(Photo: James Powel/WCSN)
The Sun Devils (5-4-2), broke their three game winless streak with a 3-2 OT win on the road against the Washington Huskies (5-6-1) on Thursday.
Early in the first half, both teams had a tough time completing passes and putting pressure on each other’s defense.
In the 12th minute, Washington had an opportunity as they had a dangerous cross in front of the net. The Huskies were able to connect on the cross, but failed to find the back of the net, missing wide left on what appeared to be an easy goal.
Aly Moon, who has been out with a concussion, received a pass from Sun Devil captain Lucy Lara and proceeded to go around the Husky defender and then put up a great bender that hung inside the right post for the first goal of the game.
Nevertheless, the trend of poor defense closing out halves was shown once again for the Sun Devils as they surrendered a goal in the 40’ to Washington’s Kennedy Smith.
The goal was off a misplay from Arizona State goalie Emma Malsy who did not read a pass to clear the ball. The goal was Smith’s first of the season.
The second half got under way and in the 53’ Washington got off a cross that nearly went in the goal. The rebound came to Washington who then got a cross and another Washington forward headed the ball in over the reach of Malsy to give the lead to Washington.
In the 62’ minute, the ASU defense could not clear the ball on a shot attempt and nearly gave up their third goal of the game, but a offside penalty negated the goal, keeping the Sun Devils in the game only down 2-1.
ASU had some chances in the second half, as in the 72’ Aly Moon tried to head in a pass, however, the Washington goalie Shimer grabbed the ball before Moon could put up her shot.
Moon took several shots to the head in the second half, and twice she stayed down on the ground.
In the 87’ Ally Moon shot a ball hard off Shimer and Larisa Staub came in with a deflection to knock the ball in goal to tie the game up at 2-2.
Neither team could score a goal in the last three minutes of regulation and the game went into the first overtime period.
Early on, ASU put pressure on Washington as they had a strong deep cross and just missed on a header. Washington cleared the ball and in the 98’ got themselves in an offensive position after a shot bounced off a Sun Devil defender but there were no Huskie’s around to rebound the ball and lay it in.
In the 105’ a long pass deflected off forward Natalie Stephens to Staub at the top of the box. Stephens passed the ball to Lara who rolled a pass back to Stephens in the right corner of the box.
Stephens slid in an effort to score the goal before the Washington goalie could snag the ball. The shot hit off a Washington defender who tried to clear the ball, but somehow it bounced off reserve, Madison Kmetko for the game winning goal.
After a hard fought game, the Sun Devils got a much needed win to get back on track and improve their record to 6-4-2.
While it wasn’t the cleanest game by the Sun Devils, they came away with an important win. The win over the Washington Huskies marks their first win in the Pac-12 and they will look to use it as motivation as they stay in Washington to take on Washington State on Sunday October 9th at 11 a.m.
