Forward Mady Soumare collides with a UTSA player in the Bobcats home game against the Roadrunners.
Daily Record photo by Gerald Castillo
UTSA might have announced their merger with UT Health San Antonio, but on the soccer pitch, it was the Bobcats giving the Roadrunners a prescription for defeat.
Junior forward Mady Soumare scored Texas State’s lone goal of the game in the 18th minute and goalkeeper Caitlyn Draper pitched a shutout as the Bobcats defeated the archival Roadrunners 1-0 for the first win of the season.
“Coming off a tough loss to Rice, this was a good way to start our first home game of the season,” Draper said. “[Along with] having Boko’s Army, it felt great.”
Head Coach Steve Holman was happy with the win at the Bobcat Soccer Complex while avenging last year’s loss to the Roadrunners.
“It’s nice to be back at home,” Holman said. “It’s a big rivalry, and they had our number at their place last year. So it’s good to get a good result against them tonight.”
The start of the first half was physical with both the Bobcats and the Roadrunners trying to take the early advantage. The physicality of the play was so intense that it triggered a brief pushing and shoving match between both teams.
Though physicality is not the style of the Bobcats, Holman knew his team wouldn’t let Roadrunners run them over.
“I don’t think you can define us as a physical team, but we are certainly not going to back down,” Holman said. “That’s part of the game. Some teams play differently, and we had to be able to deal with it. I thought it was good that we handled it.”
In the 18th minute, the Bobcat midfielder Kaylie Smith threw the ball in on UTSA’s side of the field. Smith found midfielder Mya Ulloa who then made the pass Soumare in the middle of the Roadrunner defense. Soumare fought off a UTSA defender before delivering a power shot that hit below the cross bar before reaching the back of the net for the score.
“I just wanted to hit it,” Soumare said. “Just get out here and hit it.”
After working on their throw ins before the game on Thursday, the Bobcats hard work had paid off for the critical goal.
“[That was] straight off the training grounds,” Draper said. “We had worked on that throw in yesterday.”
Holding a 1-0 lead on the Roadrunners, the Bobcats knew they were in a fight for their life to keep UTSA off the board and secure the win.
For Draper, the focus on defense was keeping their concentration on UTSA’s set pieces.
“It was a hard lead to keep,” Draper said. “We just had to remember what got us there in the first place, which is set pieces. We are a set piece team, and they are a set piece team. We had to lock in and focus on those set pieces.”
Despite the furious UTSA attack in the second half, the Bobcat defense repelled the Roadrunners at every turn and kept them off the scoreboard.
Though Draper had five saves for the night, Draper made sure to give the props to the Bobcats back defenders.
“I’m not going to take all the credit,” Draper said. “We had three defenders back there and they locked it down for me. I give all the credit to them.”
UTSA was unable to score in the final minutes of the game, allowing Texas State to seal their 1-0 win over their archrivals.
The Bobcats will be back home this Sunday for a showdown with the Incarnate Word Cardinals. Kickoff is set for Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
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