(Tucson, AZ)
Last week in Arizona’s exhibition against the UTEP Miners, the Wildcats came out on fire scoring two quick goals in the first 20 minutes of the game.
The Wildcats would go on to win 5-0 out-shooting thee Miners 25-4, keeping the Miners on the defense for the vast majority of the game. Unfortunately, things did not go exactly the same for Arizona.
The Wildcats came out a little flat against Albany, unlike last week against the Miners. Arizona finally got something going offensively in the 36th minute, taking three shots on goal with all three shots missing by inches. Two shots hit the crossbars preventing the Wildcats from jumping on top early in the match.
Just a few moments later in the 39th minute Arizona defender Sabrina Enciso went down with an injury, she would not return to the game. The Wildcats out shot Albany 8 to 3 in the first half.
Going into the second half things seemed to be a bit different for the Wildcats, the game dragged on with no real scoring threat for the Cats.
The defense had broke down from how they were playing in the first half. Albany’s Kimberly Dieroff and Claire Stackel put Arizona’s defense to the test in the 70th minute. Dieroff connected with Stackel setting her for a rocket shot to the low corner of the goal, that put Albany on top 1-0 with just twenty minutes to go.
As the game went on, Arizona found themselves searching for answers with time running out.
In the 74th minute the Wildcats were able to get an attacking going, as they did most of the game, but Arizona could not finish and came up short on the attack.
When all hope seemed to be lost and Cats were minutes away from losing their season opener, something spectacular almost happened.
Arizona’s Jada Talley got ahead of the defense on the far-right corner of the field, she sent a cross field pass to Amanda Porter in the middle for a Wildcats goal.
It appeared that the Wildcats has finally broken through as the crowed erupted. The goal was nullified on an off-sides penalty from the line judge.
The entire game seemed to go that way for Arizona, as they couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the back of the net.
In the end Albany won the game 1-0 in a disappointing season opener.
The Wildcats out shot Albany 17-5. In addition, the Cats had twelve corner kicks to Albany’s four.
Things didn’t fall in the Wildcats favor tonight. Arizona’s next game will be Thursday night at 7 pm at UC Irvine.
