Photo by: Krishnan Collins | Sports Editor: Red Wolves’ defender Olivia Smith battles with a Louisiana player in A-State’s 1-0 SBC win over the Rajin’ Cajuns.

The Arkansas State soccer team improved to 2-0 in the Sun Belt Conference with a 1-0 home win over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns. With the victory, the Red Wolves improved to 6-3 on the season.

Once again, as in the home win over SEMO, the lone scorer in the match was senior defender Dana O’ Boye.

In the 62nd minute, Sarah Sodoma won a penalty kick when she was pushed from behind in the box. O’Boye stepped up to the spot and calmly finished the ball into the right side of the net.

“It’s a good win,” O’Boye said. “That’s a great team. Sarah did all the work for that, I just finished the job.”

The Red Wolves do not really have a set penalty kick taker. A-State tries to spread the wealth and O’Boye feels confident in her ability to score from the spot.

“I mean it’s whoever wants it,” O’Boye said. “We switch it up to try to get other people in the rotation. But yeah I take a lot of PKs.”

The Red Wolves pressed Louisiana hard from the beginning. The midfield knew they had an advantage before the game. Midfielder Sophia Restrepo played a tough, physical match and helped lead the midfield through the 90 minutes.

“We studied their formation before we started the game,” Restrepo said. “We saw they had a different midfield than most teams so we pushed our midfield up. We had two center-mids on their lower center-mids so we pressed them hard in the beginning to try to score.”

A-State has a high powered midfield this season. Restrepo thinks the Red Wolves can adapt to anyone they play. With a tough Texas State opponent traveling to Jonesboro on Sunday, the midfield needs to be at their best.

“We’re definitely going to keep the confidence from our win and know that no matter what opponent we play we’ll just adapt,” Restrepo said. “We’re a really adaptable team and we can just beat them at their own formation.”

Game Summary

Second Half

Louisiana looked like a changed team out of the half time talk. Despite the Red Wolves still having a lot of control over the game, the Ragin’ Cajuns definitely gave themselves a chance in the match.

With just seven minutes left in the match, Louisiana was left wide open on a corner. Whether the Ragin’ Cajun player was caught in two minds between flicking the ball on or heading the ball towards goal, Louisiana fluffed their lines and could not capitalize.

In the 62nd minute, Louisiana defender Gwen Mummert botched a clearance towards her own goal. The speedy Sarah Sodoma raced towards the badly cleared ball and Mummert pursued behind her. Trying to make up for her error, Mummert aggressively bundled into the back of Sodoma and brought the St. Louis native down in the box. O’Boye stepped up and calmly put the Red Wolves ahead 1-0.

Towards the beginning of the second half, A-State took a corner that eventually found its way to defender Julianna Coates. Coats had a half-decent look at goal as she fired her shot over the crossbar.

First Half

Neither team could find a breakthrough in a rather uneventful, in terms of goal scoring chances, first half. The Red Wolves dominated most of the first 45 minutes but could not capitalize on their possession.

A-State pressured the Ragin’ Cajuns into many turnovers and bad passes. Despite the constant pressure applied by the Red Wolves midfield and the many errors by Louisiana, not many chances at goal came off the press.

With about 10 minutes left in the first half, Victoria Macintosh found Maggie Ertl on the edge of the box with a splitting through ball. The Louisiana defender recovered quickly and Ertl’s shot deflected out for a corner.

In the 33rd minute, Sodoma whipped in a teasing corner. Ever-present on corners, Dana O’Boye attempted a header before the ball fell to her feet. The senior defender could not put a great shot on goal.

The Red Wolves played great soccer in the 24th minute. A fluid passage of play occurred when Juliana Coates played a long ball down the pitch. Hailey Furio flicked the ball to an on-running Abby Harris down the wing. Harris whipped in a delicious looking ball but Louisiana’s keeper collected it calmly.

The Red Wolves absolutely dominated the first 10 minutes. Louisiana barely had any possession, but A-State could not take advantage of the Rajin’ Cajuns against the wall.

Looking Ahead

The Red Wolves return to action on Sunday when the Texas State Bobcats travel to Jonesboro. The matchup is set to be a thriller between two strong SBC teams. Kick off is set for 1 p.m.

Categories: Sports