BEAUMONT, Texas - A wild second half saw Lamar and East Texas A&M score two goals each and play to a 2-2 draw after a scoreless first half in the Southland Conference opener Thursday at the LU Soccer Complex. The Cardinals went 2-1-1 in their four-game home stretch and outscored opponents 17-5.
Marissa Gross and
Anneliese Switzer netted both Cardinal goals, with
Kam Jalayer (two) and
Sydney Williams racking up the assists. Freshman goalkeeper
Eloise Bywater and her counterpart, ETAMU's Gillian McKenzie, came up with five saves for the contest. Alana Lawless-Felarca scored twice to rally the Lions back to the draw.
The first half would be scoreless, although the Cardinals came out on the offensive in the opening 10 minutes. Their first chance to capitalize was in the 16th minute as a header went past McKenzie, but was saved by a Lion teammate. Bywater stopped a pair of ETAMU chances in the 40th and 44th minutes, respectively, as both teams went into the locker room without an early tally.
At the start of the second half, each side took a free kick shot on goal that was saved by either keeper. Then, in the 59th minute, the Cardinals broke through first off a corner kick from Jalayer. The ball deflected off
Sydney Williams and went to Gross, who struck it with her right foot. Seven minutes later, Switzer found the left side of the goal and gave LU a 2-0 lead. However, in the next three minutes, Lawless-Felarca equalized the match at two apiece.
Both teams sought the winning goal for the remainder of the half as the Cardinals were unable to capitalize on four corner kick chances in the final few minutes. A yellow card on the Lions with 17 seconds left set up one final shot for LU, but the game-winner never came and each side walked off with a draw.
"It's certainly a weird feeling to get out with a draw tonight," said head coach
Nathan Kogut. "I thought we were the better team for large stretches, but I have to tip my cap to East Texas A&M. They made it so hard to play our game, and they made us work for everything we got. We didn't do enough of the little details tonight to earn all three points and now must quickly recover to get a win on the road on Sunday."
After four contests at home, Big Red heads out to San Antonio to meet UIW for a Sunday showdown. The match will kick off at 1 p.m and be streamed on ESPN+.
