STARKVILLE — Mississippi State soccer is 2-0 after another win at home on Sunday. The Bulldogs secured a 4-0 win and registered a record-equalling 30 shots on the day with 11 on target.
The Bulldogs battled the heat as well as the Northwestern State Blue Devils with temperatures reaching 98 degrees, and they turned up the heat early on the opponents as well. Junior Alivia Buxton scored her first goal of the season in the fifth minute, making it the second game in a row where the Bulldogs struck in the opening stage of the match.
It was Buxton’s first goal back after missing the 2023 season with an injury, and she marked her return in style by crashing the box and firing past the keeper after good build up play from Ally Perry and Hannah Johnson on the left wing.
“Losing Bux last year in the second exhibition was a real tough one for us,” Armstrong said. “Maggie Wadsworth got a lot of the plaudits, and she should, she scored nine goals in her freshman year, but Buxton was on fire. I think she started every game and scored a number of big goals.”
Despite the high volume of chances they had to wait until the 79th minute before scoring again. That goal came from the spot after the Video Assistant Referee spotted a handball in the box. Aitana Martinez-Montoya placed the penalty kick past the keeper calmly, and that opened the floodgates as MSU struck two more times before the final whistle.
“I thought we played better in the first half than we did in the second to be honest,” Armstrong said. “We created more clear-cut scoring chances and Northwestern did a really good job trying to force us central. We struggled to adjust to that adequately, but the beauty of this squad is that we’re deep so we kept rotating to find different combinations, different solutions, and once it was 2-0 we put a number of players who haven’t played as many minutes and I thought they did an unbelievable job. We call them game changers and they did just that.”
The third goal came just minutes after the second, with Chelsea Wagner’s low cross from the left deflecting in off the foot of a defender, and the fourth came even sooner with defender Naila Schoefberger getting on the end of a Buxton corner kick.
It was another solid performance on the defensive end as goalkeeper Maddy Anderson was only called into action on a chance that was flagged for offside. The Bulldogs held the visitors to a single shot, which was wide of the target, and have allowed no goals and just a single shot on target through two matches.
It was a strong display from the whole team, and with the high temperatures, there was plenty of rotation to keep the team fresh on the field. Even with the rotation the style of play never really changed or let up the pressure on the Devils, and Armstrong made sure to credit the players and his coaching staff for the seamless transitions.
“Nick, Drago and Kat do an unbelievable job of making sure that everybody is ready, everybody is prepared, but at the end of the day the players have got to be paying attention and be ready when their name is called,” he said. “I’m glad you saw that today because I thought a number of them when they came in we didn’t skip a beat.”
The Bulldogs go on the road next week to North Carolina, setting up trips to face UNC Charlotte and Wake Forest.
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