Despite two breathtaking moments in the final minutes, the ASU soccer team came away with an impressive victory Friday night, defeating Baylor 1-0.
After a scoreless first half at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium, freshman forward Elizabeth Bogus marked the game's only goal, her second of the season, to propel ASU. Bogus sprinted past the defense in the 67th minute after freshman midfielder Manya Makoski fed her a beautiful pass from midfield. With only freshman Tanya Sena to beat, Bogus tapped the ball past the diving goalkeeper, before recovering it and depositing it in the left side for the game-winner.
"I touched it wide, and I thought it was going to go too far wide and I wasn't going to be able to catch up with it," Bogus said. "Then I thought the angle was really wide and it was going to hit the post. But it was a perfect ball from Manya."
Bogus also had a great opportunity to put one in the net during the seventh minute. She floated one toward the top portion of the goal off a cross, but it sailed just high.
"I'm very excited for her because she's been trying too hard," ASU head coach Ray Leone said. "Sometimes it takes 10, 12, 15 chances to get one, and sometimes it only takes one, so I was happy for her that she got a goal right now."
Bogus took five of her team's 12 attempts as the Sun Devils out-shot Baylor 12-8. It marked the first time this year that a Baylor opponent attempted more shots. It also was Baylor's first loss of the season.
ASU (2-1-2) was given a big scare down the stretch. With less then four minutes left, senior defender Tamura Crawley rifled a shot from just outside the penalty box that evaded ASU sophomore goalkeeper Kelly Fitzgerald and rang off the far post. With 20 seconds remaining, junior forward Emily Fukuchi took a high cross right in front of the goal, but tipped it over the net while falling to the ground in frustration.
"We have to learn how to finish games off," Leone said. "We definitely showed our inexperience in the final few minutes."
Other than the back down at the end of the game, the Sun Devils did a stellar job of preventing the Bears (5-1-0) from getting good scoring opportunities. The aggressive pressure forced Baylor back into its own territory throughout most of the evening.
"We tried to put as much pressure as we could up top on them, on their back line. We did pretty well for about 70 minutes," Leone said. "That's a good compliment to our team, that we can shut out a great team like this."
One of the stars that anchored the Sun Devil defense was freshman Stephanie Ebner. Playing in her first match, along with Makoski, after both returned from winning the FIFA Under-19 Women's World Championships in Canada, Ebner described the defense used in stopping the Bears.
"We've been working a lot on defensive shapes, so if one pushes up to pressure, the other backs them up," she said. "It stops them from counter-attacking on us."
The victory gave ASU its first home win of the season. Leone was relieved to get that off his back, but was more concerned with the process of developing consistency.
"The back line, they're still learning and doing a great job, so you have to give them credit," he said. "The back line and the keeper Fitz, to hold this team to no goals … you have to give the whole team credit."
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.