PROVO, Utah – The No. 10 BYU women’s soccer team earned a dominant 2-0 win over No. 12 Texas A&M Thursday night at South Field.
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“We just wanted to go out as hard as we could from the very beginning,” BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We take a lot of pride in our attack right now. We spent a lot of time on encouraging them to use their skills on attacking. That’s sometimes your best defense. If you make your opponents play more defense than they’re used to it’s hard to get into rhythm.”
After a series of passes, a goal seemed promising for BYU (5-0), but the Aggie (4-1-2) defense prevailed. However, just 19 seconds later, senior Elise Flake put the Cougars on the board in the 34th minute with an assist by junior Josie Guinn.
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Not only did this put TAMU behind, but the Aggies' Shantel Hutton ended her streak of five consecutive shutouts.
Flake scored her second goal of the match in the 37th minute as she gathered the ball on an attempted clear and blasted a shot into the back of the net, giving BYU a 2-0 advantage.
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By the end of the first half, the Cougars held a 2-0 lead, rivaling the exact same score that TAMU held over BYU at the end of their last matchup in 2018. The Cougars outshot the Aggies 10-1 in the first 45 minutes of play.
BYU would fire another 12 shots in the second half, but maintained its advantage. At the end of regulation, the Cougars held the ball for 59 percent of the game, keeping Hutton on her toes.
In the second half, TAMU tripled their shots on goal, managing only three more to earn a total of four for the night. Prior to this game, the Aggies racked up 12 goals and averaged 17.8 shots per game.
On Monday, Sept. 16, BYU will take on local rival Utah Valley University on the Wolverines’ home turf at 7:30 p.m. MDT. The game will be streamed on the WAC Digital Network and audio broadcasts will be available on BYU Radio (107.9 FM) and ESPN 960 AM.
