It was more than luck that pushed the BYU men's soccer team over the top in a hard-fought 3-2 battle against the Spokane Spiders on Saturday.
It was the players themselves who refused to lose.
'I think we have a special team because we build from minute one to minute ninety and that was evident tonight,' said BYU assistant coach Brian Jolley. 'We have starters who play very well, and then our defensive players lift us up a notch. We want our games to keep rolling like this.'
Spokane started the scoring off in the 19th minute when Jake Moug took a corner kick and volleyed the ball into the net. BYU had a lot of opportunities on goal but wasn't able to score in the first half of the game.
In the 62nd minute, BYU's Dave Clark took a cross from Zach DeFrancis and finished the ball to tie the score at 1-1. Spokane came back in the 73rd minute when Matt Stueckle scored a header off a corner kick, putting Spokane back on top.
BYU fought back seven minutes later when Zach DeFrancis scored a header off a cross from Justin Norton. Two minutes later, Toni Nicoli passed the ball across the face of the goal. Daniel McKinley was wide open and put the ball into the back of the net, winning the game for BYU with only three minutes left on the clock.
The Cougars will play the Ogden Outlaws on Wednesday at BYU.