Fresh off a 3-1 come from behind win on Friday night, the Sun Devils found themselves in a similar position in Sunday's contest, as Oklahoma was able to draw a penalty near the edge of the box, earning a penalty kick. The Sooners made the most of their early opportunity as senior Kaylee Dao buried her free kick in the bottom corner of the net to put OU up 1-0 at the 19:55 mark.
As the second half got underway, Arizona State looked to find their stride, pushing the attack and just missing on a few solid strikes in the first twenty minutes of the second half. The Sun Devils would finally break through with an amazing pass from sophomore Marleen Schimmer, that found the streaking Douglas in the box for an equalizing-finish in the 77th minute.
Worth another look. #TeamFirst @NCAASoccer pic.twitter.com/iem33xTGe0
— Sun Devil Soccer (@SunDevilSoccer) September 9, 2019
With the game knotted at 1-1, the Sooner offense started to push the pressure in the final ten minutes of the match, finally finding the go-ahead goal in the 83rd minute, to push the score to the final, 2-1.
The Sun Devils will be back in action this week when the team travels to Orlando to face UCF on Thursday afternoon, before closing out their road-weekend with a Sunday matchup against LSU in Baton Rouge. Fans can follow all of the action from the weekend slate by following @SunDevilSoccer on Twitter and Instagram.
A Word With Winkworth...
On the team's performance;
"All credit to Oklahoma, that first half they played a very deep line, they sat back and hit us on the counter-attack. They were very organized defensively and we didn't do enough with the ball. We controlled the ball, but we didn't do anything with our possession. There is no good in having the ball if you're not going to do anything special with it. We didn't move the ball quick enough in the first half. I thought we improved with that in the second half, but we lost that game because of the first-half performance."
On the pass from Schimmer that led to Douglas' goal;
"She's a special player. I'm not used to seeing Dougie score with her head, but like we were talking about on the bench, I'm not sure if Dougie scored with her head or Shimmy hit her with the ball in the head. It was that good of a delivery. It was a great goal, I was proud of both of them for it. We have a great frontline and I'm really happy for them that they keep scoring goals, but they have got to keep doing it. They will, they are great players."
On the physicality of the match;
"We are going to be playing teams far more physical than Oklahoma. If we didn't like it we better get used to it. We have to toughen up a bit and win more challenges, I don't think we won enough challenges tonight."
Match Notes...
- The loss drops the Sun Devils to 5-1 on the season, snapping the team's second longest win streak to start a season.
- With her goal in the 77th minute, Nicole Douglas has now scored six goals on the year, including scoring a goal in three of her last four games played.
- The Sun Devils have now outscored their opponents 23-6 on the season.
- Sophomore Marleen Schimmer capped an incredible weekend on the pitch with another assist in tonight's game. On the weekend, Schimmer has posted five points, including a goal scored, and three assists.