Oregon opened Pac-12 play Friday with a disappointing 2-0 loss to conference newcomers Utah. The Ducks (5-4-1, 0-1 Pac-12) played evenly with Utah (5-4-1, 1-0) for much of the game, but the Utes scored twice in the first eleven minutes of the second half to hand the Ducks their first home loss of the year.@@http://pac-12.org/SPORTS/SoccerW/Standings.aspx@@
Utah’s first goal proved that even the ugliest of goals count. Amid a chaotic sequence in front of the goal in the 48th minute, the ball eventually trickled over the line. The goal was credited to Utah’s Harley Spier, but there was some thought it may have actually been deflected in by an Oregon player.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=237&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205276781@@
Seven minutes later, Utah’s Leslie Muirhead rocketed a shot from the top of the 18-yard box that found the top left corner, putting the Utes ahead by two.
Head coach Tara Erickson fielded a lineup that featured seven freshmen, including all four midfielders, as the Ducks tried a new formation, changing from the 4-3-3 that they played with to start the year to a slightly modified 4-4-2 with a diamond at midfield.
“That number keeps growing. I didn’t realize that until I put the lineup together and I realized, ‘Oh geez, we’ve got seven freshmen out there,” Erickson said.
The number could have been even higher, but Erickson opted to leave Bri Pugh out of the starting lineup to give the young forward a few more minutes to recover from a nagging ankle injury that kept her out of the last six games. Pugh did enter the game about two-thirds of the way through the first half and was relieved to finally get on the field again.@@http://www.goducks.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&SPID=237&SPSID=4315@@
“I have so much passion to play and it just felt good to be out there and not worry about my ankle and just go at it,” Pugh said.
The Ducks were shut out by Utah, but by no means were they shut down completely. Oregon actually out-shot Utah by a 10-6 margin, but what doomed the Ducks was an inability to put those shots on target — only three of the Ducks’ 10 shots were on goal. Those missed opportunities, and not the inexperience of the freshmen, was the Ducks’ downfall at the end of the night.
“I don’t think it was anything on (the freshmen’s) part or anything on an upperclassman’s part,” Erickson said. “We can possess the ball all we want, but we have to figure out a way to step in and score the goal.”
That lesson was not lost on junior Julie Armstrong, who was a threat to score on more than one occasion with two of Oregon’s three on-target shots.
“Like our coach said at the end of the game, we’re shooting like we have another chance,” Armstrong said. “But we’ve got to get those goals in.”
Oregon Junior defender Scout Libke is taking some positives from her team’s loss to Utah.
“I think we actually put some things together that weren’t working in the past,” Libke said. “Our possession was awesome, we put in a lot of effort and everyone was working together, but at the end of the day that’s not going to win games.”
The Ducks had the majority of the chances in the first half, and one goal could have made a difference in the momentum for the rest of the game.
“A lot of times if you score the first goal, you have all the momentum,” Libke said. “Everything’s going to go your way, not necessarily, but a lot of the time it does.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Ducks, who travel to Los Angeles for a pair of games against UCLA — ranked third in the NSCAA coaches poll — and USC this weekend.