Soccer messes with Texas then makes a mess
The state of Texas has not been nice to the Utah State soccer team but the Aggies came away from a weekend trek to Texas with a 1-1 record, making USU’s all-time record against teams from the Lone Star State 1-8.
The lone win came Friday, Aug. 31 against Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, where the Aggies took down the Bobcats 1-0. USU’s victory improves its season opener record on the road to 3-8.
Sunday afternoon the Ags next took on Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas but couldn’t keep the momentum from the Texas State game and fell 3-1 to the Horned Frogs.
“This early in this season you’re looking for growth,” USU Head Coach Heather Cairns said of the weekend matches. “You never like to lose but it will be good when you learn from it. This team is good at learning. They want to get back and redeem themselves.”
USU vs. TCU The Aggies’ meeting with the Horned Frogs marked a homecoming of sorts for USU senior midfielder Shannon Ross, a native of Fort Worth, Texas. Ross took two shots in the game but couldn’t land either, in a tough game that was largely dominated by TCU.
The early moments of the game went well for the Aggies, as they chalked up a point in the sixth minute of play. Senior forward Dana Peart took a feed from junior midfielder Lacey Christenson about 30 yards out. Charging forward, Peart found an open shot and nailed the ball to the corner for the score, giving the Ags an early 1-0 advantage.
“The TCU game we started pretty well,” Cairns said. “We were attacking pretty well. Dana got the ball and turned 30 yards out. She made a nice little dribbling run to make herself open for a shot and then really just ripped. She just hit a great shot.”
Peart’s goal marked her 12th career goal, placing her at No. 5 on the USU career goal charts.
The momentum that followed the score was short-lived as TCU received a penalty kick opportunity in the 11th minute of play after junior goalkeeper Ali Griffin committed a foul. The Horned Frogs capitalized on the open shot and evened the score at one.
“We were never the same team after that point,” Cairns said. “We really lost our commitment to attack. We lost our commitment to stick to the game plan. We never settled down long enough to create another op to score. We were reacting to what they were doing.”
TCU employed a forward attack, Cairns said, which penetrated the Aggie defense and allowed 11 shots in the first half alone. In the 34th minute of play, the Horned Frogs scored again, taking the lead.
“It always felt like TCU was the aggressor and felt like we were playing not to lose,” Cairns said. “We could not get it going. It was a tough weekend. We have to be better with dealing with that adversity because it will happen during our conference season.”
At the half, Cairns said she made a change in the style of play, going to a 4-4-2 formation to prevent the TCU penetration. The formation adjustment reduced TCU to just four shots in the second half but the Horned Frogs managed to slip one past securing their victory at 3-1.
“We have to learn what our strengths as a team are and play to those strengths,” Cairns said. “We’ve got to take away a mentality that we are going to attack our opponent. It’s not good enough to out-possess them.
“Right now we’re pretty good at beating ourselves up. After today’s game quite frankly we deserved to. That’s okay. What we have to make sure of now is that we build ourselves back up and really go into this next weekend confident and more sure of ourselves.”
USU vs. TSU Friday marked the first meeting between the Aggies and Bobcats, and USU proved its dominance with a 1-0 victory, giving the Aggies their first-ever win against a team from Texas.
The first half of the game belonged to the Aggies as USU took seven shots on goal and prevented the Bobcats from taking a single shot on junior goaltender Ali Griffin.
The winning goal came from Peart in the 28th minute of play after she took control of a bounced ball in the box and took a clear shot at the net, pounding the ball to the back.
“Nobody got a piece of their body on (the ball) and it bounced through to Dana,” Cairns said. “It took great composure by Dana to finish it off. Dana had a spectacular weekend. She showed her leadership and character. She wants to lead this team to the NCAA tournament.”
Cairns said her team played well despite the “very rambunxious crowd” and kept their cool, maintaining control of the ball for three-quarters of the game. But the second half proved more challenging for the Aggies.
“In the last 15-20 minutes they started taking it to us,” Cairns said. “We started making poor decisions. We started to lose the flow of the game a little bit at the end of Texas State.”
While the Bobcats couldn’t take a single shot the first half, they more than made up for it in the second half with four shots, all of which were on goal. Griffin saved all four shots, securing the Aggie win.
Utah State takes a weeklong break before taking to the road again next weekend for the Northern Arizona Tournament, where they will take on UC Irvine, Friday, Sept. 7 at 5 p.m. and Northern Arizona, Sunday, Sept. 9 at 3 p.m.
-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu