This time, the ASU women’s soccer team held on to the lead.
In Friday’s 2-1 loss to Utah (7-4-1, 3-0 Pac-12), ASU allowed two straight goals after taking the lead in the second half.
But on Sunday against Colorado (3-6-2), the Sun Devils (5-6) kept their intensity to the end of the game after taking a 1-0 lead.
In the 50th minute, junior forward/defender Alyssa Freeman was dribbled the ball down the right flank and redshirt sophomore forward Nicki Stone made a “darting run” towards the ball.
Stone was then fouled inside the box and she converted the penalty kick opportunity.
“After Nicki scored, we kept up the intensity, so we definitely learned from out mistake previous mistake (Friday),” redshirt sophomore forward Miah Mollay said.
Stone returned to the field after missing a month with a meniscus tear in her knee.
“I’m just working on trying to get back, slowly, but surely,” Stone said. “So we’ll take it day by day.”
Twenty minutes after Stone’s goal, sophomore defender Jasmine Roth was ejected from the game after receiving the first red card for any Sun Devil this season.
After a couple of fouls between Roth and her opponent, the Colorado player found herself on ground with the ball right next to her face.
“Her head and the ball were right near each other,” head coach Kevin Boyd said. “There was no intent to kick her in the head and she tried to pull her foot back once she saw what was happening, but she ended up kicking her in the head a little bit.”
ASU was outshot 15-8 against Colorado, including 10-3 in the second half, but the Buffaloes couldn’t convert any of their opportunities.
Five of Colorado’s shots were on frame and the Buffalos had 12 corner kicks to aid their attack.
Utes prevail
For the fifth consecutive game, neither ASU nor their opponents have scored in the first half. The Sun Devils extended this streak to six against Colorado on Sunday.
A few minutes after halftime, ASU got on the scoreboard first when redshirt junior forward Sierra Cook crossed the ball over to fellow redshirt junior forward Courtney Tinnin.
Tinnin headed the ball over to Mollay. From there, Mollay had an easy put-in. That goal was Mollay’s first of the season.
However, Utah scored the equalizer a little more than five minutes later. Utah senior forward Erin Dalley scored off of a header on a cross.
“It was disappointing, I scored my first goal and I can’t really celebrate because we just got scored on again,” Mollay said.
“I’ve been wanting to score for so long and I’ve kind of had a rough couple of weeks after my injury and I was just so happy to like be able to contribute to the game and contribute to the team and it felt like I stepped into the right direction.”
With just a minute left in the game, Utah took their only lead. Defender Lauren Dudley scored on a header off a corner kick.
“(That goal) was brutal,” Boyd said. “It was definitely unfortunate being up. We’re having to learn how not to make critical errors at certain times.
“When you get a corner, anything can happen, and something happened, and they stuck one in.”
ASU outshot Utah 11-10, but the Utes made their shots count, putting seven shots on goal to ASU's four.
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
