Texas State Soccer (3-1-1) lands back in the win column with a dominating 5-1 victory over the reigning SLC Champion, Stephen F. Austin (0-1-2) on Thursday, Aug. 28 at the Bobcat Soccer Complex.
The result marks Texas States’ first victory in two matches after their most recent loss of 1-5 against Arizona State on Sunday, Aug. 24.
“Bouncing back and being resilient and coming back from a difficult time, that’s what happened today,” head coach Steve Holeman said. “We came out, firing on all cylinders.”
Constance Agyemang fired first and scored in the 10th minute after taking advantage of a corner set piece sent in by Sydney Bassa to secure an early 1-0 lead for Texas State.
The Bobcats wasted no time to extend to a 2-0 lead just two minutes later by forcing an own goal from Lumberjack goalkeeper, Sierra McCluer, off a corner kick flown in by Matsuri Tsutsui.
Despite an early Bobcat lead, SFA pressed on with many attempts to push past a solidified Texas State defense until Logan Heausler buried a shot to the top right 90 past goalkeeper Brooklyn Escobar, cutting the Bobcat lead to 2-1 in the 22nd minute.
“[Escobar] been solid in goal. She’s kind of secured that spot right now, and she’s come up big when she needs to, no keeper in this is country saving that goal,” Holeman said. “That was a rocket upper ninety that I mean, a men’s pro keeper might get a fingertip on that, but otherwise, yeah, what a goal.”
Texas State forced a difficult comeback early in the second period as freshman Katrin Agustsdottir strengthed the lead 3-1 by successfully launching a shot from outside the Lumberjacks’ 18.
“I think that [third goal] kind of took the wind out of their cells a little bit, because they were in the game, for sure, then once we made it 3-1, I think the game changed a little bit,” Holeman said. “[SFA] still had their opportunities, they still had chances, and then we scored some great goals, so I think we put it out of reach.”
The Bobcats landed two additional goals in the final 30 minutes; one from from Tsutsui directly off of a free kick and the fifth and final score from Agyemang who tightly curved in a shot after driving up the wing into the Lumberjacks defense.
“I think the second half was all us, we were very efficient, we scored some unbelievable goals in the second half, so it was good to see,” Holeman said.
Texas State will return to the pitch for its next match against No. 22 Oklahoma University (5-0).
“We schedule these games, so we’re ready for conference and Oklahoma is one of the best teams in the country,” Holeman said. “It’ll be a a phenomenal test for us.”
Kickoff against the Sooners is set for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 4 at Bobcat Soccer Complex.
