Jackets Extinguish Sun Devils

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets hosted the Arizona State Sun Devils as they hoped to right the ship following their first losses of the season.  The Sun Devils won the opening faceoff and scored on their first shot of the game.  After a bit of back and forth the Jackets tied the game when Joseph Rose scored an unassisted goal to get the Jackets on the board.  The Sun Devils answered back with an extra man goal thirty seconds later.  The first half saw the Sun Devils play as the aggressors bringing a level of intensity that the Jackets would not match.  The Sun Devils dominated possession of the ball and when the Jackets did possess the ball, they were unable to draw slides and crack the Sun Devil defense.  On the other end the Sun Devils used slick off ball actions to get good looks as the Jackets lost track of the shooters.  The Sun Devils built a halftime lead of 7-2. 

Halftime was a time of self-reflection for the Jackets as they had a decision to make as to how they wanted to finish the game.  Freshman DJ Louis ran by his defender and attacked the slide's approach before firing home a shot on the opening possession of the second half.  Brooks Baro scored his first goal of the day a few minutes later on an inside roll on the right side of the goal.  After a few minutes of back-and-forth action, Asher Wagnon fed Joseph Rose on the crease to pull the Jackets within two.  Arizona State took advantage of an extra man opportunity to extend the lead back to three.  The Jackets, however, were undeterred as Baro scored again less than a minute later to recapture the momentum.  The Jackets had become the aggressor all over the field and the energy level had changed completely.  The Jacket sideline transformed from lifeless during the first half to raucous in the second half.  Wagnon found Rose again less than a minute later on an extra man opportunity for the Jackets to bring the score 8-7 in favor of the Sun Devils at the end of the third quarter.

The fourth quarter started with both teams locking in on defense.  The Jackets led by Hudson Higgins and George Corbin turned away any Sun Devil opportunities.  The Jackets finally evened the score when Wagnon found Rose on another extra man opportunity with eight minutes remaining in the game.  The Jackets took the lead for the first time when Asher Wagnon scored after forcing a failed clear by the Sun Devils.   On the ensuing possession the Jackets turned the ball over and the Sun Devils got behind the Tech midfield to create transition and scored to tie the game.  Ben Skopicki won the next faceoff creating another possession for the Jackets.  Tech was patient and worked their offense drawing multiple slides and forcing rotations from the tired Sun Devil defense.  The possession ended as Brooks Baro took a shot with one second remaining on the shot clock that managed to sneak pas the Sun Devil goalie.  Skopicki won the next faceoff as well and the Jackets worked to kill some clock.  The Jackets earned a shot clock reset and had the opportunity to kill the game on their offensive end, but some ill-advised decisions lead to a turnover and one last Sun Devil possession.  The Jacket defense steadied themselves for one last test and showed their mettle forcing a turnover and Curran Myers grabbed the ground ball and escaped to space and passed to Carrington Kelsey as time expired giving the Jackets the comeback victory.  The five goal deficit is the largest that the Jackets have overcome in several years.  Ben Skopicki finished winning 18 of 22 faceoffs.  The Jackets will be off next week before facing South Carolina on the road on March 30.