Texas A&M and Missouri Play to 1-1 Draw

Thursday, October 6

College Station

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

7-5-1, 2-3-1

Missouri

8-4-1, 3-2-1

OT 3

OT 4

Missouri

Texas A&M

Oct 06, 2016 | Soccer

Box Score Box Score - A&M 1, Missouri 1 - 2ot

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M Aggies and Missouri Tigers played to a 1-1 draw Thursday evening at Ellis Field.

Texas A&M (7-5-1, 2-3-1 SEC) led for 84:10 of the contest, but the Tigers' scratched out a goal in the 86^th minute to send the match to overtime and neither team was able to scrape out a decisive goal in the 20 minutes of extra action.

Freshman Grace Piper burned Missouri (8-4-1, 3-2-1 SEC) for a goal 71 seconds into the match. Ten yards off the penalty arc, Piper accepted a pass from Mikaela Harvey and uncorked a low, driving left-footed shot that stayed inside the right post for the lid-lifter.

The Aggies took a 1-0 lead into the intermission, despite Missouri owning the advantages in shots (8-5) and corner kicks (7-0).

Texas A&M's chances for victory were buoyed with 9:13 remaining in the second half when Rachel Hise was issued her second yellow card of the match, leaving Missouri to play a man down. Despite being down in numbers, the Tigers pressed the attack and finally broke through with 4:39 remaining in the second half. Kaitlyn Clark sent a cross in from the left side of the penalty box, finding Allie Hess for a clear shot from eight yards out.

The Aggies had three prime counter-attack chances earlier in the second half that would have provided insurance goals, but Missouri goalkeeper Kelsey Dossey came up big with three saves. All three stops came on shots by Brittany Crabtree who was working up top with Haley Pounds.

Texas A&M had the most scoring opportunities in the 20 minutes of overtime, owning edges in shots (8-4) and corner kicks (4-2), but to no avail. Crabtree took another shot that caused Dossey to hit the deck for the save in the 93^rd minute and the Tigers made the save on a shot by Grace Wright to keep the golden goal off the board.

Danielle Rice made nine saves for Texas A&M and Kendall Ritchie made a defensive save on a the end line on a shot by Sarah Luebbert prevented a goal in the 84^th minute.

For the match, Missouri owned advantages in shots (23-18), shots-on-goal (11-6) and corner kicks (16-6).

Texas A&M returns to action Sunday when they play the Tennessee Volunteers in a 4 pm contest in Knoxville.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head Coach G Guerrieri
On Aggies' performance throughout the game…
"I thought it was one heck of a battle. Both teams left it all out on the field. I was disappointed that we gave that one up in the 86^th minute, but Mizzou was battling hard. They were able to make a lot of substitutions and keep the players fresh. That paid off for them there at the end. We had our chances. They had their chances. I thought Dani Rice was fantastic in goal for us and what a great goal to get it started with a fantastic shot by Grace Piper. I thought that we came out and did a good job in the second half and with a couple misses on our end, a couple misses on their end and with some great goal keeping by Dani Rice we leave with a 1-1 draw."

On being down a player and playing the same way…
"They are dangerous when they stretch the game, which they did. You got 17 upfront and 27 upfront who are both incredibly dangerous when they turn and run and they got away from our backs a couple of times, it's a good thing that we had cover to help out."

Junior defender McKayla Paulson
On Missouri offense pressuring Texas A&M…
"It was definitely frustrating but you have to hand it to Mizzou. They've got some great players that can turn. They ran at us a lot and they really put us under pressure. They scored a good goal. It was definitely frustrating. I wish we could have held them the whole time but I thought overall our defense played great. I thought our whole team played really well. We really started keeping the ball and doing what we know how to do. It was just really unlucky we couldn't put one in the back of the net."

On scoring early…
"Oh yeah, we needed that a lot. That was great. [Grace] Piper has a rocket of a shot. It's no surprise she put that in the back of the net and it was just exactly what we needed."