Mississippi State soccer got the ball rolling for its 2022 campaign, beating Samford in an exhibition match Thursday night in Starkville. Though the hosts controlled most of the possession, they didn’t break through until the final minutes, where they scored twice to finish off the game and get a 2-0 win in their first outing.
The Bulldogs took a bit of a 3-4-3 shape, playing with wing backs instead of traditional wingers, a holding midfield pair and two inverted forwards who operated off of the target forward. The game plan stayed mostly the same throughout the exhibition.
MSU had a couple of half chances in the first half of action but couldn’t find the back of the net. The Bulldogs’ two most clear cut chances of the half were both from set pieces. Andrea Tyrrell headed a shot over the goal off of a corner kick, and Gwen Mummert saw a header of her own bounce back off the crossbar.
Alivia Buxton had a speculative shot from long range thunder off the underside of the crossbar late in the half, and it may have crossed the line. However, the ball bounced out very quickly, and the referee wasn’t in a position to rule it a goal.
Ella Simpson had the best chance for the visitors on the night, a shot over the bar in the final minute of first half.
The second half was more of the same for the Bulldogs. They kept the opposition out well, but couldn’t build much in possession for themselves. Jojo Ngongo had a breakaway opportunity about midway through the half, but couldn’t control the pass to shoot when she got one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
A goal finally came for the Bulldogs in the 83rd minute as Freshman Maggie Wadsworth finished off a nice offensive move, assisted by Haley McWhirter. The ball was held up nicely and played to McWhirter at the top of the Samford box. She drew a couple defenders before passing to an open Wadsworth, who controlled and calmly passed the ball past the keeper into the net.
The Bulldogs took advantage of the momentum, storming forward and getting a second goal just 30 seconds after the restart. Wadsworth had yet another chance in front of goal, and though she sent her shot onto the crossbar, the rebound found Hannah Johnson perfectly to hit a first-time shot back towards goal and find the net.
The goal sealed the win for the Bulldogs in their first exhibition game. They have one more exhibition against Southeastern Louisiana at 1 p.m. Sunday before they travel to Florida next week to open their season in Miami against the Hurricanes and Florida International.
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