Joel "Jewlz" Morris
Sports Editor
Jags improve playoff chances with draw
A strong defensive performance helped the Texas A&M University-San Antonio women’s soccer team secure a scoreless draw against conference rival Texas A&M University-Victoria, earning crucial points in the standings.
Junior goalkeeper Isabella Villarreal’s five-save performance anchored the strong defensive showing for the Jags, negating the shot attempts by A&M-Victoria.
Even without scoring goals or gaining a win, this performance still kept the playoff hopes alive for the Jags.
Currently sitting in seventh place in the Red River Athletic Conference, with the top six teams advancing to postseason play. Every point matters as the regular season winds down.
“If you don’t let any goals up and keep a clean sheet, 0-0, you get a point,” head coach Tim Moody said.
Despite not scoring, the Jags still had clean looks, resulting in five shot attempts. Moody said the flow of the offense and being able to have “a lot more possessions” carried over from previous matches when the Jaguars scored 12 points combined.
Junior midfielder Jasmin Dominguez has confidence in her squad to continue putting forth solid offensive performances.
“Over the past few weeks we’ve been working on our attack,” Dominguez said. Communicating and working with each other has helped us a lot.”
Coach Moody said the margins are slim down the stretch of the schedule and wants his team to battle to the end and “control what we can control.”
The Jaguars will continue to improve playoff chances at 1 p.m. Oct. 25 at home against North American University.
Persistent Jags secure playoff spot with last second goal
Tied 0-0 with seconds remaining, sophomore midfielder Joey De La Torre pushed the ball upfield after hearing head coach Roberto Jaramillo shout, “Joey, send it!”
De La Torre found senior forward Ronald Aguilar streaking toward the goal, who then slipped a pass to junior midfielder Clever Sibomana for the game-winning score with two seconds left.
“I didn’t know I was going to score it but I just kept going and I just dove,” Sibomana said.
Throughout the game the Jags struggled to finish opportunities at the goal, but Jaramillo is proud that his team kept being aggressive to give themselves an opportunity at the end.
“You got to give A&M-Victoria a lot of credit but what I’m happy about is our guys just keep finding, creating chances,” Jaramillo said. “One-zero to me tastes as good as seven-zero.”
Earning this win secured a playoff spot for the Jaguars. Standing in fourth place, Jaramillo is impressed with the culture and standard they’ve been able to uphold.
“When we came in, we wanted to be a strong program that could compete, and I’m proud because you know since we arrived, we’d made playoffs,” Jaramillo said. “What I love is that we just keep finding ways to win and that’s how we’re going to keep it going.”
The Jaguars look to continue momentum and improve standings at 3 p.m. on Oct. 25 at home against North American University.
