Coming off a victory against Alabama State on Friday, Oct. 1, the much improved Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers fell short to Alabama A&M, 2-0, Sunday afternoon at Lady Panther Field.
The Bulldogs opened up the scoring at the 21st minute of play with a rocket shot from Jazmin Mitchell from 15 yards out, that began with an intense run from Celeste Roberts as she fed it to the streaking midfielder to put it past the Lady Panther goalkeeper.
Prairie View tallied two scoring opportunities before the goal, but both opportunities from attacking midfielders Claudia Martinez and Debbie Arguellos went wide of the net.
It showed that missed opportunities were going to be the story of the afternoon for the Lady Panthers as they were unable to take advantage to notch up the game at a goal a piece throughout the first half.
The Lady Panthers out played the Bulldogs out shooting them 6-4 in the first half but unfortunatly the tides wouldn’t turn the purple and gold way this afternoon.
Prairie View jump started the second half as they continued to press the back line of Alabama A&M but were called on two consecutive offside calls. Martinez had a near chance to get the equalizing goal at the 57th minute but a diving save from A&M’s goalkeeper Jazmine Maclin kept PVAMU goal less.
Prairie View continued to fight back as Yosselyn Aguilar entered the game and proved to be the spark the Lady Panthers needed as she earned a free kick that hit the cross bar that nearly tied the game.
The Bulldogs stood up to the challenge catching PVAMU asleep defensively as A&M countered with a run from Carre Rodriguez down the sideline that led to a one on one scoring chance with Prairie View’ sweeper, Rodriguez finished as she knocked one into the upper right side of the goal for the eventual game winner.
The Lady Panthers didn’t back down from the challenge as they refused to go away without a fight as Arguellos and company continued to press with late goal chances but were denied by an impressive performance by Alabama A&M goal keeper Macklin who ended the match with a total of nine saves.