With just over five minutes left in the match, Arizona State and Texas Tech were desperate for a clutch play to veer them away from the seemingly inevitable tie. Like she has all season for the Red Raiders, junior Taylor Zdrojewski delivered, sending a powerful left-footed shot into the back of the goal and Texas Tech back into the win column.
Although ASU coach Graham Winkworth felt she was offside, the goal was enough to deliver a 3-2 win for Texas Tech (11-1-2 (5-0-2 Big 12)) on Friday. The Sun Devils (9-4-2 (2-4-1 Big 12)) fell behind 0-2 in the first half before mounting a furious comeback to tie it in the second. Still, the poor first half proved too much to overcome for ASU.
“Ridiculously poor first half from our standpoint,” Winkworth said. “And a ridiculous offside goal in the last few minutes of the game. I mean, I’m devastated. I’m frustrated to lose a game, but our first half performance deserved a defeat; but the second half performance didn’t.”
Texas Tech applied pressure right from kickoff. On defense, they forced the Sun Devils to lose the ball and make mistakes. Offensively, they overwhelmed ASU’s backline and scored in four minutes and 26 seconds.
Just like the game-winning goal, Zdrojewski accurately placed a shot far away from the goalkeeper’s reach and into the corner of the goal. The junior forward rolled the ball into the bottom left corner of the net after dribbling between two ASU defenders for her 11th goal of the season. The winner was her 12th.
“Great player,” Winkworth said. “Like you said, player of the week last week for a reason.” She’s an excellent player, one of the best forwards in the conference.”
Later in the half, junior Storie Sexton scored a tap-in for the Red Raiders off defender Macy Blackburn’s assist. Sexton’s shot was one of 12 for Texas Tech in the first half; ASU only had one.
Zero shots on goal and two goals surrendered in the first half is a nightmare for any college soccer team. To make matters worse, the Sun Devils dealt with multiple injuries and substitutions.
Near the end of the half, backup goalkeeper Olivia Herrera checked into the game, but not at her regular position. Because Winkworth was frustrated with his team’s performance, he substituted out everyone but goalkeeper Pauline Nelles and midfielder Peyton Marcisz. This forced a moment of confusion until Herrera changed out of her goalkeeper’s kit and assumed the role of a forward.
“I think I left Peyton as the only one on there, because she was the only one doing anything,” Winkworth said. “So I subbed everybody else out, and then we picked up another injury and ran out of players, so Liv was the next person up. You know what’s frustrating?” Winkworth asked. “That she didn’t do any worse than the girls that were on the pitch.”
A few minutes later, the Sun Devils returned to the locker room for halftime. When they came out, the team looked completely different. All 11 players played with intensity, a difference for everyone but Marcisz. Winkworth said he used her first-half performance as motivation for the rest of the team.
“What I said to them,” Winkworth said. “There was one player in the locker room that I felt personally could hold their head up high from the first half performance. Then I just randomly asked different players who they thought that player was, and we all had the same player in our head. I said, ‘That’s the problem right there.’ When you can all come up with the same player, that means 10 others aren’t doing their jobs properly.”
In the second half, Marcisz came out even stronger. She scored ASU’s first goal just five minutes after halftime. Unassisted, she made multiple defenders miss before putting a shot high into the Red Raiders’ net. Just 10 minutes later, she assisted sophomore midfielder Sierra Bergen’s goal to tie the game.
“Peyton Marcisz was the best player on the pitch tonight and was unbelievable,” Winkworth said.
On her assist, Marcisz sent a cross high into the box where Bergen was sprinting into before she jumped and made an acrobatic adjustment mid air to head the ball into the back of the net.
The halftime speech and initial goal changed ASU’s mindset, Marcisz said.
“We realized we can compete,” Marcisz said. “We started pushing and pushing… We could tell that they were kind of scared, kind of nervous, and they weren’t really capitalizing as much as in the first half.”
Although Texas Tech was ultimately able to respond to the momentum shift, Pauline Nelles played well. The senior goalkeeper recorded 6 saves and played all 90 minutes, putting second all-time in games started and minutes played for an ASU goalkeeper.
Nelles’ historic moment, paired with the comeback in the second half, leaves ASU with positive takeaways. Marcisz said this mentality can be taken into the upcoming schedule.
“After that second half, our heads are up,” Marcisz said. “We played really good soccer. You could tell this is a top team, and we were playing around them; we were competing.”
