TALONS OUT
Eagles punch ticket to championship game
Texas A&M University-Texarkana had been here before and wasn't going to be denied this go around.
The Eagles soccer team turned in a clean sheet in its Red River Athletic Conference tournament semifinal and clinched its first berth to the championship match.
TAMU-T blanked second-seeded Wiley College, 3-0, in the second semifinal. Fifth-seed University of St. Thomas edged top-seed Louisiana State University-Alexandria, 1-0, in the early semifinal. The third-seeded Eagles (14-5-1) and the Celts (10-5-2) meet at 5 p.m. today at Eagle Field to determine the women's RRAC champion.
In the boys semifinals, top-seeded University of Houston-Victoria shut out No. 6 St. Thomas, 2-0, and fourth-seeded LSU-Alexandria upset No. 2 Our Lady of the Lake, 1-0. UHV and Alexandria clash at 7:30 p.m. to decide the men's RRAC championship.
Senior forward Samantha SharpnackIsom found the back of the net twice for the Eagles, building a 2-0 lead in the first half. Sophomore Alex Martinez added the final tally, and the TAMU-T defense did the rest.
“It sets the tone for the whole game when you can score the first goal,” Eagles coach Don Koontz said. “When you are able to do that, you don't have to play on your heels; you're able to play with a little more assertiveness, a little more aggression. The first goal, our playmaker made plays.
“Their coach made a couple changes, and we were able to get another goal, a nice goal. It's not impossible, but it's hard for a team to come back from a 2-0 deficit. Our backline stayed really strong, and our center-midfielders are the hardest working midfielders that we have. They just dominated the midfield.”
Center-midfielders Neeley Keller, Arika Elliott and Liliana Cardoza orchestrated the attack and controlled the pace, and the backline of Ashley Bainton, Hanna Williams, Hazel Espinoza and Madison Walters consistently disrupted the Wildcat offense, which was forced to take the majority of its shots well out of the box to muster any offense. Walters in the lone sophomore in the otherwise senior-laden defense.
“It was huge to win the way we did,” Williams said. “Every year we make it into this tournament but lose this (semifinal) game. For us to come out here throw a zero at them, score three against an MVP keeper, our back line keeping our organization, and staying in this tournament is huge for us. A little toe poke here, a little toe poke there and communication was crucial on the back line. We want to start (the final) strong and finish strong.”
In a physical first half, it was a counter-attack by left back Espinoza that sparked the offense. Espinoza took possession in the defensive third, knifed her way up the sideline and through the midfield, and a scramble for the ball in the attacking third led to Sharpnack-Isom gaining possession.
She fired from just inside the penalty box, beating Wiley keeper's on a low shot and into the net with 20:40 remaining in the first half.
“I made some plays, but it's important to realize that it's the whole team; I can't do anything that I do without them,” Sharpnack-Isom said. “Even on the sideline, the girls on the bench are our biggest supporters. We knew, at this level, one is just not enough. We definitely needed the second goal and even the third one.
“I'm glad our team is strong enough and fit enough to keep pushing until we get more goals to really secure the win.”
It took just three minutes for the Eagles to strike again, netting an insurance goal.
Cardoza, with possession, turned at
midfield and laced a throughball in front of SharpnackIsom, who got on the back end of the pass, took a touch, fired for the near post and blasted her second goal over the left shoulder of the Wiley goalie with 17:35 remaining.
Before intermission Sharpnack-Isom had a cross that a teammate just couldn’t get a handle on at the back end, another shot saved and banged one off the left goalpost, which rebounded to Elliott, who hit the right post.
Texarkana had three more shots on goal saved in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Then Espinoza fed a through-ball up the left sideline to winger Martinez, who turned in the corner and fired a ball over the goalie’s outreached hand and inside the back post for an insurmountable 3-0 Eagle lead with 34:31 remaining in the semifinal.
“I was just playing in the moment,” Martinez said of gaining possession deep in Wildcat territory. “I wasn’t expecting to get a goal at that point, but it turned out that way so it’s great for the team. I got the ball, and I’m usually one to look up and see if I (from that position) can get a cross off or a shot. It turned out as a goal, so I was pretty excited about that.”
With under 24 minutes left, Koontz switched keepers, replacing freshman starter Tinotenda Charuma with senior Ellie Kemins. Chamura was shook up after a hard collision with a Wiley forward. Kemins and the defense did the rest, the backup keeper collecting three saves in her 24 minutes.
Texas A&M-Texarkana beat St. Thomas, 2-0, two weeks ago to wrap up the regular season.
“Some of the things we’ve really worked on is maintaining possession, play strong and let our playmakers make plays,” Koontz said. “Alex made a very good play on the left side to get the third goal, and from there we didn’t feel any threats. The team got comfortable, and once you get comfortable you can just play; it turns into a fun game for us.
“Samantha has the ability to be very dangerous once she gets into the final third. We have a few different formations we play, and today we went with a 4-5-1, and just left her up there by herself. She made some plays with her team behind her, and that’s how we were able to be successful today.”