Arizona soccer secured a win in the last game of the spring season, dominating with a final score of 6-2 at Mulcahy Stadium on Friday night.
The team came out ready to go against Arizona Western College with great excitement for the team’s last spring game and were hoping to finish with a win.
Right after the whistle blew, the Matadors ripped two shots on Arizona goalkeeper Hope Hisey. Blocking both, the Wildcats got their head in the game and scored their first goal in the 20th minute. Megan Chelf earned an assist when she chipped the ball to Gianna Christiansen who then finished with a hard and low shot.
In the 24th minute, Nicole Dallin scored a goal, putting the Wildcats ahead at 2-0. The defense maintained great ball control and kept it in the attacking half of the field. Christiansen received a ball in the air from midfield, settled it to her left foot, threw the defender off, and scored in the top left corner making it 3-0 in the 34th minute.
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In the 36th minute, the game was stopped due to an injury. Lindsey Mesa, an Arizona Western player, went down hard with what appeared to be an ankle injury but continued to stay in the game.
In the second half, Arizona Western packed in the defense, changing the way Arizona played. In the 50th minute, there was a free-kick against Arizona that resulted in deflection but was eventually rebounded in by Viviana Lara to score their first goal of the game.
Nicole Dallin scored another impressive goal in the 54th minute, making it 4-1 for Arizona.
Chelf controlled the field with her attack mindset which eventually led to a magnificent goal deep outside of the box. The crowd went crazy in the 65th minute as the score was pushed to 5-1.
Hisey continued to use her feet in the back and pushed up the field to allow the center backs to spread out more.
Possession went back and forth until Desiree Foster picked the ball off of a defender. She took the shot and hit the crossbar but Quincy Bonds followed the shot with a header scoring a great goal against Arizona Western in the 79th minute.
Arizona Western continued to fight, scoring their second goal in the 81st minute. Minutes after an attack on goal, Arizona Western goalie Tia Kelk went down after an accidental hit to the head. The game ended early in the 83rd minute due to the injury.
Arizona showed improvement from the fall season as head coach Becca Moros was able to have the entire spring season to put her system into place.
“We have been building for fourteen weeks since we came back from winter break to get to where we are right now,” Christiansen said. “The mindset coming into this game is to have fun with each other. We aren’t going to play together for another three months during the summer so we wanted to show the fans, coaches and each other what we worked for this entire season.”
Christiansen also spoke on how they focused on smaller technical things that should help them be a tighter team in the fall.
Bonds expressed how it feels to have a spring season and how much work the team has put into it.
“This has been really new to all of us. It’s been a lot of running and lifting. All preparation for the fall,” Bonds said. “I have been playing outside back a lot but I am a natural forward, they put me back up top tonight which is where I feel comfortable. Taking shots is my favorite thing.”
Head coach Moros had some key takeaways from the spring season as a whole.
“I am extremely proud of the progress they have made and the work that they have put in. Today was different from last time we played Arizona Western, last game they packed it in tight but this game they played with an expansive shape which gave us the opportunity to pick them apart a little bit and get some momentum. It was good we saw a lot of different challenges,” Moros said.
Arizona secured a win in the last spring game, dominating with a final score of 6-2. Arizona ends its spring season with a record of 3-1-1 and now will take some time off to get ready for next year’s fall season.
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