyn Clark whipped in a cross to Reagan Russell, who beat Mia Hummel at the near post and headed home to tie things up at 1-1.
With five minutes left in overtime, substitute goalkeeper Danielle Rice made a heroic save. Missouri earned a penalty kick that would have ended the match, and Rice dove left and saved Candace Johnson’s penalty kick to preserve the 1-1 draw.
The Aggies will return to action in the SEC Tournament, which runs from Nov. 2-8.
