Free candy, a costume contest and 2-0 win against LMU made for a happy Halloween night at South Field for the BYU women’s soccer team.
The game started out as a frighteningly close matchup that kept BYU fans on their feet throughout the first half, but the Cougars came back ready to play the second half. The two goals of the night were both scored by BYU forward Nadia Gomes. She scored the goals within 14 seconds of each other not even three minutes into the second half of play.
“Nadia is just so quick and she’s got a quick trigger. She’s just dangerous,” head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “She’s been dangerous all year and she hasn’t scored in a few games and she’s been a bit unlucky, but obviously we needed it tonight and she came through. Those were big goals for us against a very, very good team.”
The Lions kicked off to start the second half, but the Cougars regained possession, Gomes received the ball right in front of the net from defender Paige Hunt and tapped it into the back right corner of the goal.
Fourteen seconds later, Gomes took the ball from the LMU keeper and, with a wide-open net, scored the second goal of the night. This second goal came off a shot from fellow forward Jocelyn Loomis. Loomis shot the ball and drew LMU keeper Pruitt out to the top of the box. Pruitt saved the shot by Loomis, but Gomes was right on top of her and before she could get a solid grip on the soccer ball Gomes tapped it out of Pruitt’s hand and into the net for her seventh goal of the season and her tenth career goal.
“I just got to it and took it. I just believed.” Gomes said.
Scored at 52:39 and 52:53, tonight’s goal sequence is tied for the third fastest sequence of goals in Cougar soccer history and it is the fastest sequence of goals from the Cougars since 2005. The Cougars have not lost a game at home since 2012 and extended their home game winning streak to 16 with tonight’s win.
Prior to tonight’s game LMU and the University of San Francisco led the conference with matching 6-1-0 records. BYU was not far behind with a record of 5-1-1, making the game tonight high-stakes for both LMU and BYU. BYU averaged 8.5 fouls per game this season and ended tonight’s game with 19 foul calls. The LMU Lions were not far behind with 14 foul calls for the night making it an extraordinarily rough and tumble kind of game.
“I really liked how the girls reacted tonight,” Rockwood said. “I mean, obviously, we all know it’s a big game, but we just want to play and get better with each game. We knew LMU has had a great season so far, a great solid team, and we’re always glad to play at home.”
BYU ended LMU’s four-game winning streak and are now tied with the Lions for second place going into the last game of the season. The Cougars play their last WCC 2015 season game against Saint Mary’s next Saturday, Nov. 7, at 5 p.m. at South Field.
