No. 24 Texas A&M upended by Denver on Wednesday night at Ellis, 3-2

The Aggies were definitely favored, but two-loss Denver was prepared to fight to the end.

On Wednesday night, No. 24 Texas A&M (1-1) fell to Denver (1-2) in its home opener at Ellis Field, 3-2.

“I said coming into this that Denver is a good team,” A&M head coach G Guerrieri said. “They’re well coached, well organized. You can see in how they play that they’re a very good team.

“It’s a disappointing result, but the good thing about the college soccer season going so fast is that we get to come right back out on Saturday and try to wash this out of our system.”

A&M entered the match without freshman goalkeeper Maysen Veronda, who suffered a season-ending injury, and in her place, Sydney Fuller faced the Pioneers’ offense in her collegiate debut.

The match began as a power struggle, but A&M struck first on senior forward MaKhiya McDonald’s goal in the fifth minute.

Denver failed to capitalize on three goal attempts leading into the 26th minute.

However, the Pioneers remained undeterred and quickly took control of the field. Goals by sophomore forward Michaela McGowan and senior midfielder Ella Frost gave Denver a 2-1 lead by the 40th minute.

However, in the 41st, A&M graduate forward Allison Lowrey answered immediately to tie the match before the half.

“It was great to get my first goal here,” Lowrey said. “It felt really good. The team was very supportive and very happy for me. Going in, we were expecting them to come out with a lot of momentum, but we knew it was a 0-0 game, and whoever won the second half was going to win the game.”

A&M entered the second half slowly as Denver’s offense highlighted the field.

“There’s a lot that we can take from it. It comes down to we have to be more committed to doing things all the way,” Guerrieri said. “If you do things two-thirds of the way, then that’s a ‘C’ action. It has to be an ‘A’ action to make things work.

“We need to be a little more committed to what we are going to do. Committed to our finishing, to our defending (especially in the middle of the field) and not putting so much pressure on our defenders to stop teams. We need to be committed to defending all over the field. When we’re at our best, we do that. That’s something we have to get back to.”

Attempts by Guerrieri & Co. were futile as Denver’s freshman forward Megan Murray put the Pios in the lead, 3-2.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

The Aggies have now lost their home opener the past two seasons. 

What proved to be the game-winner came in the 53rd minute as the Aggies got beaten in the midfield.

“It was a series of blunders by our midfielder, and before you know it, they were in two vs. one on our goalkeeper,” Guerrieri said. “It was tough, but it was our mistakes based on their really big plays. You can’t take anything away from Denver in the way that they played.”

From there, Denver keeper Molly Wissman stopped six desperate attempts by the Ags.

“We’ve got to do better to defend our home soil,” Guerrieri said. “We don’t lose very often at home, and hats off to Denver for coming in and getting a win here. It’s got to be something that we learn from and learn from quickly.

“The girls will get a day off tomorrow to recover. It’s hot and they expended a lot of energy tonight. We have to be able to recover and get our bodies back so that on Saturday night, in front of a big crowd, we are ready to put forth the best effort we can.”

Now, the Aggies will return to Ellis this weekend, hopefully rejuvenated and ready to face a big crowd.

“We’re going to be a completely different team out there,” Lowrey said. “We’re going to come out hard. We’re going to come out hungry to fix our mistakes. I’m very excited to see how our team returns from this game.”

A&M will host Fairfield on Saturday night in the annual Fish Camp game. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. CT.