STARKVILLE — Mississippi State soccer coach James Armstrong said a great week of practice helped cultivate a bit of “telepathy” between junior forwards Hailey Farrington-Bentil and Monigo Karnley.
The duo put their newfound connection to good use in Sunday’s home match against LSU.
Farrington-Bentil delivered a perfect pass, Karnley slotted the ball home, and the Bulldogs (2-0-2) pulled ahead of the Tigers (0-3-0) in the 78th minute and held on for a 2-1 win. Through its first four regular-season matches, Mississippi State has yet to lose, though Armstrong isn’t quite satisfied.
“We wish we had four wins, no ties and no losses, right?” he said. “That would be even better.”
But he’s plenty happy with Sunday’s win, in which the Bulldogs scored in the ninth minute before allowing an equalizer in the 55th when LSU’s Rammie Noel rammed in a shot on a well-executed set piece. Instead of letting the match get away, though, Mississippi State responded with a strong sequence to get the match tied.
“Today, I thought LSU asked us questions and got back in the game, and I thought we played our best in the 10-minute stretch afterward,” Armstrong said.
That’s not even counting Karnley’s goal, which came with just under 13 minutes to go and handed the Bulldogs their second straight win after a pair of draws to open the season.
“To be honest, I just wanted to go out there and just fight for these girls,” Karnley said. “It was a team effort, and I’m very honored to be the one who put the ball in the back of the net, but I felt like everybody did their part.”
Karnley found the net after temporarily being repositioned when junior midfielder Alyssa D’Aloise went down with an injury in the 36th minute. Armstrong pulled Karnley away from the front of the Bulldogs’ attack, but when she returned, it paid off. The junior, who scored the only goal last Friday as Mississippi State beat Ole Miss for the first time since 2012, delivered again to put her team in front.
“She’s a great player — somebody that if you can get her in and around the box, she’s lethal,” Armstrong said.
It wasn’t only Karnley who made the difference for the Bulldogs on Sunday. Sophomore forward Onyi Echegini’s shot in the ninth minute bounced off LSU goalkeeper Bella Zanotelli and trickled past her into the left side of the net.
“I feel like from that moment onward, we had some momentum going forward,” Echegini said.
That bounce carried the Bulldogs into the second half, where in the 55th minute, LSU’s Maddie Moreau threw the ball in from the corner, near the goal line, Taylor Dobles played it into the box, and Noel tied the match with a nice shot past freshman goalkeeper Maddy Anderson. It was Anderson’s only misstep in another solid performance; she has yet to give up more than one goal in any match this season.
Armstrong praised not only Anderson’s ability to keep the ball out but her propensity for handling crosses, coming off her line when needed, distributing the ball and managing the match.
“Maddy’s a freshman; it’s easy to forget that, right?” Armstrong said. “She plays with so much more seniority than what she has. She’s a calming presence on the back line.”
Anderson finished with five saves, two of which were key plays in the closing minutes with Mississippi State clinging to its one-goal lead. She turned away Shannon Cooke less than two minutes after Karnley’s go-ahead score and rebuffed Dobles with less than five minutes to go.
And while two LSU shots made their way past Anderson in the final 15 minutes — one shortly before Karnley made her presence known; one with just over a minute to go — the linesman’s flag went up on both supposed goals. The Tigers were offside, and the scores were disallowed.
“It was nerve-racking, but we trust our back line, and they all stepped up together,” Karnley said.
The Bulldogs will take their undefeated record into Friday’s game at Texas A&M, which beat Mississippi State 3-0 in Starkville last season — Armstrong’s first as MSU’s head coach.
“They’re going to be a real test for us,” he said of the Aggies. “Looking forward to playing against them, but they’ll be a formidable opponent for sure.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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