COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Karlie Mueller‘s first career goal came with 1:05 left in the second overtime period to lead the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies to a 2-1 win over the North Texas Mean Green at Ellis Field Sunday evening.
Mueller’s goal came on a free kick from 35 yards out to the left of the penalty arc. She sent a low diving ball towards the near post. For the second consecutive match, a run into the six-yard box byAlly Watt drew the attention of a goalkeeper on a game-winning goal. As netminder Jackie Kerestine froze to attend to Watt’s run, the Mueller offering took one bounce and hit the right side netting, giving the beautiful game a victory over the rough-and-tumble.
For the match, Texas A&M (9-1-0) owned distinct advantages in shots (35-10), shots-on-goal (17-2) and corner kicks (10-1). The Aggies battled through a bruising style of play as the Mean Green racked up six yellow cards on the evening.
With the win, Texas A&M stretched their Ellis Field unbeaten string to 14 matches, going 13-0-1 over the span. The Maroon and White also improved to 24-0-5 against in-state rivals since 2008.
The 0-0 score at halftime belied the flow of play favoring the Aggies. Texas A&M owned advantages in shots (13-3), shots-on-goal (5-0) and corner kicks (2-0). Kerestine came huge in the first 20 minutes, making four key saves, including on two on Haley Pounds shots and one each on offerings from Mikaela Harvey and Stephanie Malherbe.
North Texas (8-2-0) drew first blood 37 seconds into the second half. Taylor Torres played a ball off to Karla Pineda who took one dribble near the right corner of the penalty box and sent a pass into Anna Flobeck at the penalty spot. Flobeck sent a shot to the left of a diving Taylor Saucier for the 1-0 lead.
The Aggies spent the next 25 minutes trying to net the equalizer, but none of their seven shots or four corner kick opportunities found the target.
The breakthrough came in the 71st minute. Once again a Mueller free kick was the catalyst. This time, the senior defender took the free kick on top of the 18-yard box on the right elbow of the arc. She sent a worm burner into the six-yard box. McKayla Paulson was able to take a hack at the ball as she was being shoved to the ground. Her shot was saved, but the carom went to the feet of Janae Cousineau who blasted it home for her third goal of the season, knotting the game at 1-1 with 19:06 remaining in regulation.
The Aggies dictated the terms for the remainder of the game, outshooting the Mean Green 13-4 in the final 28 minutes of action.
Texas A&M returns to action Thursday when the Aggies travel to Columbia, South Carolina for a 6 pm Central match against No. 16 Gamecocks.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head coach G Guerrieri
On how they played tonight…
“I was really pleased with the players because they fought through a team that was determined not to let us get any free space. When you come into a game and you play against a team that gets carded six times, you know that you have a team that is coming after you. Our players did a good job of keeping their head and keeping their wits about them and in the end the better team won. ”
On how North Texas defense contributed to the struggles of A&M…
“They kept a lot of people behind the ball, I thought their goalkeeper made some incredible saves to her left, another save in the first overtime period. She kept them in the game. We gave up a silly brain fart goal in the first minute of the second period, in a game that we were in complete control over, then we have to up the tempo and really go after it. I’m pleased with my players that they did up the tempo and go after it. The right result came out of it. ”
On whether Emily Bates being injured effected goal scoring…
“Well I think if Emily is out there it gives us one more scoring option. Haley Pounds did an outstanding job all night. I thought that Ally (Watt) was outstanding throughout the night, she could have had several herself, Stephanie the same, had a couple good looks. Thirty-five shots, 16 on goal. That means the goalkeeper had 14 saves, that’s a career night to get 14 saves. I don’t know if that’s a record at North Texas or not but it’s a lot for her to be proud of.”
Senior defender Karlie Mueller
On scoring on the free kick…
“I thought we needed to get the ball in somewhere in the six (yard box), maybe it would hit off one of our players or maybe it would hit off one of theirs. I slung the ball into there, and with the mix of everybody in the box, it’s hard for the goalie to see where the ball is going. I had help from my teammates running across the goal, distracting the goalie. Thank God it went in.”
On all the chances…
“We wanted to get the ball and keep on putting the ball down their throats and keep attacking. We also wanted to be pretty patient because they were sitting pretty far deep behind us. So we were being patient waiting for the moments and we were unfortunate to only put two of the 35 shots, but at the end of the day we got the win and that’s all that matters.”
On the road ahead…
“You know it’s good to get the non-conference win after a big SEC home opener. It’s good to get the conference schedule rolling. We are really excited to go out to South Carolina, it’s our first trip out there since joining the SEC. It will be a big trip for us and we will be looking to pull a win. South Carolina is a very good team one of the top teams in the SEC.”
Senior midfielder Janae Cousineau
On the heart the team showed…
“Our team has great heart, we kept fighting and fighting we didn’t give up as you can see with one minute left and we still found a way to win. We found a way to put it in the back of the net. It was a good game.”
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics