A&M Brings Home Bacon with 2-1 Win at Arkansas

Friday, October 24

Fayetteville, Ark.

7:00 PM

Texas A&M

14-2-1, 8-1-0SEC

Arkansas

7-5-5, 3-3-3SEC

Texas A&M

Arkansas

Oct 24, 2014 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas – The Texas A&M Aggies put the Razorbacks through the meat grinder to earn a hard-fought 2-1 win against Arkansas on Friday, maintaining their three-point advantage in the SEC standings.

Texas A&M improved to 14-2-1 overall and 8-1-0 in the SEC. The victory gave A&M 24 points and the Aggies lead Florida (21 pts – 7-2-0) with two matches remaining every squad in the league. The only other team in the hunt is Kentucky who is six points back (18 pts – 6-3-0).

After 60 minutes of hard work on the offensive end, the Aggies were finally able to blow the Razorbacks' house down with a goal by Janae Cousineau. It marked the fifth consecutive contest for Cousineau putting the biscuit in the basket.

Bianca Brinson did most of the work setting up the goal. First she outran an Arkansas defender to get the ball on the right flank and sprinted to the endline where she used brilliant footwork to elude the defensive web and get into the penalty box. Brinson found Cousineau 25 yards out in the middle of the pitch and the junior thumped a shot over the top of a leaping Razorback goalkeeper, Cameron Carter, to give A&M the 1-0 lead in the 63rd minute.

Annie Kunz put the pigs in the blanket in the 71st minute. The senior worked her way across the top of the box from right to left and beat a defender to get a clear shot from 18 yards. Kunz sent a hard roller that went through Carter's wickets for the insurance goal.

Lindsey Mayo went to the market for the Razorbacks, as Arkansas, who scored on three corner kicks against A&M in 2013, converted on another in the 85th minute. Tyler sent the ball in from the left arc to Ashleigh Ellenwood who knocked the ball to Mayo in the 6-yard box and Mayo sent it into the top netting to cut the lead to 2-1.

A&M successfully kept the Razorbacks from building a meaningful attack in the last 5:37 to secure the victory.

The Maroon and White owned margins in shots (19-11) and shots-on-goal (10-6) for the match, but the Razorbacks held a 6-4 edge in corner kicks.

The Aggies were unable to put the sausage in the casing in the first half despite owning the advantages in shots (10-6) and shots-on-goal (5-3). Allie Bailey had a pair of shots at point blank range snuffed out by Carter after the keeper was unable to secure a cross by Brinson. Kelley Monogue and Shea Groom also sent in solid first half shots that sent Carter to the deck for saves.

Making her first start of the season, Jordan Day made five saves to pick up the win, coming up minutes shy of her 30th career shutout.

The Aggies return to action on Sunday when they host the South Carolina Gamecocks in a 4 pm contest at Ellis Field.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head Coach G Guerrieri
On a key road win…
“Winning on the road is always a big part of winning any championship. To go into places that are hard to play in against teams that are difficult to play against, especially here in Fayetteville, makes this a win that we're very pleased to get.”

On getting offense from Janae Cousineau…
“When people see us, they initially think 'They have three big-time scorers in Shea (Groom), Kelley (Monogue) and Annie (Kunz). Kunz gets the game-winner again tonight, but we have much more than that. We have Allie (Bailey) and B.B. (Bianca Brinson) who score with regularity. And Meghan (Streight), Karlie (Mueller), Leigh (Edwards) can all give us offensive production and tonight Janae scored again. That's five in matches in a row. It couldn't happen to a better player for how hard she plays and all the mileage she puts in for every match.”

On having a chance to win the conference title on Sunday…
“We haven't really been thinking about the South Carolina game. Now that we have this out of the way we can turn our attention to them. Last year, we were able to win the title at home and that was a great experience to be surrounded by the 12th Man. But we know South Carolina is going to come in with a great game plan and they certainly aren't going to make it easy on us.

On Jordan Day making her first start of the season…
“We are 17 games into the season and finally Jordan is in in a big way. I think she made a couple of nice saves. I don't think you can put the goal on her. It was just the chaos that Arkansas creates on set pieces and corner kicks. Renée (McDermott) has been playing great all season, but this was a match that was built for Jordan's play with all of the way Arkansas plays with kicking the ball long and trying to create corner kick chances.”