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Aggies shut out Longhorns

A&M gets big win in conference race

By LARRY BOWEN
Eagle Staff Writer

The Texas A&M soccer team couldn't do anything about Texas achieving one milestone this week, but A&M had something to say about the Longhorns reaching another.

The Aggies just said no.

A&M overcame a red-card that forced the Aggies to play down one player for more than half the match, whipping the Longhorns 2-0 on Friday night before a crowd of 5,552, the second-largest in Aggie Soccer Stadium history.

The fifth-ranked Aggies (10-2-1 overall, 4-1 Big 12) kept alive their hopes for a fourth consecutive Big 12 Conference regular season championship and doubled their pleasure by beating Texas in the first match since the Longhorns received their first No. 1 national ranking on Monday.

Texas (9-2-2, 2-1-1) has never beaten the Aggies in College Station, dropping to 0-7. The Longhorns moved to No. 1 in the Soccer America rankings this week but are fourth in the coaches' poll.

An early goal and a big crowd made it seem like the Aggies' night, but then A&M midfielder Allison Martino was ejected from the match after receiving a red card for what referee Mike Brow said was a punch in the back. Martino went to the sideline with 13 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the first half, and the Aggies were forced to play 10 against 11 for the rest of the game.

"One of the things that we believe in, and that we will go to our grave with, is that we're here for each other," A&M coach G. Guerrieri said. "If you add up all the numbers on a team, it should add up to more than 11. It should be everyone doing their job and half the other person's job, and that's what everyone did tonight. It's the only way we could have held off such a great Texas team."

The Aggies grabbed an early lead when midfielder Amy Berend scored less than 6 minutes into the match. Guerrieri said the Aggies need to push their midfielders forward to boost their scoring chances, and it paid off when Berend banged home a volley from close range after a pass from forward Melissa Garey.

"I was wide open, surprisingly, in the 6-yard box, because usually it's pretty tight in there," Berend said. "I was screaming for the ball from Mel, and she played it to my left foot. I saw somebody coming out, so I just fired with the outside of my right.

"We wanted to score early and put the pressure on them. When I'm on the opposite side, getting a goal scored on you in the first 10 minutes, it's hard to dig yourself out of that."

Texas coach Chris Petrucelli took blame for Berend's goal, saying the coaching staff made a tactical mistake.

"The early goal was the result of poor tactics by the coaches at Texas," Petrucelli said. "We made a bad choice in deciding to play three back and they punished us early."

A&M's midfielders and defenders never let the Longhorn attackers breathe. Texas finished with 11 shots, but only seven were on goal and Aggie goalkeeper Kristin Arnold handled them with relative ease.

"Even being down a man, we were still able to keep of the possession in the game and get some good attacks," Guerrieri said.

Petrucelli said A&M's dangerous front line prevented the Longhorns from sending more players forward, despite having the player advantage. Texas was afraid of allowing a counter attack, which is how the Aggies produced their second goal.

Garey was attempting to chase down a long pass into the penalty area when she collided with Texas keeper Dianna Pfenninger, who suffered a cut near the bridge of her nose that knocked her out of the game and gave A&M a penalty kick.

Ashlee Pistorius beat backup goalie Stephanie Connors on the penalty kick, sending a low shot inside the left post while Connors made a dive the other direction. It was the 70th goal of her career, giving her the Big 12 record.