Soccer, like other sports, is often described as a chess match — usually in reference to the mental aspect of trying to make the precise move to defeat an opponent.
In what could only be described as an absolute stalemate for the first fifty-plus minutes of the game, the ASU women’s soccer team continued to build up confidence over the course of a game that lacked offensive execution, as they held a scoreless tie with the sixth-ranked USC Trojans for the majority of Saturday night’s match at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
The stalemate was broken in the 58th minute, as USC (11-3-0, 5-1-0) rode a goal from redshirt senior forward Katie Johnson – off a beautiful assist from sophomore forward Leah Pruitt – to a 1-0 checkmate, stifling the Sun Devils’ upset bid despite a valiant effort from the underdogs.
“We played really well in the first half specifically,” ASU head coach Kevin Boyd said. “I thought our team spirit was excellent, and that’s really the thing I was looking at the most. They’re good, there’s no getting around it.”
Early on, stingy defensive play from ASU kept the Trojans from creating any dangerous chances, as the heavily-favored road team mustered just one shot on goal in the first twenty minutes of play.
It was the Sun Devils, however, who tested the USC defense from the get-go with multiple opportunities in the box. Each team began trading serious scoring threats deeper into the first half, but neither could execute as the game would go to the half with two zeros on the scoreboard.
“Going through the first half, we were really proud of ourselves keeping it zero-zero,” ASU senior forward Larisa Staub said. “We just wanted to continue doing that in the second half.”
The second half saw the Trojans take some strikes at the ASU defense, but nothing found the back of the net until Johnson’s goal. The Sun Devils’ second half opportunities certainly tested the USC back line, but for the most part they never really challenged USC redshirt senior goalkeeper Sammy Prudhomme until the game was out of reach.
Then, in the 75th minute, a beautiful run and strike from just inside the box by senior midfielder Savannah Levin all but ended any hope the Sun Devils had of escaping the match with a win (or at least a tie), as the Trojans carried their 2-0 lead through the remaining 15 minutes.
Despite the loss, ASU certainly was able to gain some confidence going into the final five games of the regular season. Being positioned in the middle of the Pac-12 standings, hanging with a top-ten team like USC could be cause for a bit of optimism with three of ASU's remaining opponents being in a similar or worse situation in the league.
“The positives to me are us, after we were really unhappy with the result at Washington State, coming back and putting out a performance like this against a top team,” Boyd said. “The last time we played a top team for whatever reason we got nervous in the first half and we did the exact opposite this game and I love that. That shows growth in our players.”
After losing or tying five of their last six, the Sun Devils will take a quick tour of the Oregon schools next weekend, with the first of those two games taking place in Corvallis against the Oregon State Beavers on Thursday night.
Reach the reporter at jeff.griffith21@asu.edu or follow @Jeff_Griffith21 on Twitter.
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