ASU Soccer: Analysis of Arizona game

(Photo: Blake Benard/WCSN)

The Arizona State Sun Devils defeated the No. 21 Arizona Wildcats 4-1 Friday night to take home the Territorial Cup in the last game regular season.

This victory was led behind an all around outstanding effort in every area of the field for ASU.

Offensively, it was senior forward Cali Farquharson who shined for the ASU offense with her third career hat-trick for ASU. The Sun Devils took the reigns of the game immediately with scoring within 52 seconds of the game off a great through ball from redshirt senior midfielder Mackenzie Semerad.

The next goal for the Sun Devils came off a corner in the 37th minute this time for senior defender McKenzie Berryhill. With the ball off a corner going far post, sophomore forward Aly Moon crossed the ball from the far post, which found the head of Berryhill who put it home.

ASU’s offense was flowing well and showing it throughout most of the game. With great counter attacks and creativity up front, the ASU offense was able to thrive so well not only because of the forwards but the midfield as well.

The midfield for the Sun Devils this game was great at keeping possession and no committing turnovers. They did well at having controlled passes between one another and made sure that Wildcats didn’t get any easy counter attacks off.

In addition to that, the passing to advance the ball was solid. They did a great job of feeding their leading goal scorer (Farquharson) with Semerad having a nearly identical pass from her first assist in the first half for the third goal, and redshirt junior midfielder Lucy Lara providing a nice through ball for Farquharson on the left-hand side to extend the lead to 4-0 in the 51st minute.

On the defensive end, ASU did a nearly perfect job of shutting down what Arizona specializes at, that being flip throw ins and set pieces.

Pretty much whenever Arizona was in the ASU half a flip throw in could be expected. Although the Sun Devil defense didn’t always clear the ball right away, they stopped header flicks from off the throw ins and as a result didn’t concede them. By stopping the flicks off throw ins from occurring, not only was it easier to clear the ball, but without the flicks, there was no confusion on the ball’s location and the players were able to defend the ball with ease and make good passes out of the back.

For set pieces, up until the 59th minute, the defending was spot on. In the 59th redshirt senior goalkeeper Chandler Morris made a save that forced the ball out of bounds and a corner to Arizona. Off the corner, the ball was headed by junior defender Hannah Steven, causing Morris to miss the punch and as a result senior defender Hayley Estopare was able to head it past a crowded Morris.

Although a goal was conceded, Morris was great throughout the match as well. She ended with six saves including a double save where she initially saved close range shot from junior forward Haley Silverberg with her foot and then got up and saved the follow up shot from outside the box.

Overall it was a great performance from the Sun Devils as a whole. The offense was excellent. The defense was excellent. The midfield was excellent. All around it was an excellent way for the Sun Devils to end a rocky 9-8-1 regular season.