Utah State Men’s Soccer beats BYU

Utah State’s mens soccer team travelled to Provo to take on the BYU Cougars Friday, upsetting previously unbeaten BYU 3-0. Due to the fact that BYU is a Semi-pro team, the Cougars have typically been a nightmare matchup for the Aggies. In the last two meetings alone between the two clubs, BYU has outscored Utah State 11-1. The undefeated BYU team had already beaten teams like the RSL reserve team and other semi-pro teams this year.

“This is easily the best team that we have ever had here,” said John Haddock, a member of the USU mens soccer team. “We know that when we play our game we can beat anybody. Playing on BYU’s field in a stadium full of hundreds of people should get us pretty amped too.”

Utah State started out strong, putting pressure on BYU’s defense early on.

“We started out the game with much higher pressure than they did” Haddock said.

Key to USU’s aggressive play was Roman Wendelboe, who pressured BYU’s defense and caused their keeper to make a bad pass which Roman then intercepted. That caught the keeper out of position, allowing Roman to drill in the first goal of the match.

The second half was a hard fought match both ways, and at times it seemed as if USU’s 1-0 lead was going to slip away. Offensively, Braeden Loveless provided a huge spark late in the game, scoring twice in a row. Loveless’ first goal happened when he caused a defensive error, and then capitalized on it by putting the ball in the back of the net. Soon after, Loveless was the recipient of a well-placed pass which he then was able to slip past the keeper for another goal.

Things got heated late in the second half after a controversial no-call when BYU thought Loveless was offsides when he scored a goal.

BYU’s official twitter account tweeted after the game, “too much individual soccer, two bad giveaways in the back, and a horrendous offsides that was not called.“

The game ended with Utah State pulling off the upset and handing BYU their first loss of the season, beating them 3-0.

“BYU was in complete shock and couldn’t believe what was going on” Haddock said.

The Aggies played the next night against LDS Business College, beating them 3-2.

“It was a super sloppy game because of the rain but we still pulled off the victory” Haddock said.

The Aggies have only lost one game all season, making this their best start in club history.