Soccer
Not only did the rain fall for 90 minutes Sunday at Papé Field, but Arizona State rained on Oregon’s parade as the Ducks took their fourth Pacific-10 Conference loss.
The Sun Devils dominated on offense for the first 45 minutes, but Oregon’s defense stood its ground en route to a 0-0 tie at the half. It wasn’t until the 49th minute that freshman Manya Makoski found the back of the net from 17 yards out to give ASU the lead.
Just seven minutes later, Makoski set up freshmen Elizabeth Bogus, who went for a 20-yard run and took a shot from 19 yards out. The shot hit the right post and bounced in.
For the Ducks, it was too little, too late when freshman Katie Abrahamson scored Oregon’s only goal in the 81st minute. Abrahamson found the right side of the net with a header from five yards out, a play made possible by sophomore Christine Mintz.
Oregon’s 2-1 loss to Arizona State came after the Ducks found magic on Friday night in a 3-2 win over Arizona, after being down 2-0 with only 25 minutes left.
“One of the nice things we got from Friday is that we can come back, and we got a little too casual,” Oregon head coach Bill Steffen said. “They need to be a little more aggressive, and we respected (ASU) too much, and we let them play — and if you let them play, they are going to do dangerous things.”
Both desert schools posed dangerous threats to Oregon, but Friday night the Ducks didn’t get scared on the way to their first Pac-10 win.
Oregon’s matchup with the Wildcats began similarly to Sunday’s game as both teams remained scoreless through the first half. It wasn’t the 56-minute mark that the Ducks found themselves down 2-0 after freshman Lisa Kosena and senior Naomi Chu scored for Arizona.
Senior forward Sarah Denner was the spark Oregon needed, as she notched the Ducks’ first score with 24 minutes left, off a header into the right side of the goal.
With Denner giving Oregon the initial momentum they needed, sophomore Arlene Tuttle would take care of the rest by scoring her first two career goals. Tuttle’s first score came on a header in the 73rd minute from eight yards out, and she scored less than eight minutes later off an assist from Denner to give Oregon the 3-2 victory.
“Arlene gives us a strong physical player out front who hustles after everything, and she showed it on both of her goals,” Steffen said.
“I was surprised to get two — I would have been happy with one,” Tuttle said. “Friday’s game we came out from the beginning fired up but (Sunday) we were kind of lackadaisical, acting like we had all the time in the world to score.”
The Ducks didn’t have all the time in the world Sunday as Oregon found itself scrambling for one last goal in the final minutes.
Oregon (2-11-2, 1-4-1 Pac-10) came away with a split with the desert schools as they head into their final two weeks of conference play.
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