TXST SOCCER
Texas State opened up the season in dominating fashion, defeating the Our Lady of the Lake Saints 9-1.
The Bobcats got off to a hot start, scoring seven goals in the first half while limiting the Saints to no shots.
“It feels great,” graduate senior Kennley Bradley said. “To start together as a team, build some team chemistry and work hard together [is amazing].”
Head Coach Steve Holeman was proud of his team’s effort at the start of the game but wanted to see improvement in the second half.
“We had a really good first half,” Holeman said. “We did some special things. If people look at the score, they think this is an easy game, but we’re up 7-0 at half and in the second half, we just weren’t good enough.
“The good news from this is we learned some lessons, trying to do some things that we shouldn’t be doing. We got a little selfish in the second half and made some mistakes. We were trying to do too many things that aren’t going to work against a quality D1 opponent. We have some tough games on our schedule, so hopefully we learned the lessons from the second half.”
The Bobcats got off to a fast start as sophomore Helen Alormenu scored in the 3’ minute following an assist from Kaylie Smith and Chloe Jones.
Alormenu struck again in the 19’ minute, scoring her second goal of the game, putting the Bobcats up 2-0. “I rely on my teammates and listen to my coach’s advice,” Alormenu said. “I take practice as seriously as I can, and watch videos.”
The Bobcats scored again in the 23’ minute when freshman Sadie Guzman found the back of the net for her first career collegiate goal off an assist from Alormenu and freshman Katrin Agustsdottir.
Agustsdottir followed up Guzman by scoring her first career goal in the 24’ minute, putting the Bobcats up 4-0.
Freshman Alexis Montgomery then scored her career first goal in the 25’ minute, extending the lead to 5-0.
Junior Constance Agyemang scored in the 28’ minute to push the lead before junior Halle Garcia tacked on the final goal of the first half, going up 7-0.
“We just played our game,” Holeman said. “We’ve been working on moving the ball quickly, playing fast, combining quality service on the flank and runs in the box. We did all that.”
Holeman was also proud of the underclassman for stepping up, as the Bobcats are looking to rely on them during the season.
“We are relying on them to be a big part of our success,” Holeman said. “So it was nice to see some of the freshmen get goals and assists in tonight’s game. I think we saw some freshmen and younger players step up... It’s going to get tougher from here, so we need them to continue to contribute.”
Agustsdottir scored her second goal of the game in the 47’ minute as the game slowed down for the Bobcats.
Our Lady of the Lake avoided a shutout with a goal in the 83’ minute after scoring on the rebound from a penalty kick.
Texas State responded with a goal of their own as Bradley scored on a penalty in the 83’ minute, making it 9-1.
The Bobcats will be on the road Sunday against the Incarnate Word Cardinals. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Benson Stadium.
