Texas A&M
SMU
Soccer Blanks SMU, 4-0, in NCAA Second Round
Nov 12, 2006 | Soccer
November 12, 2006
The Texas A&M soccer team scored three second-half goals in just over a three-minute span to push the 8th-ranked Aggies to a 4-0 win over the SMU Mustangs (17-5-1) on Sunday afternoon at the Aggie Soccer Stadium.
With the victory the Aggies (16-5-1) advance to the Third Round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, for the eighth time, to face the Virginia Cavaliers (11-7-1). The match is set for Friday, Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. (CST) at the Aggie Soccer Stadium.
The Aggies took control of the game from the kickoff, maintaining possession of the ball for the majority of the game. In just the first half, A&M outshot the Mustangs 15-0, forcing SMU goalkeeper Ashley Gunter to make seven saves, while the A&M backline stifled any attack the Mustangs tried to muster. The Aggies also took 10 corners to SMU's none. However, at the end of the first 45 minutes the two teams went into the locker-room tied at zero.
It wasn't until the 61st minute that the Aggies would find the back of the net. A&M used several passes in the midfield to move the ball down the far right side. Junior forward Elisabeth Jones chipped a cross into Melissa Garey in the Mustang penalty area, who then spun around and sent a hard shot past Gunter for the game-winner.
Three minutes later the Aggies would strike again as the team's leading scorer, Ashlee Pistorius received the ball off a Jones throw-in and flicked it just out of the reach of Gunter for her 13th goal of the season, putting A&M up 2-0.
"EJ (Jones) came in and has made a big impact on helping to take this team to another Sweet 16," commented A&M head coach G Guerrieri. "She's a ferocious attacker. She's very quick, a natural sprinter and on top of that she's very deceptive with the ball."
Not even a full minute later the Aggies were awarded a penalty kick as an SMU defender tackled Jones from behind inside the box; setting up Pistorius for her second goal of the afternoon, 14th of the season.
Sophomore midfielder Laura Grace Robinson scored A&M's final goal of the day in the 81st minute off a long pass from Pistorius, in the center of the field. Robinson, who was set up on the left wing, sent a low shot through the SMU defense from close to 18 yards out to seal the 4-0 win for the Aggies.
"Overall, I thought this was a real solid performance from our team from start to finish," Guerrieri said. "SMU is consistently one of the top programs in their conference. I felt like our players prepared well and followed through with our game plan perfectly."
The Aggies took 27 shots on the afternoon forcing SMU's Gunter to make 10 saves on the day. On the weekend, A&M outshot its opponents 66-2.
Jones was named State Farm Player of the Game after helping to set up three of the Aggies' four goals.
Texas A&M Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH G GUERRIERI: (On the Game) "Overall, I thought this was a real solid performance from our team from start to finish. SMU is consistently one of the top programs in their conference. I felt like our players prepared well and followed through with our game plan perfectly."
(On Elisabeth Jones) "EJ (Jones) came in and has made a big impact on helping to take this team to another Sweet 16. She's a ferocious attacker. She's very quick, a natural sprinter and on top of that she's very deceptive with the ball."
JUNIOR FORWARD MELISSA GAREY: "It's really exciting any time we make the tournament. I don't know if we've taken it for granted since we're always in it. It's an exciting experience; it's fun. When we get a result like that against SMU it's a big deal. I'm just excited that we could go a really long way."
JUNIOR FORWARD ELISABETH JONES: "This is my first NCAA tournament to play in after transferring from Kentucky so this is definitely a special experience and I'm eating every second of it up. I am loving it. It's so fun. And we really have a special team this year so we could go far."
SMU Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH JOHN COSSABOON: "We're limited with a couple of key players not being able to play. No excuse but we had to come up with something different. A&M is a formidable, quality, dangerous team so what we had to do was reduce the number of minutes that they had to go at us. And so you saw what happened after they scored, it's 1-0. I'm not looking for a tie, I'm not looking for a loss, so we opened things up a bit and there went the flood gates."
"I think the elements played a little role in that with the wind behind A&M, as good as they are and the advantage of the wind. It felt very good just to hold it 0-0 until halftime. When the wind came around to us it didn't make us a better team, but it made it easier for us. We got a couple of attacking movements in. We knew we weren't going outshoot A&M. We knew we weren't going to out attack them. We just tried to manage the game and wait for our opportunities."
"Two teams showed up to play. SMU had a very credible first half and beginning of the second half. A&M, the team, as good as they are took things over for a three minute period and just did what they had to do. They took this game over and they owned it and deserve it."
