Junior defenders McKenzie Berryhill and Rachel Ometer attempt a header in a home game against Stanford on Oct. 26, 2014. Stanford won the game 2-0. (Photo by Sawyer Hardebeck)ASU suffered its second loss in as many games, this time against No. 4 Stanford.
Last season, the Sun Devils pulled off an improbable upset against Stanford and were hoping for another cinderella victory, but the Cardinal held strong and came away with a 2-0 victory.
Before the game started, those in attendance of the game took part in a ceremony honoring the seniors of both teams.
ASU honored four seniors: goalkeeper Chandler Morris, forward Jessica Domenichelli, defender/midfielder Brianna Gonzalez, and defender Courtney Watson.
All four seniors had their names and number painted on the field this weekend, and were given flowers as their contributions were announced.
After the festivities, the game would get off to a fast paced start, with both teams attacking aggressively.
ASU junior forward Cali Farquharson would get hit very early on, and could be seen limping on the field, sparking concern she had re-injured her ankle. However, she quickly shook off the hit, and played as if nothing had happened.
Farquharson would not play the entire game, like most of the starting lineup, as an effort by head coach Kevin Boyd to try and rest his players.
“She got knocked,” Boyd said. “I think we are leaning on her heavily right now, and if we can find chances to rest her, we are going to do that, because we are going to need her in the next couple of games.”
Stanford got on the board in the 22nd minute as Chioma Ubogagu pushed the game's first goal past Morris.
After falling behind, the Sun Devils were unable to generate much attack. They had just two shots on goal in the first half, both notched by freshman forward Aly Moon.
The Sun Devils looked to come out firing in the second half to find the equalizer, but Stanford has other plans. Stanford controlled the second half, peppering Morris with shots.
Ubogagu would get her second goal of the game, putting Stanford up 2-0 with almost a full half left to play.
“I think we made an error on trying to pull someone offside and one of our other players wasn't paying attention and left her (onside) and they got an easy goal out of it,” Boyd said.
After Stanford took a two goal lead, Boyd made the decision to pull some of his starters.
Redshirt junior forward Mackenzie Semerad heads the ball against a Stanford defender in a home game on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014. Stanford won the game 2-0. (Photo by Sawyer Hardebeck)“And at that point, 2-0, especially with what we are dealing with where players are health wise, I made the decision to start resting people," he said. "I'm not going to leave out some people that are hurting and running them to death when we have three more (games) to go.”
The Sun Devils would spend the rest of the game desperately trying to find the back of the net, but to no avail. Just 34 seconds before the inevitable outcome, junior defender McKenzie Berryhill took a hard hit and went down.
Play would stop, as the medical staff looked at her. Play resumed when she was walked off the field.
“She’s actually quite well,” Boyd said. “It’s a head injury, and they don't think its anymore than that. They think she is quite good. She is cognitively aware, everything is there, so we are fine.”
Stanford would play keep away for the final 34 seconds, and the game would end 2-0.
“Credit to Stanford,” Boyd said. "We looked tentative in the first half, which is weird, because we haven't looked like that all year. I thought we looked better in the second half, but at that point we were chasing it a little bit.”
Although Boyd recognizes that ASU has played two very good teams this weekend, he said he is disappointed in the results.
“We are really disappointed not getting a result in the weekend, but we legitimately outplayed number 19 in the country, and it being a soccer game, found ourselves on the wrong end of one stat when we won every other stat, so that one is just unlucky,” Boyd said. “And then you look at today and they're No. 2 for a reason. They're good. Today they are better than us. We would have to play our best to compete with that, and today, that wasn't us.”
The Sun Devils play Colorado at 2 p.m. on Friday Oct. 31 in Boulder.
Reach the reporter at mtsteine@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @MarcTSteiner
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