Texas A&M
9-2-1, 3-1-0SEC
Florida
9-2-0, 4-0-0SEC
No. 9 Texas A&M Drops Late Decision to No. 6 Florida
Oct 04, 2014 | Soccer
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – A donnybrook between two SEC heavyweights came down to the wire on Friday evening with the No. 6 Florida Gators besting the No. 9 Texas A&M Aggies on a goal in the 84th minute.
In the opening half, Texas A&M dictated the terms of play with lots of jabs early but were unable to land a scoring punch. The Aggies owned a 10-4 advantage in shots and a 3-0 edge in shots-on-goal.
Twice the Maroon and White got the fans on their feet in the first half with a ball in the back of the net, but both times it was wiped off the board with an offside violation. The first came on an attack by Bianca Brinson in the 25th minute and the second came in 43rd minute when Shea Groom dumped a ball to Liz Keester who charged toward the goalkeeper before dumping it to Haley Pounds for a wide open shot, but Pounds was a yard offside to draw the assistant referee's flag.
Annie Kunz, Allie Bailey and Groom each provide dangerous attacks in the first half, but couldn't get the ball past Florida goalkeeper Taylor Burke.
Coming out of the intermission, the Aggies peppered the goal with a couple more shots, but didn't find the back of the net. Janae Cousineau and Allie Bailey both had shots snuffed out by Burke in the first five minutes of the second half. Moments later Meghan Streight had missile blocked by a defender and Groom forced Burke to go to the ground for a save in the 52nd minute.
Brinson failed to put away a golden scoring opportunity from 12 yards out with 30 minutes remaining in the second half.
The weight of the possession start to tilt in Florida's balance as the match entered its last third. Annie Speese uncorked a shot in the 67th minute and Savannah Jordan put a shot on goal in the 75th minute, but Renee McDermott made two valiant saves to keep a clean sheet.
Speese unloaded another shot in the 79th minute, but McDermott dove to her right to stonewall the Gators.
Florida's late pressure finally paid off in the 84th minute with Tessa Andujar building the attack. Andujar worked down the right side of the pitch and dumped a ball into Jordan inside the penalty box. Jordan sent a shot across the front of the bow that got by a diving McDermott, but appeared to be heading safely wide of the goal before an Aggie defender knocked it into the net on an attempt to clear.
For the match, Texas A&M owned advantages in shots (16-10) and shots-on-goal (8-4) and Florida held a slight edge in corner kicks with a 5-4 margin.
The loss snapped Texas A&M's home win streak at 15 matches, the fifth-longest string in school history. It also marked the first time the Aggies suffered a shutout in 2014.
Texas A&M returns to action Sunday with an 11 am match against the Kentucky Wildcats at Ellis Field. The match will be televised on ESPNU.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach G Guerrieri
On the loss…
“We're a good team in transition, this is the first time we've been shut out in a long time. We can play the angles, get passes on the move, and open up the field. We had a few opportunities to do that today but unfortunately the last shot wasn't there to keep us alive.”
On A&M's key players in the match…
“You have to give it up to McKayla Paulson, Megan Streight and Janae Cousineau. They were playing against a team that's probably the best team in the country at possession and they did a great job holding onto the ball for us. When they play like that we are a tough team to beat, unfortunately we didn't come up with the goals to pull out the win.”
Team Stats
TEAM
Assisted By: X
Shot from R corner of 6-yd box, going wi
83:08
