Texas A&M kept its undefeated streak alive with a convincing 2-0 victory over Florida Atlantic at Ellis Field Sunday.
Emily Bates broke the deadlock for the Aggies in the 68th minute and Mikaela Harvey made it two goals in two minutes after lobbing the ball over FAU’s goalkeeper Sydney Drinkwater from 22 yards out in the 69th minute.
The opening goal occurred when Ally Watt hit the post and freshman Bates had the awareness to smash the rebound into the right side of the net from 18 yards. Bates went on to describe her goal that opened up the scoring.
“I saw [Watt] going down the line and then I saw her shoot it,” Bates said. “I was following the ball in case the keeper got it or if there was a rebound. I saw it bounce off the post and bounce to me so I was like first time gotta hit it, and I got lucky and it went in.”
No. 4 A&M (4-0) had a 24-7 shot advantage over FAU and hit the target 10 times compared to FAU’s four. Bates talked about the keys to winning four straight games and being undefeated.
“It’s been everybody getting together on the same [page] and just working hard for each other,” Bates said. “Even when things go wrong, we’ve been relying on our hard work and things have ended up going our way. We’ve got some great goals and some great defense and a few shut outs so it’s going really well.”
Despite creating chances and having a 12-3 shot advantage, the Aggies couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities in the first half. They only managed to put three shots on target. The Aggies sent two through balls behind the FAU defense and almost converted them, but the Owls defense made last ditch tackles to keep the score at 0-0.
Head Coach G Guerrieri talked about his team being resilient and finding a way to pull away in the second half.
“We had to score two great goals to get the win,” Guerrieri said. “The bottom line is I’m proud of our team for finding a way to win. Being tied 0-0 at the half and a little bit frustrated with a lot of the stuff going on out there, we didn’t just sit around and feel sorry for ourselves. They went out and made it happen. It was a great goal by Bates for the game winner and for Harvey who had been pulled and yanked all game. For her to be able to score a goal like that, that’s extra gratification.”
The Aggies will travel to Tallahassee at 6 p.m. central time Friday for a test against top-ranked Florida State.
