(Photo: Patricia Vicente/WCSN)
In a battle between two teams still seeking their first conference win, the Arizona State Sun Devils (6-8-3, 0-6-2 Pac-12) met the Oregon Ducks (5-6-5, 1-5-2) on Sunday afternoon in their final home game of the season.
While the Sun Devils would celebrate five seniors on Senior Day after the match, it would ultimately be Oregon who pulled out the 1-0 win.
Oregon opened the contest with a high-pressure approach, something Arizona State hasn’t responded well to early in matches throughout conference play.
With the exception of Washington State, Arizona State has conceded a goal within the first 20 minutes to all other Pac-12 opponents they have faced.
“We have made a lot of mistakes on (defense) and we need to continue to coach the players that we have and improve our ability and decision making at the back,” head coach Graham Winkworth said. “We have also got to make sure that in the midfield we are making good decisions and looking after the ball. We also need to give our back line and goalkeeper a little bit more protection.”
With Oregon slowly but surely threatening to start the match, it looked as if they would become the next on the list to score first. In the ninth minute, an Oregon cross went to freshman forward Ally Cook, who headed the ball towards the bottom left corner of the net. ASU freshman keeper Giulia Cascapera made a diving one-handed stop to keep the Ducks off the board.
However, Cascapera’s efforts would be nullified in the 16th minute after a through ball caught the ASU defense sleeping and found its way to the foot of Cook, who made sure to finish this time around and gave Oregon a 1-0 lead.
Without senior captain and midfielder Kylie Miniefield, who was sidelined due to a foot injury and started every game this season until Sunday, the Sun Devils seemed relatively lost on offense for the majority of the first half. The Ducks outshot the Sun Devils 11-6 in the first 45 minutes.
Arizona State had several significant chances to equalize early in the second half, one of the best being a shot from sophomore midfielder Isabel Dehakiz, who fired a laser from outside the box just wide of the top right corner.
Late in the contest and desperate to score, Winkworth switched formations and placed his best offensive players in the game. Sophomore forwards Marleen Schimmer and Nicole Douglas, along with freshman Dai Williams took the three spots up front to lead the ASU charge.
Despite the increased offensive firepower in the game, no opportunities came to fruition. The closest chance for ASU came late and was surprisingly from the foot of a defender rather than one of Winkworth’s powerful offensive options.
With less than a minute left in the match, ASU’s Callie Darst took initiative to get her team on the board. Darst weaved down the left side of the field, entered the box and fired a shot that sliced between two Oregon defenders. The ball pierced the air, arching and bending from the left side of the pitch towards the back-right portion of the goal.
Darst has done a lot of things for the Sun Devils this season. She has played a team-leading 1510 minutes, and the freshman hybrid of midfielder and defender is one of two players on the ASU roster to start and play in every single game this season.
The freshman, once a forward that scored 16 goals in her junior season of high school, is everywhere for the Sun Devils on the pitch and is one of Winkworth’s brightest young players on the team. After converting to play the back line for the Sun Devils, Darst’s goal-scoring ways had primarily been put on the backburner. However, this time it looked to be different.
Soccer is a game of inches, and in this contest, the Sun Devils were just an inch short.
Darst’s shot, which narrowly avoided the efforts of the Ducks’ goalie, bounced off the right woodwork and as the ball was cleared, ASU watched their final chance of a senior day victory slip away.
For the Sun Devils, a conference loss to Oregon is a knockout blow that will be hard to recover from. The team is still looking for that ever-elusive conference win they can’t seem to find, and learn as many lessons as they can along the way.
“For these last three games, I think we are at the point where we need to have a lot of grit,” said senior defender Lorato Sargeant. “I think a lot of what we lack is that mentality piece to be aggressive on the ball and fight. Some games we have it and some games we don’t which has hurt us.”
Next up for the Sun Devils are three road games to wrap up their 2019 campaign, the first of which is easily the most daunting challenge ASU will face all season.
Arizona State will travel to California face the best the Pac-12 has to offer, No. 2 Stanford (15-1, 8-0), on Thursday. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. MST and can be seen on Pac-12 Networks.
