Texas A&M
Texas
Aggie Soccer Loses Hard Battle in Austin
Oct 02, 2005 | Soccer
October 02, 2005
The No. 11 Texas A&M soccer team recorded its first Big 12 loss of the season 2-1 against the Longhorns at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin Sunday, dropping the first point in the 2005-06 State Farm Lone Star Showdown.
"This is a hard loss to swallow," commented A&M head coach G Guerrieri. "We gave up two soft goals. The Longhorns did a good job of stopping one-way traffic the last 35 minutes of the game."
Early in the first half Texas (5-5-1, 2-2) was awarded a dangerous free kick from close to 20 yards out but was unable to finish the opportunity to take the lead as the A&M (8-2-1, 2-1) defense headed the ball over the endline.
Five minutes later in the 15th minute of play, Ashlee Pistorius was fouled 25 yards from the goal. She sent a hard free kick to the right side of the goal, but Longhorn goalkeeper Dianna Pfenninger laid herself out for the save.
With 20:40 on the clock, Allison Martino sent a short cross to Garey near the six yard mark where she tried to punch it in. Once again, Pfenninger was able to pounce on the ball for her third save for the first half.
A&M goalkeeper, Kati Jo Spisak displayed her awesome defensive skills with just under three minutes left to play in the first period when Kelsey Carpenter attacked the box and fired a hard shot from the far right wing but Spisak was able to smother it and keep the game scoreless.
The Aggies and the Longhorns spent the first half trading possession, and went into halftime tied at zero. A&M managed to take nine shots on goal to Texas' six. Texas did take four corner kicks while the Aggies took none.
Both teams came out playing aggressively in the second half. But it was the Longhorns who struck first, taking a 1-0 lead off their first penalty kick of the season. Carpenter was knocked down in front of the goal by Micah Stephens. Texas Freshman, Kasey Moore netted the penalty kick to Spisak's left.
A&M quickly bounced back attacking the Longhorn goal. Garey fired a hard shot that easily sailed past Pfenninger, however it was called back as the Aggies were called for being offside.
Texas took a 2-0 lead with 39:29 on the clock. A cross to the far post, that they Aggie defense thought had gone out of play found Longhorn, midfielder Caitlin Kennedy crashing in for her second goal of the season.
Garey was able to bring the Aggies within one with 22:27 left in regulation as she sent a shot to the back of the net for her 11th goal of the season off a throw-in from Carrie Berend.
The Longhorns withstood wave after wave of Aggie attacks in the last half of play, including a shot from Laura Probst that ricocheted off the post and one from Emily Peterson that hit just over the top of the crossbar.
The Aggies' last chance to tie the game came with 48 seconds left in regulation as Probst served a perfect cross to a crashing Pistorius and Garey, but Pfenninger was able to save the cross in the air at the goal-line.
"It's a funny old game," Guerrieri said. "We didn't finish all of those numerous chances we created today and they got two goals off a chance and a half. Hats off to them, they worked hard to get this win."
Linda Pierson was named State Farm Player of the Game having been steadfast in the Aggie backfield for the entirety of the match.
The Aggies head home to face the Iowa State Cyclones on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at the Aggie Soccer Stadium. A&M leads the all-time series 10-0-1. You can also access live coverage and game stats by logging on to AggieAthletics.com.
