Buoyed by a pair of convincing wins, the ASU soccer team wrapped up a three-game homestand this past weekend with an unblemished record.
The Sun Devils stymied San Diego in a 2-0 win Friday night, before shutting down Nevada Las-Vegas on Sunday morning in a 3-0 victory.
ASU (4-1-2) jumped out of the gates quickly Friday by scoring two first-half goals. The Sun Devils did not allow a San Diego shot through the first 45 minutes.
"We created so many opportunities for ourselves, so if two (goals) is all we could get, that's the way it goes," ASU head coach Ray Leone said. "But it was the number of opportunities that I was happy with."
Freshman forward Elizabeth Bogus got things going once again for the Sun Devils by scoring her third goal of the season in the 27th minute. After freshman defender Stephanie Ebner countered backfield with a header, freshman midfielder Brittany Cooper took control and fed Bogus a perfect through pass.
Bogus, in similar fashion to the way she scored last week against Baylor, pushed the ball past sliding sophomore goalkeeper Natalie Bobbit and launched it into the open net. It marked the third time in as many home matches that Bogus netted the game's first goal.
"As a team, we really came together, and actually played the ball, instead of just forcing it," Bogus said.
A mere eight minutes later, junior defender Temryss Lane doubled ASU's lead with a one-time goal from five yards out. After junior midfielder Haley van Blommestein freed herself from traffic, she fed Lane a perfect cross pass into the middle. The goal was Lane's second of the season.
"We wanted to focus on high pressure all over the field, especially against a team like San Diego, who likes to play balls from the back, all the way over our back line," Lane said.
Unlike last weekend when the Sun Devils gave Baylor numerous opportunities to tie things up, they kept pressure on the defense of San Diego (5-2-1) and almost added to its lead. ASU out-shot the Toreros, 9-5, and drew even with them in corner kicks with a handful.
"Killer instinct," Leone said. "We addressed that at halftime — play it out, don't wait for the game to end. It's 90 minutes, and they went after it all the way."
The Sun Devils strung together another shutout Sunday at the hands of Nevada-Las Vegas, which fell to 6-2-1 on the season. After a relatively slow start, ASU caught fire by scoring two goals in a 1:44 span.
"It took awhile, about 10 minutes, to get in the rhythm of things, but it started showing in terms of goals," Leone said. "The energy of the subs was good, and every player was making a contribution."
In a reverse role from Friday, Cooper scored the first goal with a one-time shot on a cross from Bogus in the 11th minute. It was Cooper's second of the season and her first at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
"It was a through ball to Bogus and an awesome cross from her through the box," Cooper said. "On one of those, you just have to make it."
ASU struck again in the 13th minute when van Blommestein rifled one from 10 yards out into the lower left side of the goal for her first tally of the year. Cooper got the assist to give her three points for the game.
The Sun Devils added another goal just 55 seconds into the second half on the strength of some fancy tick-tack-toe passing. Freshman forward Kelly Bond was the beneficiary, as freshman midfielder Manya Makoski made the final cross through the goal box for the score.
Overshadowed in the offensive fireworks was the play of ASU's forwards, whom worked alongside the defense and with sophomore goalkeeper Kelly Fitzgerald to keep the opposition off the scoreboard.
"A shutout is a team thing, and the forwards are the first line of defense," Leone said. "That's what we're trying to get across, is that it's a team effort. That's the biggest amount of improvement we've made since we started playing together, is defensively."
The Sun Devils will face Georgia and Auburn next weekend in Athens.
"We've played a good schedule, so you know we'll be competitive," Leone said.
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
