(Photo: Hailey Rogalski/WCSN)
The Sun Devils won 3-2 over the Wildcats on Friday, in a back-and-forth matchup full of twists and turns in the scoring.
Sophomore forward Keri Mattews opened up the scoring 24 minutes in, after a back pass gone wrong by Arizona senior goalkeeper Hope Hisey.
The 1-1 scoreline was not reflective of first-half play. The Wildcats had the majority of the game’s chances. Junior forward Jordan Hall was electric in the first 45 creating key chances, and causing lots of problems for the Sun Devil backline.
Arizona found success with their crosses, and once junior midfielder Jazmine Wilkson got booked midway through the first half, ASU lost some of its aerial presence, leading to a header scored by Sami Baytosh. The freshman midfielder managed to score a header just before sophomore goalkeeper Pauline Nelles could get there.
Sophomore midfielder Nyota Katembo scored at the beginning of the 2nd half for the Wildcats off a corner, yet the Sun Devils didn’t stay down long. Senior midfielder Eva van Deursen was able to make it 2-2 just five minutes later, after great play from senior forward Nicole Douglas, leading up to the van Deursen chance.
ASU’s dominance continued throughout the entire second half. A formation change from coach Graham Winkworth allowed his side to dominate possession and fill the box with crosses consistently. The switch from a 4-3-3 to a 3-4-3 allowed junior fullback Lucy Johnson to bomb forward and create numerical advantages in the final 3rd.
The match-winning goal came shortly after from Johnson. She scored a beautiful goal after her miskicked cross found the top corner.
She did admit after the game that her wonder strike was an attempted cross but her coach doesn’t care in the slightest.
“I’ll take a shot any day,” Johnson said. “They all count.”
Johnson’s amazing campaign saw her get a first goal of the season Friday to tally up her eight assists, a team-high for ASU.
Now the Sun Devils will wait to see if they are selected to the NCAA Tournament with results expected to be released by Monday.
