Texas A&M
Colorado
Aggies Earn Huge Win at Home
Oct 21, 2005 | Soccer
October 21, 2005
The No. 14 Texas A&M soccer team improved to 11-3-2, 5-2-1 in Big 12 with a very important 2-1 victory over the 24th- ranked Colorado Buffaloes, in front of 3,364 fans Friday night at the Aggie Soccer Stadium. With the loss, the CU drops to 9-6-2, 5-3 in conference play.
"This is another quality win for us," commented A&M head coach G. Guerrieri. "Now this puts us in the driver's seat. We have two games left at home and it makes it to where the game against Texas Tech is now the biggest game of the season so far. We have to get a win against Texas Tech."
The match started out very physical with both teams battling for possession of the ball, however it was Colorado whose attack found the back of the goal first. Kathryn Grandinetti scored her first goal of the season in the eighth minute of play off a rebound that came from a blocked CU corner kick, to give the Buffaloes a 1-0 lead.
Even with having outshot the Buffaloes 9-4 in the first half, the Aggies went into halftime down by one. A&M managed seven corners in the first 45 minutes of play, while CU only kicked one.
The Aggies took to the field with a vengeance in the second half and four minutes into play, Kat Krambeer sent a cross deep from the right endline back across the field to find Ashlee Pistorius at the back of the box waiting to send a quick pass towards the goal and the Big 12's leading scorer Melissa Garey tucked the ball into the net evening the score one-all.
With 18:27 remaining in regulation, Guerrieri substituted Suzzette Devloo into the game for Ashlee Pistorius. Two minutes later, the Colorado offense was called for an offsides and Aggie goalkeeper Kati Jo Spisak stepped up to take the free kick and sent a towering shot towards Devloo who nailed the game-winner.
"I know KJ [Spisak] can kick it to the moon," said Devloo, of the Aggie goalkeeper. "I was in the right place at the right time and able to see the ball, turn and hit the target."
The Aggie defense stepped up, ready to fight tooth and nail, in a match that continued to become more and more brutal with 25 fouls being called between the two teams, and only allowed CU to take two shots in the last 45 minutes.
"By far and large I think the defense, led by Linda Pierson, did a really good job of passing players on and moving to the next assignment and not just being in pure man-marking situations," Guerrieri said.
Devloo was named State Farm Player of the Game after coming off the bench to score the game winning goal for the Aggies.
Sunday, A&M will face Texas Tech (1-15-0, 0-7 in Big 12) in a game scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. at the Aggie Soccer Stadium. The Aggies own the all-time series 10-1 and shutout the Red Raiders last season in Lubbock 3-0.
To purchase tickets for Aggie home games, contact the Texas A&M Athletic Ticket Office at (979) 845-2311 or (888) 99-Aggie. You can access live video, audio and stats for this weekend's games by logging on to AggieAthletics.com and fans attending either match can bring a radio and listen to aggieathletics.com's broadcast live inside the stadium on 89.9 FM
