ASU Soccer: Sun Devils go 0-1-1 in tough conference road trip

Arizona State soccer traveled this weekend to face off against the No. 11 California Golden Bears on Thursday night and the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal on Sunday afternoon to get their first taste of Pac-12 play on the road.

Game 1:

For the first game of the conference road trip double header, Arizona State (4-4-2, 1-0-1 Pac-12) traveled up to Berkely to take on Cal (8-1-1, 1-0-1 Pac-12) and hand them their first draw of the season coming in extra time.

After a scoreless first half, the Golden Bears came out strong in the second half as Abigail Kim put one past Nikki Panas, the ASU goalkeeper, to make it 1-0 in the 48^th minute.

The Sun Devils knew their backs were against the wall especially being on the road, in conference play against a ranked team. The pressure did not disparage ASU, as the Sun Devils were able to persevere by responding with a goal of their own in the 70^th minute.

Senior captain Madison Stark scored her first goal of the season to tie the game at one a piece.

For the final twenty minutes of the game, neither team could breakthrough, which sent the Sun Devils to extra time for the fifth time this season, most recently coming against Hawaii two weeks ago.

Coming into this game the Sun Devils were 1-2-1 when the game goes past regulation, while Cal won its only matchup in extra time. Just like the final twenty minutes of the second half, neither team could find the back of the net as the game ultimately ended in a draw. Arizona State stayed unbeaten for the third game in a row.

Game 2:

After coming off a 1-1 draw against No. 11 California on Thursday night, Arizona State (4-5-1, 1-1-1) went head to head with the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal (10-1-0, 3-0-0) on Sunday afternoon in Palo Alto.

Although the Sun Devils did not allow a goal in the final 62 minutes of the previous game, this one got out of hand quickly. Within the first 17 minutes of the game, Stanford put up three goals to take a 3-0 lead and quickly put this game out of reach.

The Cardinal goals were scored by Catarina Macario in the fifth minute for her ninth of the season. Four minutes later, Jordan DiBiasi scored her fourth goal of the season to double the lead. Then, in the 17^th minute, Kyra Carusa put in her eighth goal of the season on a penalty kick, which was more than enough to seal this game.

The country’s top offense did not show any signs of letting up as Michelle Xiao added two goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half to extend the lead 5-0.

Stanford would go on to score one more goal to ultimately win the game 6-0. Arizona State could not muster up any offense, as they were held without a shot on goal. A lot of credit must be given to Stanford though, as they have eight clean sheets on the season, while allowing just five goals in 11 total games.

Arizona State is back in action on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. as the Sun Devils host UCLA in a Pac-12 conference matchup at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium in Tempe.