Bobcats fall to Dukes in first conference loss of 2022

Texas State suffered its first Sun Belt loss against James Madison (JMU) Thursday evening.

The Bobcats fell 3-1 to the Dukes, handing the maroon and gold their first multi-goal loss since Sept. 11 against TCU. After a fairly defensive first half that saw sophomore goalkeeper Katelyn Chrisman rack up 2 saves, JMU finally broke through scoring their first goal of the night in the 36th minute of the match. The Dukes capitalized again after halftime, knocking in another score in the 57th minute.

James Madison was able to score again in the 75th minute to put the Dukes up 3-0 late in the match. The Bobcats finally broke through the JMU defense in the 78th minute, with sophomore Madi Goss besting the Dukes’ keeper on a free kick.

“I’m extremely proud of this team and their effort. You know, JMU is very, very good — they’re extremely talented. They have quite a few special players that made big plays when it mattered. I thought we had (some) really good opportunities to score at the beginning of the second half. Then they countered us and had a goal and we had a couple of balls cleared off the line and then they countered us (again) and got a goal. (But) I like the way we fought back, you know, we put them under a little bit of pressure.”

The Bobcats put up nine shots throughout the second half but weren’t able to find the back of the net. The maroon and gold had multiple opportunities late in the match but weren’t able to capitalize due to the Dukes’ stifling defense. 

Texas State is the first team to score on James Madison (8-2-3, 4-0-1) in Sun Belt play.

“Their number one strength is their ability to keep the ball and you know, they’re persistent in wanting to connect and connect and connect. They can literally tear teams down and wear them down, so I think it was good that we stuck with the game plan. We shifted a little bit from where we pressed them when we started to press them up high, you know, we’re taking some chances and getting countered — but at the same time we created a lot of good chances. They’re good, no shame in a loss to JMU. They are certainly going to be one of the contenders for the outright title. So you know, hopefully maybe we will see them again.”

Texas State (9-2-2, 3-1-1) returns to the field on Oct. 9 in Lafayette, La., where the Bobcats will take on Louisiana. The match is set to kick off at Home Bank Soccer/Track Facility at 1 p.m.

“As far as where can we be better Sunday? You know, I think we got to continue to do what we’re doing,” Holeman said. “I think the results will come — they’re very good in possession with stuff to kind of disrupt that, but I think we did a handful of times. So, I think we just got to recover and kind of mentally get focused for Sunday.”