Off to a rough start; Southern vs. TSU

At the start of a doubleheader weekend, the Lady Jaguar soccer team faced off against the Texas Southern Tigers this past Friday. The Jaguars, refreshed and refocused, coming off of a two-week bye after their loss to the University of Louisiana-Monroe, looked to start off conference play strong to set the tone early for the rest of the season. The ULM game saw the Lady Jaguars’ offense sputter early, so Coach Jeremy Fontenot used the extended break to make some adjustments and refine the Jaguars’ offense. “Our biggest focus this week was offense, speeding our plays up, so this week we should see a little better play up top from our forwards and offense.”
From the first kickoff, the adjustments could be seen as the Jaguars looked much more aggressive and more assertive, pushing into the middle of the Tigers’ field early. The Tigers’ defense held tough though, avoiding some early goals that were just off the mark. The Tigers drew first blood but the Jaguars immediately responded with a beautiful header by Junior Midfielder Surya Nero, courtesy of a penalty pass from sophomore defender Ashante Gatlin.
The rest of the half was very back and forth, with a noticeable amount of pushing and shoving from players on both sides. The game saw twenty-five fouls total, with numerous more that could have been called as players from both sides remained chippy throughout the entire game.
The Jaguars ended the first half tied at 1-1 and looked confident going into halftime. “[The Jaguars are] doing well on attacking forward and pushing down the field. [The Tigers] are doing a good job of defending the middle of the field, so we need to spread out, widen our attack and go for the sides of the field,” said a soccer fan and junior, nursing major, Aniya Clark at halftime.
The second half saw the Tigers begin to run away with the game with two quick goals, back-to-back early in the half. The Jaguars responded late, with a goal off of a rebound by Nero once again. The Jaguars continued to fight and push but ultimately fell just short, losing to TSU 3-2.
The Jaguars failed to capitalize on opportunities early, missing shots due to slow touches and poor passing. Compared to the Tiger’s offense, the Jaguar’s offense looked slower; the Tigers utilized their speed and crisp passing to get better quality shots so that even though they were outshot by the Jaguars by a margin of ten, the shots that the Tigers allowed were much more difficult than the shots that the Jags allowed.
Additionally, the lack of a fan presence all but neutralizes home-field advantage. The differences between the two teams were negligible, so a fan section would have made a difference. We need to do our part and make sure to get out to soccer games in order to support our Lady Jaguars, “I don’t really know how to get more students at games, you can’t pay people to come. It’s up to the student body to make an effort to support the team,” said Jasmyn Linzy (A3O).
With their conference playoff off to a rough start, the Jaguars look to bounce back on the road against the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Grambling State University in another weekend, doubleheader October 1 and 3.