Texas A&M Soccer shuts out William & Mary, 2-0
The No. 5 Texas A&M soccer team knocked off William & Mary 2-0 on Sunday night behind an own goal and a late strike from Ally Watt. The win moves the Aggies to 8-0 for the third time in program history, and first time since 1997.
After Colorado College put heavy numbers behind the ball on Friday night (which stalled the Aggie attack), head coach G Guerrieri played much more aggressive against William & Mary. Guerrieri employed a 3-4-3 formation to start the match, putting more pressure on the Tribe’s defense.
Another difference in the lineup was the absence of midfielder Emily Bates, who had started every match this season. Bates suffered an injury to her left leg in Friday’s game. She participated in pregame warmups on Sunday but ended up sitting out the match.
Addie McCain started in place of the injured captain and played all 90 minutes, logging a shot and completing almost all of her passes.
“It’s difficult to replace a player like Emily - she’s not easily replaceable. The mindset is just to get in there and do the best that I can and do the things that I do well,” McCain said. “I just tried to compensate for what we were missing with her being out.”
McCain and Ziemer (who also played the entire match) anchored the midfield and played some great through balls to start counterattacks.
“[McCain] had a great night on Friday as well. She’s really starting to come along and I thought that Tera Ziemer had a great night as well,” Guerrieri said. “They were both really, really solid in helping us establish possession as we went.”
The Aggies converted their chances into a goal in the 18th minute as Kendall Ritchie bent a corner kick to the near side of the goal. William & Mary’s goalie Katelyn Briguglio then punched the corner kick in the air, the ball bounced over the head of the Tribe defender and then went into the side-netting.
The Maroon and White continued their attack for the duration of the half. The Aggies held a narrow 1-0 lead at the intermission.
The own goal proved to be an omission in the match, as Briguglio made some great saves to keep the Tribe within striking distance. The athletic keeper finished the match with 12 saves.
“She made... four breakaway saves that were really difficult saves,” Guerrieri said about Briguglio. “There were a couple that we just hit her in the hands with but she made four really good saves to keep the game close.”
On the Aggies' 27th shot of the night, Ally Watt was able to finish the Tribe off in the 84th minute, juking a defender and striking a shot to the bottom left corner from 15 yards out.
The Maroon and White will now focus their attention on getting ready for SEC play.
“We feel confident going into SEC play, being [8-0] is exactly where we want to be. We’ve been able to use a lot of different people in a few different roles,” Guerrieri said. “We feel pretty good about being able to adjust to what really good SEC teams like LSU are going to throw at us.”
The Aggies will open SEC play against LSU at Ellis Field with kickoff slated for 7:30 P.M.