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Aggies now 0-6 against Cougars with home loss

By Seth R. Hawkins

They stole USU’s blue and two goals, too.

BYU defeated the USU women’s soccer team 2-0, Thursday at Bell Field, to continue their undefeated winning streak against the Aggies. For the fifth time in the all-time series, the Cougars held USU scoreless, snagging a goal in both halves to improve their season record to 7-5, while the Aggies fell to 5-7-1.

Unlike the past two years, where the Aggies fell at the hands of BYU all-American forward Katie Larkin, it was two other Cougars who shared the spotlight, earning a goal and an assist apiece. While the Aggies failed to prevent the goals, they limited Larkin to only one distant shot on the day and Larkin was benched late in the second half.

USU head coach Heather Cairns said she was pleased with the way her team shut down Larkin, but in the end, BYU had plenty of other options.

“To their credit, they’re more balanced this year than in years past,” Cairns said. “So, what we did, it didn’t turn out to be the deciding tactic in the game.”

Each team had a dominant half, with the Cougars owning the majority of possession time in the first half. Cairns said the taller height of the BYU players helped them win balls in the air and dominate possession.

“They were really good in the air. They were better than us in the air,” Cairns said. “You can’t expect to win the aerial battle when they’re tall and good in the air, you just try and disrupt that as much as you can.”

Senior defender Alyssa Lowry, one of the Aggies’ shortest players at 5-foot-2-inches, said the opponent she was most frequently defending was so tall she couldn’t see over her but she has learned over the years to adapt to the height difference.

Height advantages aside, BYU simply played better the first half, Cairns said, scoring their first goal at the 18 minute mark that began as a corner kick. In the resulting confusion from the corner, Lauren Anderson, who has six assists on the season, fed the ball to Kassidy Christensen who headed the ball in from short range.

“To give away corners is bad against a team like this because you know they’re good with it,” Cairns said.

The goal gave the Cougars momentum and prevented the Aggies from getting into much of an offensive groove. At the half, USU goalkeeper Ali Griffin had made seven saves, and BYU had outshot USU 10-3.

“In the first half I think we couldn’t possess so we couldn’t attack,” Cairns said. “We were making some silly mental errors.”

As rough as the first half was for USU, the second half was better.

“We went in at halftime and made the changes that we needed to,” Lowry said. “We executed that in the second half and it showed in the first 10 to 20 minutes. We were attacking really well, we were possessing really well, so it felt really good in the second half.”

Coming out with an attacking mentality, Cairns said her team dominated possession and had multiple opportunities to score throughout the half. The Aggies outshot the Cougars 6-2 in the second half and only allowed one shot on goal, which resulted in the second goal.

But every time the Aggies got in scoring position, hesitation would set in and opportunities were lost, Cairns said.

“That confidence to shoot and score in the final third, it was definitely lacking,” Cairns said.

Even though the Aggies had possession advantage in the second half, the Cougars managed to score a second time in the 70th minute of play with the same players as before, only the roles were reversed. Christensen passed the ball to Anderson at midfield, who then weaved her way through numerous Aggie defenders to fire a shot past Griffin, sealing the victory with a cushion goal.

The Aggies get a week off before beginning conference play at home with a Friday, Oct. 10 game against Idaho.

–seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu