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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Arizona soccer wins pair of games over weekend

Kyle+Hansen+%2F+The+Daily+Wildcat%0A%0Aduring+Arizonas+3-1+win+against+Lipscomb+on+Friday%2C+Sept.+19%2C+2014.
Kyle Hansen
Kyle Hansen / The Daily Wildcat during Arizona’s 3-1 win against Lipscomb on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014.

Arizona soccer battled the heat and humidity over the weekend and continued its recent win streak as it closed out nonconference play with wins against the Lipscomb Lady Bisons and Idaho Vandals on Friday and Sunday at Murphey Field at Mulcahy Soccer Stadium. The Wildcats (6-1-1) have now won four games in a row and are unbeaten in their last six games.

On Sunday afternoon, the Wildcats got off to a hot start and defeated Idaho 3-0. Things started quickly for Arizona when freshman midfielder Gabi Stoian found senior forward Ali Doller off a free kick. Doller redirected the ball in with a soft header and made it 1-0 Arizona close to the seventh minute.

Coming out of the locker room, the Wildcats added two more goals in the second half. In the 55th minute, Doller found open space in the penalty area and knocked in her second header, this time by way of a cross from sophomore Paige Crouch.

Just three minutes later the Doller was involved again, but this time, she was the one assisting a teammate. Doller found wide-open forward Kaitlyn Lopez, who easily put it into the corner of the goal to make it 3-0 Arizona.

Arizona head coach Tony Amato said he liked what he saw both offensively and defensively from the Wildcats.

“I thought we did well today. … We executed in terms of creating enough chances, and we finished off three of them,” Amato said in a press release. “So, overall, we scored three, created a bunch of other chances and got a shutout.”

Friday night, with the clouds overhead and rain refusing to come down, Murphey Field looked more like a swamp than a soccer pitch. However, the uncomfortable weather did little to affect the Wildcats, who finished with the 3-1 victory.

Arizona went up 1-0 early when Stoian’s shot from outside the penalty area was deflected off a Lipscomb defender and past the diving goalkeeper in the seventh minute. The Wildcats’ next goal really got the crowd going as sophomore Jaden DeGracie executed one of her famous flip throw-ins perfectly to find Crouch’s head and the 2-0 lead in the 32nd minute.

“Obviously, our early goal was important, because we knew they were going to have numbers behind the ball,” Amato said. “I thought as the game went on, especially in the first half, we weren’t sharp. We didn’t seem to be as clean as we could’ve been.”

In a mostly slow second half, Arizona controlled the ball and limited Lipscomb to only two shots with one on goal. The Wildcats sealed the deal in the 82nd minute as Sheaffer Skadsen stepped up and nailed a penalty kick after Lopez was taken down in the penalty area.

“That was my first penalty kick,” Skadsen said in a press release. “We work on them a lot in practice, and I’ve really been hitting my spot. When it was called, coach Amato looked over at me, and I looked at him — we had the same idea. I was really excited to have that opportunity to step up and take it.”
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Follow Brian Peel on Twitter @_brianpeel

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