Arizona soccer scores late against No. 23 BYU to earn draw in Big 12 opener

The stats said that Arizona and No. 23 BYU were very similar soccer teams. The 1-1 draw in the teams’ Big 12 opener backed that up.

The Wildcats (3-4-2, 0-0-1) and Cougars (4-2-2, 0-0-1) came into Friday evening’s match at Mulcahy Soccer Stadium scoring just over one goal per match. The teams also gave up just over one goal per match. Both offense and defense fulfilled expectations.

Arizona head coach Becca Moros and her staff changed things up in preparation for the Cougars. The Wildcats came out in a 4-4-2 formation with Trinity Dorsey moving into the midfield with Lilly Boydstun, Ally Brown, and Whitney Reinhardt. While Dorsey is listed as a midfielder on the official roster, she often plays center back for the Wildcats. This time, the back line was handled by Zoe Mendiola, Aranda Hurge, Grace Smith, and Marissa Arnst.

“We have three really good center backs, and so that’s always weighing on us, like what does that mean?” Moros said. “One of them’s always on the bench? Does that mean that? You know, what do we do? And then Trin…played almost every game last season as a six for us and has her whole career. So we knew she could play in there.”

Moros also wanted to make sure the players on the field were mentally ready.

“One of the things we went with was veteran and players who have a ton of minutes,” she said. “We’re like, it’s the first conference game. Maybe there’s nerves, maybe there’s things like that. So we went with the most veteran back five people we could put on the field, and that allowed us to have all three of those players on the field at the same time. And so I think they did a good job and helped the players in front of them as well. And we had to defend for long stretches.”

Moros subbed very little. The starters played 473 of the possible 495 minutes in the first half. Eight of Arizona’s starters played over 70 minutes in the game.

In the end, it wasn’t the starters who broke through for the Wildcats on the offensive end, though.

The two teams battled through the first half without much success. BYU took a lot of shots, mostly from distance, but they couldn’t get one to go. Arizona had fewer shots, although it put a higher percentage on goal. Neither tactic worked for the first 45 minutes.

The Cougars broke through just after the half. After 10 futile shots by her team, Mia Goettsche took one in the 51st minute that finally put BYU on top.

The Cougars had scored their average. Would the defense live up to its averages, as well?

It took over 80 minutes of playing time, but it eventually did. Lainey Swanson subbed back into the game in the 78th minute as Arizona prepared for the final push, still hunting for the equalizer.

The Wildcats took a throw-in near midfield. Shanti Weddington won the ball and took an extremely long shot. It deflected off a Cougar in the box, then bounced towards Swanson. She slid, knocking the ball towards the bottom right corner.

It seemed to take the ball forever as it slowly rolled towards the goal and BYU defenders gave chase, but they couldn’t get there quickly enough.

“Our effort in the last half was amazing,” Swanson said. “I mean, it was a tough game. They’re a tough opponent, but I think we kept our composure. We fought till the end, and we got the equalizer, and that means the world to us. It’s a big opponent, and we needed that going into conference.”

The match was tied in the 85th minute by taking a page out of BYU’s playbook.

“They always shoot a lot, and those things can deflect,” Moros said. “They can get knocked down. They can go off of a post. There’s a lot of chaos that you can can create from taking shots…there’s high percentage areas to shoot from, and then there’s areas where as long as you keep it on frame and it’s not out of bounds, things can happen…BYU does it a lot…I think we tend to attack down the middle a little bit more than they do, and we’re looking for some higher percentage shots, but I think that they put pressure on teams by creating those chances…If we keep hunting and fighting on that stuff, then you get a goal like Lainey’s goal that ties it up.”

To Moros’ point, BYU took a total of 18 shots in the match, with an even nine in each half. Only five of those shots were on goal. Arizona took a much more modest six shots with half of those on goal. Yet, the one that finally went for the Wildcats was the result of a long shot that turned into an assist by deflecting off an opponent.

Not everyone would have been successful in that position. There wasn’t a lot on the ball, but it was targeted perfectly.

“The thing is, is the personnel,” Moros said. “Lainey can score like that. If it was me, I’m not that good of a slider. Mine wouldn’t have got there, but Lainey is good at that. So if I had to pick somebody to be in that position, to be hunting and competing and sliding and trying to put the ball in there, I’d pick Lainey.”

The Wildcats now have six days off before going on the road to play Kansas State (5-1-3, 0-1-0) and Kansas (6-2-1, 0-0-1). They had five full days after their final nonconference game at Pepperdine to prepare for the Cougars. Those days off are important for Moros and the team.

“We were dying for the one extra training day this past week because the players who are playing a lot of minutes they don’t get to work on anything, they’re constantly in recovery mode,” Moros said. “The tempo of training is not combative, the intensity goes down, the number of touches they get on the ball. They can’t work on anything or make themselves feel more confident because they got to do some repetitions, so they’re just in a grind game after game after game. So we got to train a whole extra day last week, and we get to do it again coming into these next games, and I think that’s important for our growth mentally and just to be ready for the game and ready to compete hard.”