ASU Soccer: Inability to find the back of the net is costly against Utah

The ASU soccer team fall at home against the Utah Utes 2-0 while failing to score for only the second time all season before a big road test.

With a mere 13 seconds left before referee Megan McCain would blow her whistle signaling the end of the first half, Utah Utes defender Hailey Stodden crossed the ball in toward the edge of the 18-yard box where Paola Van Der Veen volleyed the ball into the back of the net.

On the goal Arizona State Sun Devil captain Jemma Purfield said, “It’s never good going in especially that close to the half and it’s tough to bounce back from that.”

The tempo of play was very high paced early on in the match with both teams going back and forth but slowed down once Utah went up 1-0.

Once they took the lead they fell back and played extremely defensive for most of the second half. The air was taken out of the ball even more after one of Utah’s midfielders Jessica Hixson added another goal to the Utes lead on a shot from just inside the 18-yard box.

The Sun Devils did pick up the tempo and pressure in the game’s final 10 minutes but could not quite get a goal back.

One of the key stories for the Sun Devils who ended up losing 2-0 against the Utes was the struggle to put the ball in the goal.

They managed to take 19 shots with nine of them being on target, both were significantly greater than the Utes 11 shots with four on target.

This scoring struggle started in the first game on Thursday against the Colorado Buffaloes who Arizona State out shot 28-22 while putting more shots on net than the Buffs.

Despite taking 47 shots and putting 22 on goal, the Sun Devils could only manage to score once. The Sun Devils were missing their leading goal scorer Nicole Douglas who is on international duty for the Under-19 England squad and coach Graham Winkworth claims, “When you lose your top goal scorer it is going to be a challenge [to score].”

The Sun Devils did have the chances throughout the match including a shot six minutes in by Purfield which was turned onto the crossbar by Ute keeper Carly Nelson.

This was one of three shots which hit the woodwork. Another bar rattling shot came off the foot of forward Casey Martinez who sent the loose ball toward the goal like a rocket in the final 15 minutes, but unfortunately hit the underside of the bar and bounced down and away from goal.

Winkworth joked of the shots, “We could use a bit of lady luck and maybe widen the goals a little bit for the next game.”

The Sun Devils’ record falls to 6-3-1 with the loss and since their four game win streak have not been victorious in the last two matches.

They now go on what could be the toughest three game stretch in college soccer with games at 16th-ranked UCLA and second-ranked USC before returning home as the No. 1 team in the nation Stanford comes to Tempe.