The Utah soccer team played its final Sunday game of the season, falling 1-0 to the No. 21 Arizona at Ute Field. The Utes, who were coming off a big win over Arizona State on Friday night, had many chances on goals against the Wildcats but unfortunately for them, couldn’t put any away.
It was a very close match contested by both sides. Both teams were held at zeros in the first half but Arizona broke the deadlock in the second. The Utes had numerous opportunities to get on the board but couldn’t finish the shots that were taken. Utah had a total of 15 shots on the Wildcat’s goal but were broken down by the opposition’s physical play – leaving Arizona with its 12th win on the season.
The match started with a physical Wildcats team fouling Utes midfielder Paola van der Veen 27 seconds into the start of the match. This resulted in Arizona midfielder Hayley Estopare earning the game’s first yellow card.
Arizona continued to push on the Ute’s defense, eventually forcing keeper Lindsey Luke to make a few saves from shots taken by Wildcat forward Cali Crisler. After another slow start, Utah began possessing the ball in Arizona’s half and created some good chances. This included a low shot far out from van der Veen that was eventually picked up by Wildcats keeper Lainey Burdett.
As the half continued at a draw, the only other highlights that occurred happened with a Utah free kick outside of the box. Van der Veen, who had been the only standout through the first 45 minutes, struck a flying curling ball towards the goal, only for it to be saved by Burdett, who deflected it over the bar.
Unlike the first, the second half started faster as both teams wanted to break the deadlock. It was Arizona that finally ended the stalemate, with forward Hannah Wong finishing a low shot into the bottom corner of the net after slicing through Utah’s back four.
With the Utes behind, the team started to possess and attack Arizona’s defense by taking numerous chances. Utah outshot the Wildcats 10-5 in the second half, but were either shut down by Arizona’s stiff defensive line or stopped by keeper Burdett. But with the clock striking 90 minutes, Utah left its home turf empty-handed once again feeling that it was the better side.
This included Luke, who helped keep the Utes from getting further behind in the match by making six big saves throughout the 90 minutes.
“I feel like we matched Arizona’s play,” said Luke. “We’re capable of winning these games. Obviously we are frustrated because we didn’t get the win. We’ve been playing well, but it’s the same old story. If we would have finished our chances the game should’ve played out differently.”
Utah head coach Rich Manning, who was left disappointed and frustrated after the game with some bad calls not going Utah’s way, also felt their scoring issues have plagued the team in this game and many others throughout the season. He also credited Arizona’s style of play for making the game as hectic as it was.
“Arizona is always a hard team to play,” said Manning. “They’re so physical and the game becomes so frantic that sometimes it’s hard for the team to slow down when we need to take time at the final piece of it. That’s what happened today, we got caught up in the frantic play in the final third with shots over the top, crosses going out of bounds, rushing a one-touch pass when we could have taken another touch. To me that made the difference.”
The Utes will now prepare for their final game of the regular season, when Colorado comes to town to battle it out with Utah in the Rumble of the Rockies rivalry game. The Utes, who want to give one last win for their departing seniors, will go out all out in order to obtain the three points this Friday.
@chad_marquez