Under the Texas heat, the women’s soccer team played against the Texas A&M International Dustdevils and secured a 2-0 win. The Hilltoppers had a total of 13 shots on goal, while the Dustdevils only had 5, leaving St. Edward’s fans constantly on the edge of their seats, waiting for the next goal.
The Dustdevils played rough all throughout the game, but that did not stop the Hilltopper girls from pushing on and playing amazingly all around. At one point, one of the players on the Dustdevils grabbed a Hilltopper and threw her to the ground, but no yellow card was given.
Both goals scored in the first half were by freshman Annie Rocha, who was assisted by a different player each time. The first was assisted by senior Tristyn Cabello and the second by senior Marie Hannedouche.
“The only thing I know is if you pass the ball to Annie, she’s gonna shoot the ball. Anytime I look up, I’m always looking for her if I’m not in the range to shoot,” Cabello said. “I think we executed what we did in training, so I think that was the main thing for today.”
Cabello’s assist, which helped Rocha score, was almost 11 minutes into the first half. Then, only nine minutes later, Hannedouche was able to assist Rocha into scoring her second and final goal of the game.
“It was the best way to break the game even if it was early. It’s good that it happened early, so after that, the game was a lot easier for us. We just tried to keep the ball and take no risks at all,” Hannedouche said. “We found a good way to defend, and we’re really solid so we want to keep that, work on that and try to improve to keep going and keep winning.”
Head coach Nick Cowell had positive feedback about the team’s performance and explained that the girls’ tactic for this game was to come out fast for the first half and wear out the opposing team so that they could not keep up for the 90 minutes.
“The idea was to try and score goals early in the first half, and then let our depth take over after that,” Cowell said. “You don’t get to choose when goals are scored, they kind of happen at random times. You have to play to the state of the game, and when you’re winning, the emphasis is more on (how) their team has to come out and attack, and hopefully we can catch them on a break.”
Rocha, who was the star of the game, felt great about scoring the winning goals of the game. She also felt as though the front three were really connecting well in the box and finishing when they could. She is known for shooting whenever she has the chance with a total of 10 goals in 13 games played.
“I feel like the whole point of soccer is to score, and as a forward that’s honestly my only job. I try to shoot when I can because a goal is a goal,” said Rocha.
Since then, the Hilltoppers have faced Oklahoma Christian University on the road, winning the game 2-0, and Dallas Baptist University, falling 3-1 and snapping a four-game winning streak. They go on to face University of Texas Permian Basin on Friday, Nov. 1, and currently hold a 4-5-1 Lone Star Conference record.
