A&M Rolls to 3-0 Win vs. Northwestern State

Sunday, August 23

College Station

6:00 PM

Texas A&M

2-0-0

Northwestern State

1-1-0

Northwestern State

Texas A&M

Aug 23, 2015 | Soccer

Box Score

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies notched two goals in the first nine minutes of action and rolled to a 3-0 win Sunday evening against the Northwestern State Lady Demons in the home opener at Ellis Field.

The Maroon and White owned overwhelming margins in shots (23-5), shots-on-goal (12-2) and corner kicks (11-1) as they started the season 2-0-0 for the second consecutive year.

Goalkeepers Taylor Saucier and Mia Hummel combined on the Aggies' first shutout of the season. Saucier went untested in the first half and Hummel recorded two saves in the second half.

The Aggies struck quickly with the first goal coming in the fifth minute of play. Ashlynn Harryman boomed a ball into the penalty box from 35 yards out. Haley Pounds chested the service to her feet eight yards out and found herself one-on-one situation with the Lady Demons' goalkeeper Brooke Bourbonais. Pounds took one dribble and chipped the ball over Bourbonais' right shoulder from five yards out for her first goal of the season.

Mikaela Harvey gave Texas A&M a 2-0 lead in the ninth minute with her first career goal. Pounds collected a Northwestern State clearance 30 yards out on the left touchline. Pounds fed a pass to Emily Bates, with her back to the goal at the left elbow of the penalty box. Bates one-touched a pass to Harvey in the center of the pitch and she launched a missile from 25 yards out between the left post and a diving Bourbounais.

The Aggies' inflated the cushion to 3-0 in the 30th minute. Kate Hajdu gathered a ball on the endline to the left of the six-yard box and pushed a pass to Janae Cousineau, making a run to the left of the penalty box arc. Cousineau received the offering in stride poking a ball with the outside of her right foot from 18 yards out through three Lady Demons' defenders and a lunging Bourbonais.

Despite not registering a goal after the intermission, the Aggies kept the pressure on in the second half. Texas A&M owned advantages in shots (11-3), shots-on-goal (5-2) and corner kicks (6-1). The best scoring opportunities of the half came when Pounds drilled a free kick through traffic for 20 yards out that relief netminder Alex Latham made a diving save on and when Harvey unleashed a shot from 12 yards out that Latham punched wide of the left post on the dive in the 69th minute.

Texas A&M returns to action Friday when the Aggies host the UC Irvine Anteaters in a 7:30 pm contest at Ellis Field.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head Coach G Guerrieri
On the strengths early on: I think you can see our midfield really moves well. There's a lot of good work off of the ball which is setting the ball up so we can move the ball quickly whether it's side-t- side or back to front. I'm pleased with the way our forwards our combining with those players.

On what will need improved: We've only been together for two weeks, but we need to be able to finish off chances. Our last pass into scoring position needs to be a little bit better.

On the crowd: It was a big crowd and our new freshmen got a chance to get a big win in front of a large crowd. Next Friday it will be an even bigger crowd with the students getting back along with Fish Camp Night. We'll have six or seven thousand people out here.

Sophomore forward Haley Pounds
On the great home support: It's awesome. It shows that A&M really does have the best fans in the nation. It's great to have this big of crowd when the school year hasn't even started yet.

On what the needs to work on: Possession and keeping the ball better. The forwards need to just keep getting more shots off and being more composed in front of goal. I think we need to be better in the air and stay more compact defensively, in the midfield especially.

Sophomore midfielder Mikaela Harvey
On scoring her first career goal: It was awesome because I haven't scored in forever. I was actually nervous that it was never going to happen.

On her play this evening: Our forwards made some great runs. It's my job to quarterback and to find those runs so we could have an opportunity to score. I think we did pretty well tonight, but we left some goals out there. That's something I know the coaches will have us working on in practice this week.