ASU Soccer: Sun Devils beat Montana 3-1 in season opener

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

Continuous weather delays were the main theme for the Arizona State women’s soccer program. That didn’t stop them from winning their first game of the 2018 season 3-1.

The Sun Devils were originally supposed to travel to Hawaii to play the University of Hawaii and Montana, however Hurricane Lane had other plans causing the trip to be put to a halt.

Montana decided to travel down to Tempe, pushing ASU’s season home opener a week earlier than previously planned. But, with monsoon season in full throttle the Sun Devils and Grizzlies continued to be delayed due to lightning and rain.

With almost a two-hour postponement, the teams finally took the field.

The Sun Devils started off a tad lost on the pitch and the Grizzlies took advantage of the opportunity to press hard on the defense.

“The team’s attitude coming out after the weather was absolutely fantastic,” said head coach Graham Winkworth. “The awful first fifteen minutes had nothing to do with weather, had nothing to do with the girls, that’s on me, the first fifteen minutes was poor because I threw something new on them two days ago.”

Senior Sydney Day faced five shots in her first official start as a goalkeeper for the Sun Devils.

“I was really excited that I got the chance to start tonight, I’ve worked so hard all the three years I’ve been here, and I finally got my start,” said Day.

ASU started to settle down as the game advanced and the team finally began testing Grizzly goalkeeper Claire Howard.

At 21:57 the Sun Devils struck first. Cori Sullivan crossed the ball into the 18-yard box where it found English woman Nicole Douglas. Douglas volleyed the ball passed Howard to score her first goal as a Sun Devil.

Minutes later, Montana forward Ellie Otteson got lucky after she fired in a deflected ball that came off a Sun Devil defensive block to tie the game 1-1.

Following Otteson’s goal, the referees called for another weather delay due to the lightning surrounding Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.

Approximately thirty minutes later the game resumed.

The Sun Devils came out of the break strong unlike the beginning of the game. With the offense pressuring the Grizzly back line, opportunities flourished for ASU.

Douglas’ hard work didn’t slow down after her first goal. She regained the lead for the Devils after stealing the ball from the feet of Howard inside the 18-yard box.

“It was good to start my first game and to score two goals was an amazing feeling,” said Douglas. “The whole team worked really hard throughout the whole game.”

As the game progressed, the Sun Devils looked more confident with the ball going into the final third of the field.

Douglas wasn’t the only freshman to put up points on the board in the game. Sullivan left the game with an assist on Douglas’ goal and scored her own goal with 25 minutes left in the match.

Sullivan went to cross the ball into the box when her ball was deflected just enough to end up going far post and into the net to break the lead out to 3-1 for the Sun Devils.

“She’s amazing,” said Douglas. “She has great pace down the wing, she has the ability to score, go one v one against players and to get crosses into the box for other players like myself and others to get onto to score more goals.”

The Sun Devils walk away with their first win of the season as they head into their Sun Devil Desert Classic Tournament next Friday, August 31 against New Hampshire and on Sunday, September 2 against Southeast Missouri State.