Sun Devils get back in the win column in Saturday afternoon showdown

(Photo: Courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics)

Tempe – The Sun Devils of Arizona State Lacrosse took the field against the St. Joseph’s Hawks. The Hawks at 1-4 and Sun Devils at 3-2, have never faced off before, meaning their first faceoff is within the Sun Devils Inferno.

The teams began the game at 11:58am, both teams were fired up and ready to go. Hawks Senior midfielder, Maddie Yoder, won the draw control which gave them the first possession of the game. Less than five minutes into the game, a foul against the Hawks led to the Sun Devils first goal of the game from Senior midfielder Bella Ingrao. Despite her team coming off a string of losses, Ingrao was the only player not from University of Florida who earned Big 12 recognition this last week, being named Big 12 midfielder of the week. This is her first weekly honor of her career.

Ingrao’s goal seemed to have a domino effect for the Sun Devils. Within the next two minutes of the game Sun Devil junior attacker, Jordan Behar and junior attacker, Lydia Oldknow both added to the score sheet with a goal each. Within just three minutes the game went from being tied at 0-0 to the Sun Devils offense taking off and making it 3-0.

The Sun Devil offense’s momentum was cut short after a big save from the Hawks Graduate goalkeeper Jorden Concordia.

With just under two minutes in the first quarter, the Hawks got onto the board when Yoder used some impressive footwork against a Sun Devil defender to get the first Hawks goal of the game making the score 3-1. This was just the start for her, Yoder would go on to end the game with four goals. The Sun Devils snuck two goals in before the quarter ended making the score at 5-1 going into the second quarter.

Freshman attacker Addie Shevitz wasted no time, Shevitz scored her eighth goal of the season within the first two minutes of the quarter. Later on, an unfortunate yellow card against Junior defender Angelina Longo, forced Longo out and no one was allowed to replace her on the field. This gave the Hawks a much needed advantage, playing a player up. However, the Hawks did not capitalize on the opportunity. Instead top Sun Devil scorer, Oldknow picked up her second goal of the game, while her team was still playing at a disadvantage.

Once the Sun Devils were back at full force, the Hawks scored three times uninterrupted until Sun Devil Junior, Teagan Ng, got a goal of her own, which threw a wrench in the Hawks offensive momentum. Within the last minutes of the quarter both teams were able to sneak in a goal each. The Sun Devils goal was by Oldknow, earning herself a hat trick within the first half. Both teams scored four goals in the quarter, going into halftime with a score of 9-5.

At half time the Sun Devils seemed confident about the second half. Sun Devil Lacrosse Head Coach Taryn VanThof Puls, says how at halftime the team talked about the defense saying

“We talked about capitalizing in bigger moments,” VanThof Puls said. “Like knowing that we can’t let teams go on more than three goal runs on us.”

This was after the Hawks had their first set of three uninterrupted goals, after Longo was back on the field. On the other side of the ball, VanThof-Puls said how “offensively, we want to make sure we’re capitalizing more than three goals at a time, right? That’s the change in momentum. That’s the swing and swing and shifts. And so offensively, we talked about being a little bit more patient with our possessions, so we were capitalizing in, you know, the 60 seconds or less instead of the first opportunity.” The Sun Devils were the first ones to have a streak of three goals in a row to start off the game, never allowing the Hawks to tie them or beat them. This is the second game this season where this has happened for the Sun Devils.

Oldknow started the second half off with another goal. Players from both teams became more physical in the second half, causing more fouls and creating heated tempers. The fouls also caused some commotion from spectators who were engulfed in the game. The quarter ended with a mixture of fouls and cards between the teams, and some very annoyed spectators.

Offensively, the Hawks soared. With 4 uninterrupted goals from until Behar was able to find the back of the net, these goals brought the score much closer at 11-9. Senior goalkeeper Katie Vahle was able to make key saves that kept her team in the game.

The fourth quarter kept all the fans and players on their toes. The game became 11-10 after a quick goal from Yoder. The quarter had lots of shot attempts, unfortunately for both teams most of those shots were not on target or the goalkeepers were able to stop them. The game was very back and forth, with each team taking turns to score. Somehow the Sun Devils were able to maintain the lead for the entire game. Junior, Helen Park, was able to cause a turnover in the final seconds and was able to cradle the ball until the very end. Ending the game with a score of 13-12 after all of the back and forth.

After this hard fought win, the Sun Devils record is now 4-2 and St. Josephs to 1-5. By the time the game had ended, the Sun Devils had 3 yellow and 2 green cards. While the Hawks only had one of each.

Parks’ turnover in the last seconds of the game was arguably what won the game for the Sun Devils. All the Hawks needed was one more goal to force the game to overtime. Teammate Teagen Ng talks about the final play of the game from Park and gives praise, saying how “as a team we have been focusing on ground balls, she got that one time ground ball to seal the deal and she’s a dog. It definitely won the game for us.”

Players from both teams became more physical in the second half, ending the game with 17 fouls for ASU and 26 for the Hawks.

The Sun Devils take the field again Tuesday at 4 p.m. to take on the Mercer Bears at Sun Devil Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium here in Tempe. The Bears are coming off their first win of the season after beating Kennesaw State with a hefty 20 goals to Kennasaw’s 4. This will be the first time Mercer and Arizona State will compete against each other.

“Bring it all together,” Park said. “I think we’ve been having really good games, having good moments and I think on Tuesday we’ll be able to bring everything together and just show everyone who we actually are.”