By Fernando Castro
The BYU men''s soccer team defeated conference rival Nevada 2-0 on Friday, May 14, to obtain their first victory of the season.
The Cougars lost 3-1 in the second game of a doubleheader with Nevada on Saturday.
BYU (1-4) scored the first goal of the game on Friday in the 11th minute on an assist from Gilbert Gaertner to Chris Lamb.
The second goal came on stoppage time. Christian Russell scored on an assist from Lehi Mackissack. Russell came into the game for Brock Blacke in an effort to set a strong defensive stand to protect the Cougars'' lead.
'Lehi just hit a nice shot and I was at the right place at the right time,' Russell said. 'I just put it in the back of the net, and it was a good win for us.'
Forward Chris Lamb said the defense played superb, and that they played the best defense of the season.
'I thought we played really well,' BYU head coach Chris Watkins said. 'We came out exited to be in our home field. We worked really hard. We are a little bit faster than them, and it showed on our pace.'
The Wonders (2-3) played well, but had a hard time getting through the Cougar defense.
'I thought we left the middle open a little too much,' Nevada head coach Mark Muleadui said. 'We didn''t finish our chances, and then that''s what gets you. You make a couple of mistakes, don''t mark up, then they touch those ones in.'
Two early Nevada goals were enough to tame the Cougars on Saturday.
The first Nevada goal was scored by forward Anthony Grillo in the 12th minute of game after two errors on the Cougar defense.
Five minutes later, Nevada''s Stanton Smith scored again for a 2-0 Wonders lead.
The Cougars began pressuring Nevada''s defense and BYU forward Matt Affleck scored in the 17th minute on an assist from midfielder Gilbert Gaertner, closing the gap to 2-1.
In the second half, Nevada continued attacking the Cougar defense, and scored the final goal in the 48th minute.
'Last night, we felt that it should have not been a 2-0 game,' Nevada forward Anthony Grillo said on Saturday. 'We thought we were in the game last night, so we just said that we needed to come out and finish tonight.'
Watkins said the Cougars are a better team compared to last year''s team. He also said that in order for the team to win, they need to play at their best, and that if the Cougars play at their best, they are going to win some games.
'We gave away a bunch of opportunities and, unlike last night''s game, they did finish tonight ,' BYU goalkeeper Brandon Gilliam said. 'They just put us away quick. In the first half, we had to struggle to get back from there, and we never picked it up to the point to get back in the game.'
The Cougars will return to the South Field to play the Southern California Seahorses on Friday, May 28th, at 7:30 p.m.