Texas A&M Soccer battles Oklahoma State to draw in home opener, 2-2
On an unusually cool September evening, the 12th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies took on the Oklahoma State Cowgirls at Ellis Field, battling to a 2-2 draw.
In the first 30 minutes of the match, the teams spent an almost-equal amount of time at each goal, but at the 27-minute mark, Cowgirl Jaci Jones scored, putting OSU up, 1-0.
The momentum switched after a yellow card was called on OSU's Claire
Gantzer, and the last fifteen minutes of the first half were
predominantly spent near the Oklahoma State goal. With 20 minutes left in the first half, Grace Piper scored on an assist
from Cienna Arrieta to tie the game for the Aggies.
With just under 14 minutes left in the match, a yellow card was called on midfielder Addie McCain, and near the 12-minute mark, Piper received the Aggies’ second yellow card. Despite the penalties, the Aggies remained efficient, alert and aggressive, and with 7:20 left, Stephanie Malherbe fired the ball into the left corner of the OSU goal, putting the Aggies in the lead, 2-1.
The Cowgirls pressured the Aggies as the match came to a close, and OSU's Haley Woodard rocketed the ball into the A&M goal with just over four minutes left, tying the match. As the clock reached zero and two
scoreless 10-minute overtimes played out, the Aggies and Cowgirls found themselves in a 2-2 draw.
Texas A&M head coach G. Guerrieri was pleased with the way his team competed.
“We played well enough that we should have won, but also Oklahoma State played incredibly well," he said. "They made some great defensive plays in the last eighteen yards. I thought that up until eighteen yards, we looked really good. They scored two goals. The way they score goals, they’re very good on the flanks. They’re big and strong, and it took us a little bit of getting used to and to get that going. But I was proud of our players – the way they came from behind and took the lead. I was disappointed that we gave it back, but I thought that we finished and we ran out of time."
He went on to praise the Cowgirls after the match.
“Oklahoma State is going to win a lot of games. I think that Collin and his staff are some of the best people you’re going be around, and they’re going to win games. And they’re going to be really difficult for a lot of teams to play, so we can’t look at this as anything but we played against a really tough (squad). And we didn’t finish 25 of our chances, so that's the thing that we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to be able to put the ball in the net.”