Salt Lake City -- The Arizona State soccer team battled a full 110 minutes to earn a 2-2 draw on the road at Utah, Sunday afternoon. For the Sun Devils (4-9-3, 1-5-2) Sunday's draw snapped a five match slide, and pulled the Sun Devils to a 5-4-2 all-time record against the Utes.
"This was a very big point for us today," head coach Graham Winkworth said. "We had to reevaluate and regroup after Colorado and I thought the character we showed today in response against Utah was fantastic, and I was very proud of our efforts to respond like that."
The Sun Devils got the scoring started early as junior Jemma Purfield buried a penalty kick in the 13th- minute of the first half, to give ASU an early 1-0 lead.
Utah would answer back in the waning minutes of the first half as Paola Van der Veen fired a ball in that took a fortuitous bounce and tied the game one-all at the end of the first half.
Following the break, Utah earned a quick penalty kick due to an ASU foul inside the 18' that put Utah up, 2-1, just eight minutes into the second half. But the Sun Devils would battle back as freshman Olive Jones found herself on the attack in the 75th- minute of play, earning ASU's second penalty kick of the afternoon. Purfield, who converted the earlier penalty, would come up clutch again to tie the game at two.
"We spoke a little bit before the game about being more aggressive in the penalty area," Winkworth said. "Clearly we were today as we won two penalty kicks. I liked that we were aggressive in the other end as well. Sometimes we will concede a free kick by being more aggressive in the other end, but I was happy with the way we showed aggression in both ends of the field today."
Following a scoreless final 15 minutes of regulation, the match headed into overtime. The Sun Devils saw their first chance to break the tie in the first overtime period, when Christina Edwards fired a shot in the 100th- minute that sailed just over the cross bar, to send the game to a second overtime period and the eventual draw.
On the day, freshman keeper Nikki Panas carded a career-high nine saves, matching her effort against Oregon State. For Purfield, her multi goal game marked the first in her career as a Sun Devil, and first multi goal outing from an ASU player since Cali Farquharson's three-goal match against Arizona in 2015.
"We have shown that we can play against top-teams in multiple systems," Winkworth added. "We have shown that we can key in on our opposition and adapt our system accordingly and pick up positive results. We are happy to earn another point, it will pull us that much further up the table as we continue to build for the future. All of that is a big confidence boost. We will take some of that from this game and hopefully play with some more freedom, smiles and passion in our two big home games next weekend."
The Sun Devils will be back in action this Thursday with a 7 p.m. meeting with Washington State, before wrapping up the 2017 home schedule Sunday, Oct. 29 with a match against Washington. Sunday's match will serve as the final game at home for the seven seniors on the ASU soccer roster.
"This was a very big point for us today," head coach Graham Winkworth said. "We had to reevaluate and regroup after Colorado and I thought the character we showed today in response against Utah was fantastic, and I was very proud of our efforts to respond like that."
The Sun Devils got the scoring started early as junior Jemma Purfield buried a penalty kick in the 13th- minute of the first half, to give ASU an early 1-0 lead.
Utah would answer back in the waning minutes of the first half as Paola Van der Veen fired a ball in that took a fortuitous bounce and tied the game one-all at the end of the first half.
Following the break, Utah earned a quick penalty kick due to an ASU foul inside the 18' that put Utah up, 2-1, just eight minutes into the second half. But the Sun Devils would battle back as freshman Olive Jones found herself on the attack in the 75th- minute of play, earning ASU's second penalty kick of the afternoon. Purfield, who converted the earlier penalty, would come up clutch again to tie the game at two.
"We spoke a little bit before the game about being more aggressive in the penalty area," Winkworth said. "Clearly we were today as we won two penalty kicks. I liked that we were aggressive in the other end as well. Sometimes we will concede a free kick by being more aggressive in the other end, but I was happy with the way we showed aggression in both ends of the field today."
Following a scoreless final 15 minutes of regulation, the match headed into overtime. The Sun Devils saw their first chance to break the tie in the first overtime period, when Christina Edwards fired a shot in the 100th- minute that sailed just over the cross bar, to send the game to a second overtime period and the eventual draw.
On the day, freshman keeper Nikki Panas carded a career-high nine saves, matching her effort against Oregon State. For Purfield, her multi goal game marked the first in her career as a Sun Devil, and first multi goal outing from an ASU player since Cali Farquharson's three-goal match against Arizona in 2015.
"We have shown that we can play against top-teams in multiple systems," Winkworth added. "We have shown that we can key in on our opposition and adapt our system accordingly and pick up positive results. We are happy to earn another point, it will pull us that much further up the table as we continue to build for the future. All of that is a big confidence boost. We will take some of that from this game and hopefully play with some more freedom, smiles and passion in our two big home games next weekend."
The Sun Devils will be back in action this Thursday with a 7 p.m. meeting with Washington State, before wrapping up the 2017 home schedule Sunday, Oct. 29 with a match against Washington. Sunday's match will serve as the final game at home for the seven seniors on the ASU soccer roster.