By DAVID FUHRIMAN
The BYU men’s soccer team left California licking its chops after devouring Division I teams Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal-Berkeley on consecutive nights. The Cougars escaped from San Luis Obispo with a 1-0 win on Friday night, and then beat up on the Cal Golden Bears 6-2 on Saturday night.
BYU was on its first real road trip since August, but the game against Cal-Poly felt a lot like Provo for the team. The LDS Institute at the university brought a large crowd to the game before holding its Halloween dance that night, and that may have been an important factor in BYU winning the game.
The only goal of the game came about 40 minutes into the game, when junior midfielder Jeremy Humphries took a cross from freshman forward Nathan Lowe about 18 yards out, dribbled past a defender and put the ball past the Cal-Poly goalie. “That was a pretty impressive goal, especially when you consider the goalie was an all-conference selection last year,” said head coach Chris Watkins.
After the goal, the Cougars tried to fend off the Cal-Poly attack, and were successful largely because of the senior goalie tandem of Matthew Bond and Brian Jolley. “It was a pretty even game back and forth, but we were able to hold on,” said Watkins. “It was pretty tight, that’s for sure.”
It’s games like these that BYU really looks forward to Cal-Poly is a school with a Division I soccer program, and BYU, a club team with no scholarship opportunities for soccer, loves competing against scholarship players. “I think it gives the players a little added incentive to play their best,” Watkins said.
But it was Saturday night at Cal-Berkeley that was a real measuring stick for BYU. This was the same team that tied BYU 3-3 at home earlier in the year, and yet the Cougars held a 3-0 advantage at halftime and never relinquished the lead in this one. Six different players scored goals for BYU, three of which were freshmen. “That was one of the differences in this road trip is that the younger guys didn’t just come in and try not to make mistakes, but they really contributed to the victories,” Humphries said.
Senior midfielder Steve Crook saw a remarkable difference between the two games against Berkeley. “This game was more of a true reflection of how our team is,” Crook said. “We’ve played some tough teams in the last month, and we’re better because of it. The strength of our overall squad has improved.”
Watkins felt the weekend was the best of the year for the team. “To beat a Division I school and then redeem ourselves against Cal-Berkeley like that, it was just great. We’re playing our best soccer at the most important time.”
