Oct. 19, 2012
CORVALLIS, Ore. - The Arizona State women's soccer team put forth a spirited effort on Friday, playing the Oregon State Beavers to a 1-1 tie.
Coming off back-to-back 2-0 losses to Washington and California, the Sun Devils (6-8-2, 2-4-1 Pac-12) came through with a gritty performance as they led Oregon State (10-4-2, 2-3-2) for much of the game. Although the Beavers would eventually get the equalizer, ASU would show its resilience by not allowing the Beavers to get the go-ahead score, even after the Sun Devils found themselves down a player over the last three-plus minutes of the second overtime.
"I think today was a fair result," said ASU head coach Kevin Boyd following the game. "I thought we were better in the first half and I thought they had the edge in the second half. And then they were able to come out and create opportunities in the first overtime, but in the second overtime we were able to put pressure on them and had some chances to win it."
The first half was punctuated by hard-nosed play on both ends, as the Sun Devils were aggressive in their attack while at the same time contesting the Beavers every step of the way.
The Sun Devils got on the board first when freshman defender McKenzie Berryhill raced in with a perfectly-timed header off a corner kick by senior Courtney Tinnin to score her first career goal and give ASU the lead in the 34th minute.
After matching the Beavers' shot output in the first half (5-5), ASU found itself having to defend more than twice as many shots as the Beavers in the second half (11-5) as Oregon State pressed with greater urgency. ASU maintained its slim advantage beyond the 80th minute as it continually turned back the Beavers.
Oregon State got the opportunity it was looking for in the 84th minute when Erin Uchascz found a window of space on the near side to send a crossing shot that found its way into the far post to tie the game.
The Sun Devils nearly regained the lead they had held for more than 50 minutes late in the game when Devin Marshall, who tied with Cali Farquharson for the team lead in shots with five, got in close and just missed on a pair of shots. The scoring opportunity was one of a few the Sun Devils were not able to deposit into the net over the final 10 minutes of regulation.
"We had three tremendous chances, but we weren't able to score," Boyd said. "We had two one-one-one opportunities and then we had a third chance where we had three looks at it and couldn't put it away."
Boosted by their late goal and fortuitous ability to survive ASU's near misses late in the game, the Beavers came out as the aggressors in the first overtime, getting off the only two shots of the first session while not allowing any defensively.
In the second overtime it was the Sun Devils putting the Beavers on the defensive as they had three shots and a corner kick in the first six-plus minutes of the final session. However the momentum they had built up was stymied when Tinnin was flagged with a red card with just over three minutes to go.
Despite being outnumbered on the field, the Sun Devils did not go into prevent and protect mode but rather continued with their aggressive approach in an attempt to win the game.
"We were still going for it, no doubt about it," Boyd said. "We had to reconfigure things a little bit because we were a player down, but we were not stopping. We didn't give up and at the same time made it hard for them by not allowing any free looks and so I was quite happy with that."
Friday's game was ASU's third overtime game of the season. Their first resulted in a 2-2 tie at Kansas (Sept. 2) before defeating USC in a 5-4 double overtime thriller on Sept. 28.
ASU returns to action on Sunday (1 p.m. PT) when it faces the Oregon Ducks in its final road game of the 2012 regular season. After Sunday's game the Sun Devils will close out the regular season with three straight home games - vs. Utah (Oct. 25), vs. Colorado (Oct. 28) and vs. Arizona (Nov. 2).