April 3, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M soccer team split a pair of exhibition matches Friday, defeating Stephen F. Austin, 6-0, before dropping a tough, 2-1 loss to BYU at the Aggie Soccer Stadium.
Texas A&M scored five of its six goals in the final 14 minutes to cruise past SFA in its first match of the day, and battled through a fast-paced, heated match against BYU, another perennial NCAA Tournament team.
The Aggies are now 8-1-1 in their non-traditional spring season.
"These matches are good tests for us in the spring," commented A&M head coach G Guerrieri. "All of our healthy players got a lot of playing time and gained some valuable game experiences, but I'm always disappointed when we don't win, even against a talented, well-coached and motivated team like BYU. I hope our players learned a few lessons today."
The Aggies got on the scoreboard against the Ladyjacks when substitute forward Whitney Hooper received a long throw in from freshman Kat Bartley in the final minute of the first period. From Houston, Texas, Hooper dribbled past two SFA defenders before finding sophomore forward Katie Hamilton in front of the goal. Hamilton, a native of Spring, Texas, side-footed the cross from Hooper into the back of the net just 40 seconds before halftime.
The Aggies outshot the Ladyjacks 19-0 in the 80-minute match, but it was not until A&M made a nine-player line-change with 15 minutes remaining that its dominance showed. Texas A&M scored almost immediately after Hooper, Hamilton, junior Carly Wohlers and freshman Mary Grace Schmidt entered the match.
Balaguer made an overlapping run down the right flank and lifted a 30-yard chip over the SFA goalkeeper into the far corner of the net.
Two minutes later, sophomore Raven Tatum, Hooper, and Mautz combined 35 yards from goal to spring Mautz in behind the SFA backline, where she fired a shot past the keeper from 15 yards to make the score 3-0.
Just two minutes after A&M's third goal, Mautz played a give-and-go with Hooper, and set her up for a breakaway score and a 4-0 lead.
Hooper added her second and third goals of the game in the 71st and 75th minutes on assists from Hamilton and Wohlers.
Against BYU, the Cougars jumped ahead 1-0 after they converted a corner kick in the game's ninth minute.
In the second half, the Aggies battled back and scored the equalizer in the 56th minute. Tatum collected a BYU clearance from an A&M corner kick 20 yards from goal and buried a left-footed blast into the upper-left corner of the net.
The Cougars answered the goal with the eventual game-winner in the 62nd minute.
A&M outshot the Cougars, 10-6, and had a 6-5 shots on goal advantage and an 8-5 edge in corner kicks. The Aggies, however, suffered the only loss of their 10-game non-traditional season.
"We were not nearly as intense and sharp today as we'll need to be in our fall NCAA season," said Guerrieri. "You could see a change in our level when we made some substitutions in the first game. We did alright for portions of the second game, but we didn't maintain our level and we didn't capitalize on some good scoring opportunities. It's great to get these kinds of experiences for our young players this time of the year, when it doesn't count against our record."
The Aggies close out their spring play with two more home games next Saturday, April 10. A&M faces Houston at 4 p.m. and SMU at 7 p.m. and admission is free to the public.