Utah Soccer Claims Utah’s First Big 12 Win with Help from O’Kane

Thursday, September 12

Salt Lake City, UT

7 p.m.

University of Utah

3-2-2, 1-0-0

Arizona

5-2-1, 0-1-0

Team	1	2	Final F
Arizona	0	0	0
Utah	0	1	1

Photo by: Liv Medivitz/Utah Athletics

Utah Soccer Claims Utah’s First Big 12 Win with Help from O’Kane

9/12/2024 10:38 PM | Soccer

Box Score

Utah soccer hosted Arizona for first conference game

SALT LAKE CITY - The University of Utah Soccer program played a historic game to start their Big 12 era with a 1-0 win against the University of Arizona Wildcats at Ute Field on Thursday night.

Utah moves to (3-2-1) with a home victory over the Arizona Wildcats (5-2-1) in the first of their conference games in the 2024 campaign.

"We've been talking a lot about being in control of the game," said head coach Hideki Nakada. "And today, I thought we did a really good job of that."

Senior forward Katie O'Kane was the sole goal of the match in the 67^th minute, off a goal kick from Arizona and an assist from graduate forward Taliana Kaufusi. This goal led the Utes to claim Utah's first Big 12 win of the school's debut season.

This result is a welcome change after the last time Utah and Arizona faced off in a conference game, the Utes lost 1-0 after an own goal on Oct. 29 of the 2023 season.

The Utes earned their first clean sheet with junior goalkeeper Kasey Wardle in the net. The Meridian, Idaho native posted three key saves to keep the Wildcats at bay.

The first half played primarily defense, as both teams only had two shots taken, but the match would end with the Utes outdoing the Wildcats with their efforts, 8-5. This will mark the fifth opponent this season Utah has out shot.

"At the end, Arizona had to push numbers forward and put us under a lot of pressure," said Nakada, "but, we dealt with it really well."

Utah defended four corner kicks in the final five minutes of the match and both teams earned a total of 19 fouls, ten of which occurred in the second half. This is only the fourth highest-fouled game this season, with the highest being on Sept. 5 at LSU, both teams accumulating 32 fouls.

Seven players played all 90-minutes, while freshman midfielder Londyn Lovell earned her first starting position this season.

"I'm really proud and happy for our players, the fact that we're the first Utah team ever to win in Big 12 conference play," said Nakada. "That's obviously something we are always going to remember, so I'm really excited for what comes next."

Next Up
Utah will host the Idaho State University for its final non-conference match of 2024 at Ute Field at 4 p.m. on Sept. 15.

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