Men's Soccer Earns Key Result While Dropping One
Shreveport, LA- The Jaguars men's soccer team went on the road to face off against Louisiana Christian University and LSU-Shreveport. This road trip and last week's homestand had RRAC tournament implications, and the Jaguars managed to get a key result downing the Wildcats of Louisiana Christian while dropping the other to LSU-Shreveport.
In Thursday's matchup against Louisiana Christian, the Jaguars came out swinging but discombobulated all the same. Whether it was playing their first night game in several weeks and or playing on synthetic turf for the first time in several weeks, the Jaguars were not maintaining possession of the ball like they usually do. It seemed like every time the Jaguars would gain possession, they would lose it just as fast. That is more or less how the entire first half would play out. The Wildcats were able to convert on a PK at the 20:22 mark, however, sending the Jaguars into the locker room down one. In what was likely a fiery one-sided exchange of words by Jaguars' head coach Roberto Jaramillo at half time, however, the Jaguars were able to sort things out coming into the second half. Ronald Aguilar came out with his hair on fire, scoring three goals at the 67:38, 76:15, and 82:06 marks earning him another hat-trick. The Wildcats were able to make it a little more interesting with a late goal at the 83:46 mark, but fortunately the Jaguars were able to maintain and walked away with the much-needed victory.
On Saturday, against the Pilots of LSU-Shreveport, the Jaguars were delt a blow by the Pilots skill and clinical finishes. It is not necessarily that the Jaguars played poorly, but when you play a team like LSU-Shreveport everything has got to go right, and for the Jaguars, everything did not go right. The Pilots got it started at the 18:01 mark, putting the Jaguars down 1-0. However, Ronald Aguilar was able to equalize for the Jaguars with a strike at the 26:23 mark. Unfortunately, that was the only sunshine the Jaguars would see for the remainder of the first half with the Pilots connecting on goals at the 29:14, 29:30, and 41:02 marks giving them a commanding 4-1 lead into half time. The Pilots would come out of half time and immediately score just after the 45:00 mark leaving the Jaguars with nothing more to play for than dignity and pride. At the 55:13 mark the Jaguars' Andres Rodriguez scored, closing the gap to 5-2. The Pilots would, unfortunately, score the final goal at the 69:40 mark, handing them a 6-2 win.
The Jaguars are now 6-3-1 overall and 3-3 in RRAC play, with everything still in front of them. With arguably the toughest stretch of RRAC play behind them, the Jaguars should have a lot of confidence coming into the back half of conference play. The Jaguars will play again on October 16th against Texas College in Tyler.