Texas A&M's soccer team played as complete a 90 minutes as it has since upending No. 2 Portland early in the season, scoring two first-half goals and shutting down Colorado for a 2-0 victory Friday at the Aggie Soccer Stadium.
No. 20 Texas A&M (11-5-1, 5-2-1 Big 12) picked the right time to put things together, leapfrogging Colorado (8-8, 5-3) and moving into second place in the league standings. The only bad news for A&M was that Missouri scored two late goals to beat Iowa State, 3-1. The Tigers remain four points ahead of the Aggies with just two matches remaining.
A&M had won at least a share of the regular-season title four straight seasons until 2008, when Oklahoma State ended the run.
"If we don't win the championship we only have ourselves to blame," A&M coach G. Guerrieri said. "Missouri is a heck of a functional team and I wouldn't expect them to not get full points from here on out, but in this conference you never know. All we can do is concentrate on our business."
The Aggies did that from the opening whistle on Friday.
Alyssa Mautz was given acres of space from about 25 yards out and took full advantage of it, cracking a shot just under the crossbar and over the hands of CU goalkeeper Kara Linder to put A&M up 1-0 in the third minute.
"I thought Alyssa's goal was right out of the highlight reel," Guerrieri said. "Everything was lined up perfectly and she's been striking a lot of those lately in practice, so its good for her to get one in a match."
It was Mautz's third goal of the season.
"I took my long touch and saw an opening and just shot it, hit it well," Mautz said. "I was shocked to have that space up on top of the box, because usually someone is on you."
Katie Hamilton doubled the lead in the 34th minute. She settled a cross from Chelsea Jones just above the penalty spot and calmly directed a shot to the right of Linder.
"The second goal was a fantastic build up," Guerrieri said. "I don't know how many passes we strung together, but quite a few, and then to find a smart forward in front of goal is always a great thing, and Katie buried it just like she has all season."
It was Hamilton's sixth goal, which is second on the team to Whitney Hooper's seven.
The defense did the rest, shutting down all-conference forward Nikki Marshall, who did let the Aggies off the hook minutes after Mautz's goal.
Marshall was set free in the penalty box on a diagonal pass, but with Aggie keeper Kelly Dyer charging she missed high and right on what should have been a gimme.
Colorado's Kelly Menachof was denied a game-tying effort by the crossbar in the 18th minute. She rushed to the near post and put her head on a corner kick by Hannah Marsala, but the ball skimmed off the woodwork.
The Aggies didn't have another scare until late in the game, when Kassidy Fitzpatrick chipped a shot over an onrushing Kristin Arnold that was headed to the net before being cleared to the sideline by Rachael Balaguer.
"We wanted to make sure [Marshall] didn't beat us because she's a handful, a heck of a good player and athlete," Guerrieri said. "She's someone who will play in the pro league as soon as she's done at CU.
"I was pleased with our back line. I was pleased with our whole team being able to get up 2-0. It was more of a complete game than we've seen in quite a while."
Even though CU controlled play in the second half for the most part, the Aggies did scare the Buffs with some fine individual plays.
Nora Skelton dribbled her way through three defenders but was denied after having to take a shot from a severe angle at the beginning of the half. Rachel Shipley had another solid game and just missed capping it off after twisting and turning a couple of defenders around and then bending a ball that went just wide of the far post.
A&M returns to the pitch at 1:30 p.m. Sunday against Texas Tech (8-7-2, 3-3-2), which tied Texas 2-2 on Friday.
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