No. 2 Aggies bounce back after Thursday night loss, rout Georgia 2-0
The No. 2 Texas A&M soccer team (11-1, 2-1) rebounded on Sunday, defeating Georgia 2-0, after suffering their first loss of the season to Arkansas on Thursday.
“I think it was a really good bounce-back win. The anomaly game that was in Arkansas — to that type of team was difficult for us to take,” head coach G Guerrieri said. “We talked about putting that in the rear view mirror as fast as possible.”
The Aggies got the scoring started in the third minute as left outside defender Kendall Ritchie struck a 40-yard free kick into the 18-yard box which defensive midfielder Grace Piper netted on a first time hit. The early goal put the maroon and white in the driver’s seat and gave them some extra confidence coming off of their first loss.
“The first goal, Kendall put the Georgia goalkeeper in a perilous spot to where there’s chaos in front of her and it’s hard to deal with that,” Guerrieri said. “Once we scored that first one you could see almost an exhale by the team.”
Attacking midfielder Addie McCain slotted a slow pass back to a waiting Kendall Ritchie who launched a shot into the upper 90 of the far left post from 25 yards out. Ritchie also had a long direct free kick goal against Arkansas on Thursday.
“I was a little shocked [that it went in]. I actually didn’t get a chance to look at the goal when I shot it. Addie played the perfect ball and I just happened to hit it in,” Ritchie said. “I’ve been on this field a lot so I know where the goal is and Addie’s perfect ball really set it up well.”
The A&M defense held up really well throughout the match, the trio in the back was able to scope out any impending attacks and when they won the ball, were able to possess it with ease. Goalkeeper Cosette Morche only had to make one save in the match.
The comfortable, one-sided game allowed Coach Guerrieri to put some bench players in, 17 different Aggies saw playing time in the match. Guerrieri left Grace Piper and Emily Bates in longer than usual as the two were still recovering after being banged up earlier in the season.
“Emily was feeling good for the first time in a while so she was able to cover the kind of mileage that she would usually have, the same thing with Grace,” Guerrieri said. “Grace took a pounding on Thursday but she was reporting that she felt well.”
The win moves the Aggies back to winning ways after their first loss of the season to Arkansas. The Aggies will be back on the road Friday as they travel to Oxford to take on Ole Miss. The match will be televised on SEC Network+ with kickoff slated for 7 pm.
