It may have been senior day at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium, but underclassmen stole the show Sunday as the No. 24 Sun Devils defeated Washington to split a pair of home games over the weekend.
After the 2-1 victory, the Sun Devils (11-4-2, 4-3) carried the lone senior, midfielder Lindsey Mack, off the field in front of 622 pleased fans.
"We just knew that we were going to do well, we came out and did it for Lindsey," freshman midfielder Brittany Cooper said. "She's a senior and we wanted to play well for her. It was awesome that we got this win because we really needed it."
Although Cooper had no points in the game, she was influential in both first-half goals, pushing the ball up the field and starting Sun Devil breaks.
"I just think everyone came together as a team and worked hard," she said. "We were connecting better on the passing and the forwards were doing an awesome job checking and making runs, so it made it easier for us to hit them."
The Sun Devils' first goal came on a long lead from midfield. Cooper pushed the ball over the defense, and freshman midfielder Manya Makoski timed her run perfectly to stay onside and corral the ball. As she streaked toward the goal, Makoski fed junior midfielder Patrice Feulner who knocked it home on a one-timer to put the Sun Devils ahead 1-0.
"I played in front of their back line and Manya got through," Feulner said. "No one tracked me going in and she slipped me a perfect ball."
The goal came with 4:41 left in the half, one in which Washington (8-7-3, 3-3-1) had dominated early.
"It was a tough start," ASU head coach Ray Leone said. "For 15 minutes we didn't even get on the other side of the field. Finally we figured it out and possessed the ball, that's what this team has to do."
The Sun Devils did just that for the next 2:36 after the first goal, and struck again to make it a 2-0 lead in the 43rd minute. Another individual effort by Makoski enabled her to free space from the defense, creating a one-on-one with Huskies senior goalkeeper Hope Solo. As Makoski closed in, she snuck a right-foot shot off Solo's arms that continued past her into the goal.
Moments later, ASU attempted to make increase their lead 3-0 going into the locker room when freshman forward Elizabeth Bogus got a breakaway with 10 seconds to go. However, Solo came out to challenge Bogus and her shot was turned away, keeping the Huskies in the game.
"We were just saying 'hey, let's take the 2-0 lead,' and I really wasn't concerned with it," Leone said. "But boy, when you have a breakaway, three goals is hard to come back from."
The Huskies attempted to erase ASU's lead in the second half and cut the deficit to 2-1 when junior midfielder Dana Dibble rifled a shot into the top right corner of the goal in the 54th minute. After a scramble inside the 18-yard box, Dibble was the beneficiary of a loose ball and wasted no time sending it past ASU sophomore goalkeeper Kelly Fitzgerald.
The Sun Devils showed no signs of backing down and continued to pepper Solo with shots, finishing with 15 in the game. The offensive outburst is something ASU lacked Friday night against Washington State when they took just eight shots.
"This team has character," Leone said. "These kids will respond any time they're challenged. They were challenged by Washington State. We didn't play well. They responded on Sunday."
On Friday night the Sun Devils played like a mentally fatigued team, showing virtually no intensity, resulting in a 1-0 loss to Washington State (10-5-2, 4-1-2).
The Cougars lone goal came from junior Shelby Brownfield, her third of the season, in the 32nd minute. After the goal, Washington State used defensive coverage to stymie any possible ASU attack.
"They dropped back to try and counter our speed, and we didn't recognize it fast enough," Leone said. "Our kids are going to have to learn to play against all kinds [of defense]. We did not have our best game at all, and it was disappointing."
The weekend split puts the Sun Devils in fifth place in the Pac-10 with only two scheduled contests remaining. ASU must travel to the Bay Area to face California and Stanford beginning Friday.
"We look at every game as being important because we know they all count," Cooper said. "We'll use the same focus and same commitment, and we're a determined team so we're going to come out and do our best."
Reach the reporter at casey.pritchard@asu.edu.
