By Ben Neilson
The BYU men”s soccer team posted its seventh consecutive victory Saturday night, October 13 with a 5-0 shutout over visiting Colorado.
In an aggressive game with plenty of contact, hard fouls and flaring tempers, BYU kept its cool and maintained a shutout.
The Buffaloes, undefeated coming into Saturday”s game, were disappointed with their play.
“The one thing I told my team before this game was that we weren”t going to let BYU score in the first 10 minutes,” said Colorado head coach Peter Ambrose. “So instead BYU scored two goals and missed a penalty kick. Any time you spot a team that”s as good as BYU two goals in the first 10 minutes, it”s tough to even consider coming back.
“To tell you the truth, I”m disappointed with my team today,” Ambrose said.
The Cougars, attempting to reverse a recent trend of sluggish starts, came out sharp and scored early on a shot by junior forward Daniel Yescas. The goal, assisted by senior forward Brandon LeRoy, came just three minutes into the game.
The rest of BYU”s goals did not come easy, and the Cougars dodged several bullets on the way to their fourth shutout in seven games.
One Colorado shot bounced off the top of BYU”s goal midway through the first half, and BYU senior goalkeeper John Morris made four crowd-pleasing saves to keep the Buffaloes scoreless.
BYU head coach Chris Watkins said he was pleased with his team”s performance.
“They are a good team with good athletes,” said Watkins. “We broke them down over time.”
BYU sophomore forward Matt Affleck, who scored three goals in last weekend”s 10-2 victory over Colorado State, added two more on Saturday. LeRoy and freshman midfielder Paul Bryan also netted goals.
The Cougars still think they can improve, however.
“Our defense got the shutout. That was what we were looking for,” Affleck said. “But there is still room for improvement.”
Though defeated Saturday night, Ambrose said his club looks forward to meeting the Cougars again.
“We”ll start working again to beat BYU,” Ambrose said. “They”re the team to beat.”
Saturday”s game came on the heels of a mysterious no-show by Arizona State on Friday night, October 12.
Phone calls to the Sun Devils” head coach were not returned.
Fans at Friday”s game were given a refund and were treated to a fifty-minute scrimmage and a round of penalty kicks.
It was unclear whether or not the missed game would count as a forfeit.
The Cougars are 7-1-0 this season.
