 "Photo: Shaun Stewart")
Playing most of the second half Friday and the entire game Sunday without one of its key players, Texas relied on its aggressive defense to lead the way to a pair of shutouts, defeating Southern Methodist 1-0 and Auburn 2-0.
In the process, the young Longhorn soccer team, featuring nine freshmen, extended its home-win streak to 14 matches.
"[Our players] played extremely well," Texas head coach Chris Petrucelli said. "They showed great determination, great character, and they were super defensively."
On Friday, the Longhorns began their regular season by hosting SMU, a team the program had never defeated in seven previous contests.
Early in the first half, both teams showed that it would be a physical contest. About seven minutes into the match, Texas forward Kelsey Carpenter went airborne for a pass and collided hard with a Mustang defender. Carpenter was awarded a yellow card.
The first half appeared to be headed towards a scoreless intermission, but with less than two minutes remaining, senior Julie Gailey moved the ball up to sophomore midfielder Caitlyn Kennedy, who then fed an open Carpenter inside the box. After juking the goalkeeper, Carpenter scored the Longhorns' first goal of the season.
"Caitlyn took the defender from the center out away from me, and as Julie served the ball in, Caitlyn flicked it on," Carpenter said. "I ran onto that and tapped it by the keeper and shot it in. It was an awesome assist by Kate and Julie."
After a combined three shots on goal by both teams in the first half, the physical play continued in the second. At the 61:34 mark, Carpenter received her second yellow card, resulting in ejection, after elbowing the opposing player.
"I lost my composure, and it shouldn't have happened. I just got frustrated," Carpenter said. "It was a high intensity game on both ends, and you just get caught up in the moment."
Following the ejection, the Longhorns had to play the final 28-plus minutes of the match a player down and try to hold onto their small lead. And that's just what they did.
With freshmen manning key second-half positions, including goalkeeper and two defenders, the Longhorns held off the Mustang charge.
"It was one of the ugliest games, but sometimes those are the most effective," Petrucelli said. "This season is going to be like this. We're going to have to fight and scrap every game."
On Sunday night, Texas, playing without Carpenter because of yellow cards, looked to continue its winning ways against Auburn in a nationally-televised game on ESPNU.
Just over three minutes into the game, Longhorn freshman Erin Davis served a corner kick high into the goal box where the ball was knocked down by junior midfielder Carrie Schmit. After several deflections, freshman defender Kasey Moore put it in to take an early lead.
"Erin took the corner, and then Carrie got up for it," Moore said. "It was bouncing around in the box, and I just hit it in."
In the second half, Auburn stepped up its aggressive attack, hitting the post and nearly scoring several times. However, Texas did not let up and managed a second goal, also off a corner kick, as Schmit put the Longhorns ahead, 2-0.
"We scored the kind of goals that I think we needed to score," Petrucelli said. "We talked about getting scores from set plays, and Erin served two great balls."
The Tigers mounted a frenetic attack in the waning minutes of the second half, but could not overcome the Longhorns' stout defense. Texas held on to win and improved its record to 2-0 on the season.
"We were great, but we still have a lot to improve," Petrucelli said. "We've got to be better with our possession with the ball and create some more goal-scoring opportunities. But I'm extremely excited about where we're at right now."
The Longhorns travel north to battle Michigan and Michigan State next weekend.
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