The U soccer team looked the far superior side against Arizona on Thursday night in the NCAA College Cup first round.
Unfortunately for Rich Manning’s squad, the disparity wasn’t clear until the final five minutes of the match.
And that was much too late to save the Utes’ 2005 season.
Arizona’s (10-7-1) Mallory Miller scored in the 29th minute and the Wildcats played stingy defense that prevented the Utes (14-7-1) from producing solid scoring chances for the rest of the first half and much of the second.
“If you were to ask us at halftime, it wasn’t the plan to pack it in and be more defensive in the second half,” Arizona coach Dan Tobias said.
Planned or not, Tobias couldn’t have drawn it up better.
Miller scored her 18th goal of the season after taking a slick touch-off from senior striker Kelly Nelson about 10-yards away from goal on the right side. With Ute keeper Ashley Mason charging hard, Miller calmly slotted it to Mason’s left and into the far left corner of the goal.
After the score, Arizona started holding back on defense and loading the box on every set piece around goal.
The Utes simply couldn’t figure out any way to mount an attack and remained ineffective for the rest of the first half.
“Arizona is a good defensive team and they aren’t going to give you a goal,” Manning said. “Once they got a goal, they got a little more conservative in their attack and made it a little more difficult to score on them.”
The only other scoring chance of the first period would fall to the Wildcats.
In the 42nd minute, a probing Miller found a loose ball in the box and volleyed it at goal from 5-yards out. Mason dove to her right and parried it away to preserve the one-goal deficit.
The Utes created a sustained flurry of chances early in the second half.
“In the second half, Utah did an awesome job of stepping up their pressure and we had very limited chances,” Miller said. “Our team did a good job of controlling their pressure. Even though we didn’t have a lot of chances in the second half, we kept the game in front of us and came out with a win.”
In the 49th minute Adele Letro spun past her defender at the edge of the box and reared to shoot, but a bad bounce forced her to adjust and smash it wide to the right.
“Adele Letro had some good looks on the goal,” Tobias said. “She’s been a lethal player for (Utah) this year.”
Letro almost created another chance a few minutes later as she again cut across the Wildcat penalty box with pace, creating space and leaving the ball for forward Kim Lloyd, whose shot deflected over goal.
Amanda Feigt had a difficult night despite holding much of Utah’s possession. The junior track star made a slew of horizontal runs with the ball at her feet, but Feigt’s final touches failed to find their marks.
Letro was the only one who consistently exploited the Arizona defense and it was the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year who stepped on the gas for the U in the final five minutes of the game.
With just Michelle Deatherage and Kiley Jones holding Arizona’s forwards, the Utes played with desperate fervor in the match’s final seconds and forced a plethora of opportunities.
Letro came free for a handful of half-chances while defender Melissa Wayman and midfielder Katy Reineke teed up a handful of blasts from 15- to 25-yards that were blocked by the bulwark Wildcat defense.
“Being a forward, it’s always high pressure,” Letro said. “Arizona did a very good job. We had a couple of chances that just didn’t go our way, but we did as good as we could.”
The Utes outshot Arizona 13-7 on the night while maintaining an 8-2 edge in the second half. Seven of the U’s shots were on target, but Skyline High School’s McCall Smith was up to the task.
“It was awesome getting a chance to play in front of my family and friends,” Smith said. “The work came from the team in front of me. I knew that I had to do well because they worked their butts off.”
Arizona will go on to face Weber State in the round of 32 at Ute Field on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Head coach Tim Crompton’s squad upset BYU in a 5-4 shootout victory, the biggest win in the Wildcats’ history.