By Joseph Evans
The BYU men”s soccer team traveled all the way to the National Club Championships in Bakersfield, Calif., to play its archrival Weber St. The result was a 2-0 loss against in-state rival Weber State.
BYU and Weber State played each other twice to finish the regular season. The Cougars beat Weber State 1-0 in their first meeting and the teams tied in their second game.
The Cougars advanced to the finals after easily defeating all five of their previous opponents, including a 3-0 rout of Michigan in the semifinal.
The Wildcats advanced to the finals by defeating Delaware 2-1 in the semifinals.
The Wildcats came out pumped as forward Tyson Craythorne startled the Cougars with a quick goal six minutes into the match.
Playing against their first deficit of the tournament, the Cougars outplayed the Wildcats the rest of the game, out shooting them 24-4.
“That is the nature of the game of soccer,” senior midfielder Nate Lowe said. “You can outplay your opponent and with a little bit of luck, they can win the overall outcome of the game. Sometimes, the best performance doesn”t always win.”
“I was thrilled with the way we played,” head coach Chris Watkins said. “I thought we played our prettiest game of the season, but there were some goals called back that really killed our momentum.”
What appeared to be two Cougar goals late in the first half were called back by the officials – one on a foul and the other was waived off because of offsides.
“The offsides rule is interpreted different by various officials,” Watkins said. “One of our players was off sides but didn”t make a play on the ball.”
In the final minutes of the match with the defense pushed forward, the Wildcats capitalized on a breakaway long ball that left BYU goalie Erik Walunas alone on defense.
Walunas fouled the player resulting in an automatic red card. Weber State”s Curtis Whitesides scored the second goal of the match and the Cougars” chances at a repeat for the national crown were shattered.
“Words can”t describe the feelings right now,” said Badger, who was named MVP of the tournament. “This is a dream come true.”
“Watching from the sidelines, it couldn”t have been more painful,” senior defender Tommy Foster said.
Foster sustained a concussion in the first half of the first game of the tournament, Thursday against Indiana and was unable to play the rest of the tournament.
Junior defender Chad Oyler stepped in well in the absence of Foster and was named to the All-Tournament team along with teammates senior sweeper Casey Waldron and junior forward Matt Affleck.
Leading up to the final, the Cougars defeated Rice 2-1 on Friday morning with goals by junior midfielder Brad Peterson and sophomore forward Brock Blake to finish out pool play.
Friday night, the Cougars defeated Illinois 6-2 in the quarterfinal. Sophomore midfielder Travis Winn scored off an amazing diving head in the first minute of action to lead the Cougars to the easy win.
Affleck notched two goals in a one-minute span. Senior forward Brandon Leroy, junior forward Chris Lamb and junior midfielder Christian Russell each contributed a goal.
Against Michigan in the semifinal, junior midfielder Chad Deshler notched two goals while Lamb chipped in one in the final minute of play to defeat the Wolverines 3-0.
The Cougars will not play at the club level next season as they announced their move to the Professional Developmental League (PDL) starting in April 2003.
