There’s a reason soccer games last for 90 minutes.
In the first exhibition game of the season Saturday night, the BYU men’s soccer team needed every one of those minutes to even the score with the University of Denver for a 1-1 tie.
Junior forward Garrett Losee scored a goal off a corner kick from sophomore midfielder Michael Moreno with exactly 90:00 on the scoreboard to tie the score at one.
“Mike got the ball and threw it in right at my feet,” Losee said. “I just held my guy off, took a touch inside and just turned the guy and saw the back post open. It went off the post and in. It felt pretty good.”
The last-second goal is just another clutch moment Losee seems to thrive on, as he has performed well under intense pressure in many games before.
“Garrett Losee is a clutch guy,” BYU coach Chris Watkins said. “We wait for him to do that. He did that a lot when we went to Puerto Rico last year, and hopefully this is what is to come. It was exciting, and we needed it. It was good for us to have that tie there.”
The Pioneers were hit with a red card in the 60th minute, forcing them to play with 10 players the rest of the game while the Cougars played with 11. However, sophomore midfielder Cole Chapleski was able to score a goal despite the shortened roster. The tie gives some confidence to the Cougars as they prepare for the official season to start in April.
“Denver’s a great team, and they’ve been a good team for a long time,” Watkins said. “It gets our guys excited to know they’re playing against a quality team, so that’s big for us. This is great to have this opportunity to play them to get us ready for what we’re walking into in the Premiere Development League.”
In addition to giving confidence to the BYU players, the game also allows the Cougars to see what they have to work on and how they can improve before the season officially kicks off on April 28.
“I was able to pinpoint a lot of things that I can do personally to improve myself, and I’m definitely going to be working on those things every single day,” Losee said. “I’m excited to work hard so we can have better results in the coming months. I’m super excited for the games coming up.”
