Mississippi State scored a pair of second-half goals for a 2-0 victory over Texas A&M that give the Bulldogs their first Southeastern Conference regular-season soccer championship Sunday night at Ellis Field.
Mississippi State’s Ally Perry took a pass from Kennedy Husbands at the top of the box and created space to fire in a shot from 25 yards in the 51st minute of the match for the first goal. Ellie McCaslin added an insurance goal in the 79th minute. Kara Harris corralled the ball and sent a through ball toward the box. McCaslin took the pass and dribbled to the top of the box and struck the ball with the outside of her foot and sent it past the goalkeeper.
“They were able to score on those two key moments and that’s why they’re now champions of the SEC,” A&M coach G Guererri said in a statement.
The victory allowed Mississippi State (15-1, 9-0-0, 27 points) to clinch the title over Arkansas (13-1-2, 8-1-1 25 points), which ended its regular season with a 5-0 victory over Ole Miss on Sunday. Mississippi State will end its regular season at South Carolina on Wednesday.
People are also reading…
The Bulldogs, who had set the program’s record of victories in a season, won its 12th straight. It also was Mississippi State’s 11th shutout of the season.
A&M (8-8-2, 3-5-2 11 points) lost its regular-season finale on Senior Night.
A&M had a 6-2 edge in shots at the half, including 3-1 in shots on goals along with a 6-0 edge in corner kicks.
“We had all the chances, we weren’t displeased at all,” Guerreri said. “We thought we had most of the possession. We had all the chances. We just weren’t finishing with quality.”
The Aggies’ best chance to score in the first half came on a corner kick when Sydney Becerra was able to blast two close-range shots, but one was saved by Bulldog keeper Maddy Anderson and the other went off the face of a Mississippi State defender.
A&M, which was coming off a 0-0 draw with Arkansas, was shut out for the fifth time in SEC play.
“You know, we’re kind of scratching our heads as far as, how did that game get away from us when we were in control of it for 95% of it?” Guerreri said. “It’s been a frustrating type of year for that for us, because we’ve played so well, and I’m proud of the way that our players played tonight, because we’ve played so well in so many key moments and key areas of the game. We just can’t score goals. It just puts a lot of pressure on the defense. It puts a lot of pressure on other parts of the game, when you’re scoring is dried up.”
The Aggies have clinched a spot in the league’s 12-team tournament, which will start Sunday in Pensacola, Florida. A&M is tied with Alabama (9-5-5, 2-3-5) and LSU (8-7-3, 3-5-2) for ninth place. Tennessee (7-5-4, 2-4-3, 9 points), which plays Florida (4-7-6, 1-6-2, 5 points) on Wednesday, has a chance to move up in the standings, thus the Aggies won’t know their first-round opponent until after that match.
