With postseason hopes hanging in the balance, Mizzou soccer returned home with two games left, needing big results to secure an SEC Tournament spot. Instead, the Tigers conceded twice in the first seven minutes to a Texas A&M team that entered the night 0-7-1 in conference play.
Aggies forward Ireland Churchill did the damage. She scored unassisted in the fourth minute, then added a second in the seventh off a feed from Trinity Buchanan. Both were A&M’s only shots on target of the half.
Mizzou had been 0-9-1 this season when an opponent scored first. Now it had to will its way out of a two-goal hole. All it needed was a Chance.
In the 24th minute, senior defender Taryn Chance slowly gathered the ball upfield, taking the open space the Aggies’ defense gave her. From roughly 25 yards out, she struck it with her left foot and curled it into the side netting, a highlight-reel goal that cut the deficit to 2-1. It was her second of the season. Lana Adams got the assist.
The finish was the spark the Tigers needed. Mizzou played with more energy and pressure from there, earning five first-half corner kicks to A&M’s two. Head Coach Stefanie Golan said the team settled in after the rough start.
“We started getting the ball into the wide space,” Golan said. “[Buels] made a big difference on the right side over there, and the players just came together. They knew what we were fighting for.”
The equalizer came with the clock at zero. Mizzou won a corner kick and Landis Canad swung in a cross that floated over the heads of every contestant in the box and found the deft touch of Emily Derucki, who knocked it across the goal line for Rylie Morse, who finished from point-blank range.
“It was definitely chaotic,” Morse said. “Emily had the ball out wide, and there were four or five people right in front of me, and it just came right to me. It was chaotic, but it was great.”
Golan said she thought Canada had hurt herself racing to get the ball for the corner. “I literally thought she had broken her ankle or something over there,” Golan said. “Her service was great, and then they were super gritty in there to put it away.”
Morse now has four goals this season, tying fellow freshman Lana Adams and Brianna Buels for the team lead. She also leads the team with four assists, which gives her the edge in total points.
Out of the half, Mizzou struck again. Buels put the Tigers ahead 59 seconds after the restart, knocking in a header off a lofted free kick from Morse, her second goal involvement of the night. It was Buels’ fourth goal of the season and her first game-winner. The senior forward already owns the program record for the fastest goal, 14 seconds into the win at Murray State.
It was Mizzou’s second goal of the night off a set piece. “Set pieces are huge for us. We’ve had that all year,” Golan said. “Service has been fantastic, and the fact that we’re starting to put them away more consistently now is ideal for this time of year.”
Texas A&M never found a way back. The Aggies earned three second-half corners and outshot the Tigers 4-3 after the break, but senior goalkeeper Riley Wilkerson turned away both shots A&M put on target, one from Finley Lacher in the 49th minute and one from Churchill in the 53rd.
A&M didn’t score after the seventh minute. Buchanan picked up a yellow card for unsporting behavior in the 58th, and the final half hour turned into a grind of throw-ins and set pieces.
The 3-2 win bounces Mizzou back from Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Georgia and moves the Tigers to 5-9-2 overall and 2-6-1 in the SEC. It also keeps their postseason hopes alive, but with no margin. Mizzou sits 13th with seven points, one behind LSU for the 12th and final spot in the SEC Tournament.
The Tigers know what is left. “We had to get a win to put ourselves in a position for next Sunday,” Morse said. “So we just got to score and get on the end of the balls like we did tonight.”
Mizzou closes the regular season at home against LSU on Sunday, Nov. 1, at noon, and Golan said it could be a win-and-in situation depending on what happens elsewhere. “The only game that matters is the one that you’re playing,” she said. “We have plenty of time to prepare. If we go in with a really good game plan and execute it, good things will happen for us.”
Qualifying would mean the most to the seniors, Morse said, who have not reached the SEC Tournament in their four years at Mizzou. “As the freshmen and sophomores on this team, and even the juniors, that’s what we want for them, to be able to go there their senior year, because we have a lot of seniors,” she said. “That’s just our goal that has been there the whole season, and that’s what we’re pushing for.”