By Joseph Evans
The undefeated BYU men”s soccer team put the visiting Utah State Aggies away early with five goals on the first five shots to eventually win 6-1, Saturday night Sept. 28.
The Cougars improve to 4-0 on the season and face Utah on Friday Oct. 4 at 7:30.
Before many of the fans could reach their seats, junior forward Matt Affleck took the opening kick-off down the field and gave a perfect pass to teammate junior midfielder Christian Russell, for the goal.
“The first goal was crucial in shutting down their confidence,” head coach Chris Watkins said. “For a team that is trying to come in here and win 1-0, you could see the hearts drop for the Utah State team in the first 30 seconds of the game.”
Scoring 29 seconds into the game was a new team record according to Watkins, who has been the head coach since 1994.
Eight minutes later, Affleck scored off a rebound to put the Cougars up 2-0. Eleven seconds later, senior forward Brandon Leroy shot a ball from 30 meters out just above the shell-shocked Aggie goalie”s head to give the Cougars the a 3-0 cushion.
With 24 minutes remaining in the first half, Leroy connected again off a pass by new-comber Gilbert Gaertner, a transfer from George Mason University.
Seven minutes later, Gaertner put in a goal of his own off another assist from Affleck.
“We came out and did what the coach wanted us to do -score early,” Gaertner said. “We played an excellent first half of soccer.”
“The team chemistry is definitely coming along,” said Affleck. “It was great to come out so strong.”
In the second half, most of the starters rested as the second unit and the Aggies scored one goal a piece.
Freshman forward Tom Jensen scored on a breakaway with a wide open shot off the set up from teammate junior forward Christopher Lamb.
The Aggies scored their only goal with eight minutes left in the contest.
Watkins was concerned with the lack of playing time for the starting unit after the blowouts the last two weekends.
“We are will need to do more fitness exercises in our practices next week to make up for the lack of game time the starters have been getting,” he said.
The game will be rebroadcast in Spanish on Telemundo Saturday Oct. 5 at noon.
