On Sunday, Sept. 22, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns faced their first match of conference play at home in the afternoon heat against the Texas State Bobcats. They would tie 1–1 in a game full of tough breaks for the Cajuns.
In a press conference held the following day, Head Coach Chris McBride gave full props to the Bobcats and the quality of their forward play.
“That’s a really talented Texas State team, I think they’re gonna be one of the top teams in the conference this year,” McBride said.
“Their offense is potent, they can score from a lot of places, so they really challenged us. I think that being able to face a team like that early on in the conference schedule really sets us up to see where we’re gonna be.”
The Cajuns were actually the first to get on the scoreboard that game, converting off of a Syndey Byrnes corner kick directed to the far side and crashed in by Hailly Waterhouse and Lucy Ortiz in the 24th minute.
“I think in the first half we came out with a good tempo and good energy. We utilized our spare players where they were on the field and created some good opportunities,” McBride said. “I think we created some chances out wide earlier on in the game that led to some corners and ultimately led to the goal.”
As the Bobcats upped the pressure, starting goalkeeper Natalie Mayes stepped up big time again and recorded eight saves in the second half alone.
“The second half came, and I think the game plan changed. They changed a couple of things in their system, they started to overload different areas in the field and it made us adjust,” McBride said.
“We weren’t quite ready to handle that there, so we made some changes on the fly and I think that the group adapted very well to what we asked them, something that we hadn’t prepared for.”
Despite playing great physical defense, even turning away a penalty kick late, the Cajuns defense couldn’t maintain the clean sheet the full 90 as the Bobcats would equalize in the 75th minute off of a far-side corner kick of their own headed in by Kennley Bradley.
“It’s a game of give and take, and maybe we took too much and tried to take away their threats rather than capitalizing on ours, but that’s on me,” McBride said.
Both sides combined for 20 fouls in the contest, three cards were handed out by the referees. and the physicality and heat definitely impacted the flow of the game.
“I think we handled it really well. I think it’s just high-level soccer,” McBride said. “You’ve gotta win your offensive duels, and you’ve gotta be able to put your body on the line, protect the ball, keep a hold of it, connect it and move it.”
In the second home game of the week, the Cajuns took the pitch against the Appalachian State Mountaineers team who had just finished their first conference match with a convincing win against Georgia Southern. Though this was an evening game, it would be similarly physical in nature, the Cajuns and Mountaineers racking up 16 and 13 fouls respectively.
The Cajuns struggled to get forward, only totaling four shots the entire match compared to App State’s 11. Again the defense held up well, until the 83rd minute when conference leader in shots and goals Izzi Wood converted an outside-the-box arcing shot up over an outstretched keeper, her sixth goal of the season.
After a bye on Thursday Oct. 3, the Cajuns will be back home to play against the Troy Trojans next Sunday on Oct. 6, followed by the South Alabama Jaguars on Thursday, Oct. 10.
Coach McBride discussed the game plan he would need against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks on Sunday, Oct. 29 as opposed to how the team played against App State.
“Two completely different game plans.” McBride said. While App State had Wood, a dominant scorer, “ULM are just a solid team. They’ve got some special players, their girl in the midfield leads the nation in shot percentage.”
“Technically, we’re playing some really good teams, athletically, we’re playing some really good teams, tactically, each teams gonna throw something different at us, so it’s gonna give us a good preparation for conference.”