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PROVO — Coming into Friday night, the BYU women's soccer team was 18th in the nation in shots per game. In a battle of the UCCU Crosstown Clash, the Cougars nearly doubled their average, outshooting Utah Valley 27-11 en route to a dominating 3-1 win Friday night at South Field.
"We just challenged them to come out with more of an attacking mindset," BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "The speed of play was fantastic and our attack was really good in those first 15 minutes."
BYU improved to 5-3-1 while Utah Valley dropped its sixth straight match to fall to 1-9-1 on the season.
Freshman midfielder Olivia Wade put BYU on the board early, scoring the first goal of her career in the second minute, and the Cougars never looked back.
BYU kept the pressure up in the first half and had 14 shots to just three for the Wolverines. But the Utah Valley defense stood tall after what head coach Chris Lemay called a wake-up call following the first BYU goal.
"We did everything we could to try to minimize the size of the game," Lemay said. "And just have our team come out and play and throw punches from the beginning. As much as we talked about it, we still came out and froze.
"And it wasn't until they scored that we kind of woke up and then, at least, we battled. And I thought we had a lot of good spurts."
Toward the end of the first half it was Utah Valley that was creating opportunities, but the Wolverines couldn't find the equalizer.
For BYU, the second half couldn't have gotten off to a better start. The Cougars scored two goals in a six minute span to push the lead to 3-0. Bella Folino scored her fourth goal of the season in the 52nd minute and Elise Flake scored her team-leading fifth goal just five minutes later in the 57th minute after out-battling Nielsen for a loose ball in the 18-yard box.
"We've been doing a good job of creating opportunities and I think tonight we just created a lot more," Rockwood said. "We got our three goals. That's what we were shooting for ... and I thought overall, we played really well."
For Utah Valley, it was about keeping up the morale and in the 83rd minute, the Wolverines did just that. Sophomore Whitney Paskins took a cross from freshman Sadie Brockbank and put it in the bottom left corner that made it a 3-1 match. It was the first goal Utah Valley has scored in the series against BYU.
"We feel like we're very battle tested," Lemay said. "We think that we've seen it all. So, we feel very confident about where we're at. ... I think the goal helps a lot and 3-1 on the scoreboard looks better than 3-0. We're really happy about the goal and now we have to utilize that momentum going forward into next weekend."
Next up for BYU is the West Coast Conference opener against Gonzaga at South Field on Sept. 27. Utah Valley opens up Western Athletic Conference competition at New Mexico State on Sept. 28. Kyle McDonald is sports fan who loves the Chicago Cubs. Follow him on Twitter at @kylesportsbias
