Game #2: Texas A&M 1, Lamar 0
Records: Texas A&M (1-0-1, 0-0-0), Lamar (0-2-0, 0-0-0)
Box Score
With a full-time score of 1-0 resulting in a Texas A&M win, Sunday’s match with Lamar was the second regular-season game of the year for G Guerrieri & Co.
At the start of the game, the Aggies were in a 4-3-3 formation, while the Cardinals were in a 4-4-2. With the differing types of shape on display, the style of play for the Maroon & White was a mixture of heavy pressure and tight-knit passing throughout the field to create opportunities for shots in the Lamar half of the field.
Conversely, the Cardinals used a mixture of controlled defending and long-ball passing or shooting to balance the amount of pressure that was on the A&M side of the field.
The match started with the slow first 45 minutes as there were no goals scored by either team.
At halftime, the Aggie attackers had taken six shots, and of the six, three of them were on goal. Additionally, A&M had won five corner kicks. For the Aggie defenders, while there were four shots taken against them, only one required a save by goalkeeper Erica Defferding.
In the 31st minute, a yellow card was issued to midfielder Trinity Buchanan because of a noted stop near the midfield area to a Cardinal.
In the second half, the physicality picked up.
The second 45 minutes consisted of an intense five minutes, two injuries, two red cards and one yellow card as both teams finished the final 30 minutes with 10 players.
With the ejections, the Aggies shifted to a 4-3-2, while the Cardinals were in a 3-4-2.
A&M continued to utilize heavy pressure and longer passing throughout the field to create opportunities for shots in the Lamar half, and the Cardinals responded with a mixture of heavy pressure and heavy defending on the A&M side of the field.
In the 50th minute, there were two cards issued after a collision inside the Lamar penalty area. The first card issued was a yellow card to A&M forward Leah Diaz, while the second was a red card issued to Riley Wilson for a slap to the back of Diaz.
In the 60th minute, Lamar’s Ella Carmody sustained a game-ending leg injury, for which A&M’s Taylor Jernigan was sent off for the tackle.
With each team being down a player, the Maroon & White managed to put up 16 second-half shots, and of those, five of them were on goal.
Meanwhile, A&M’s defense limited Lamar to just five second-half attempts.
“So it slows down the momentum,” defender Riley Crooks said. “I mean, there’s just no way to prepare for that. You’re not used to having 10 players on the field, but I think we adapted to it.”
After many attempts to score a goal from either team, the Aggies finally broke through in the 87th minute with a game-winning flick off the foot of Buchanan.
“Well, I think I like curved my run, and me and Hattie (Patterson) had a good connection, and she played the ball over the top of my run, and I think because they were steps so high, there was space in between, and so I just gritted it out, ran and found a gap and just tapped it in,” Buchanan said.
With the intensity of the 90-minute game played and a positive result, the Aggies are still holding firm to their expectations for the season.
“There is a lot for our girls to look at and understand that winners find ways, and this was a game where we had to find a win,” Guerrieri said.
The Aggies will host Texas State at Ellis Field on Wednesday. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. CT.
