BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – Ally Watt scored in the 87th minute to give the No. 14 Texas A&M Aggies a 1-0 victory over the LSU Tigers Thursday evening at LSU Soccer Stadium. It marked the third straight match the Maroon & White scored the game-winner either in the final four minutes of action.
After subbing into the contest just over a minute earlier, Jimena Lopez was the spark on the game-winning goal. The crafty freshman worked the ball into the penalty box from the left side and sent a pass to the six-yard box for Watt making a run past the PK spot. Watt played her first touch over a sliding defender and poked a right-footed a shot from seven yards to the right of the goalkeeper for the match’s lone goal with 3:21 remaining in the second half.
The victory propelled Texas A&M to its eighth consecutive victory, their longest stretch since the end of the 2014 campaign, a run that culminated with the school’s first-ever trip to the College Cup. The Aggies improved to 12-2-1 overall and 7-1-0 in the SEC and remained in striking distance of first-place South Carolina who is 8-0-0 in league action with two matches remaining.
The 1-0 result belied the flow of play heavily in the Aggies’ favor for the match. The Maroon & White held decided advantages in shots (19-4), shots-on-goal (7-1) and corner kicks (9-0) for the match.
Texas A&M was overwhelming in the second half with a 9-1 advantage in shots, holding the Tigers without a shot-on-goal as Cosette Morché and a backline of Briana Alston, Kendall Ritchie and Callyn Walton recorded the Aggies’ seventh shutout of the season.
The ball was knocked around the midfield for much of the first half, but the Aggies’ offense started to pick up traction in the waning moments. Texas A&M’s best scoring chance in the first half came in the 40th minute, when Mikaela Harvey ripped a shot from 12 yards out in the inside right channel, hitting the post with her missile.
Texas A&M owned the advantages in shots (10-3), shots-on-goal (3-1) and corner kicks (4-0).
The Aggies return to action Sunday afternoon when they host the Vanderbilt Commodores for Senior Day at Ellis Field. Mikaela Harvey, Stephanie Malherbe, McKayla Paulson and Haley Pounds will be honored prior to the 1:35 p.m. contest.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics