(Photo: Jodi Vosika/ASU Lacrosse)
No. 2 Arizona State improved their record to 7-1, knocking out Texas (2-7) in a 16-2 blowout on Monday night.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t a lopsided game until after the first quarter.
The Longhorns got the scoring started off early with a goal by sophomore midfielder Zach McCabe. Arizona State answered that goal with midfielder Cooper Pickell assisting sophomore attackman Rhett Rodgers a short time after.
McCabe came back later in the quarter to give the Longhorns their only other goal for the game, taking a 2-1 lead early.
“We came out flat and weren’t ready to go. We didn’t respect our opponent and that’s what happens when you don’t take teams to heart,” ASU head coach Joe Thon said.
With three seconds to go in the first quarter, freshman attackman Sage DeVault was able to tie things up with the help of fellow freshman Tommy Carrasco.
Towards the start of the second quarter, the Sun Devils managed to get their usual flow back by putting up four additional goals making the game 6-2 and giving them the lead for the remainder of the game.
ASU ended up posting 15 unanswered goals, stretching through a 10-0 score in the second half of play. With the Sun Devils up by a hefty margin, Thon was able to rotate in freshman players such as midfielder Alex Rocha. In addition, backup goalie Nick Bongiovanni (whose traditional position is short-stick defense) was thrown in front of the goal with under five minutes to go in the game.
The points for the Sun Devils were spread across the board, but Rodgers posted a game-high four goals, also tacking on an assist. The goals were his first since the Colorado game at the start of the month.
“I wanted to end the slump I was in. Not scoring the last two games was different for me, so I wanted to adapt and move on,” Rodgers said.
Both teams struggled with their defense in the first quarter of the game. Arizona State lacked solid communication on the defense, a trait that the team tends to struggle with early on.
The biggest challenge that plagued both teams was the fact that defensive poles weren’t watching when the offense took to the backside of the net. At halftime, ASU fixed this kink in their system; however, UT was not able to.
“Our transition game is one thing that we’ve given up a lot of goals on, but we’re making strides in the right direction,” Texas head coach Kyle Loda said.
Loda attributed the struggle to a lack of leadership on the offense. Senior Sam Jones is the only returning senior. Aside from that, the rest of the Longhorn offense is laden with freshmen and sophomores.
Arizona State and Texas will take a two-week hiatus from play.
During that time, Thon said, ASU is “going to work, plain and simple.”
As for the Longhorns, Loda said they will work on more offensive sets to prepare for their April 1 game against Texas A&M (5-5).
Arizona State will start SLC South conference play on April 3 with a game against No. 7 Grand Canyon.
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