After a scoreless first half, the No. 14 Texas A&M soccer regained momentum to shut out Little Rock 1-0 in their Friday night match-up at Ellis
The first half saw few shots on goal, four for A&M and one for Little Rock respectively. But, once the ball was set down for the second half, it was like a different squad had come out of the locker room.
“Effort, pure and simple” head coach G Guerrieri said was the message to his team after they were tied 0-0 at halftime. “If you want an example of great effort — Emily Bates, is the example. And Emily Bates won the game for us.”
The aforementioned sophomore, sophomore Emily Bates, scored the only the goal and quickly into the second half — with over 40 minutes left in the match. The team as a whole, had nine shots in the second half and 13 for the match, to go along side another shut out from senior keeper Danielle Rice
“The first half we were kind of on cruise control,” Guerrieri said. “And good for Little Rock, Little Rock came in here with a great gameplan, — they were very organized, they were tough, it took a world class goal for us to score and that’s what Emily did for us.”
Bates, who scored seven goals last season and her first of 2016 tonight, said she she took advantage of an opportunity to put the ball in the net after a slow first half.
“I was thinking that the first half for was pretty frustrating for us offensively,” Bates said. “So, just to get anything on frame was a bonus at this point, but to have it go in was just kind of luck.”
Physicality factored into the second half, with Little Rock committing nine fouls in the second half, with six of the nine on junior midfielder Mikaela Harvey — two resulting in yellow cards for Little Rock. This is the second game in a row where Harvey had been fouled, resulting in a yellow card for the opponent.
Harvey, at 4’11, said being fouled by the opposing teams is nothing new to her.
“It’s always just like a thing, you know I’m like a smaller player so I think people are just like, ‘Oh, she’s a tiny girl so we’re gonna go after her,” Harvey said.
G Guerrieri said Illinois on Sunday will present a different challenge athletically on the pitch.
“They’ve got some big, strong midwest athletes,” G Guerrieri said. “And they’re gonna play with some speed, they’re gonna knock the ball around and they’re a well coached team.”
The Aggies will return to the pitch on Sunday night at 6 p.m. as they play host to Illinois . The game will broadcast on the SEC Network Plus and can be heard on 1550 AM.
