Club soccer drops game to BYU
For the third time in five games this season, the Utah State University men’s club soccer team went into overtime to settle their game.
The team traveled to Provo for a rematch with BYU on Saturday. USU lost 2-1 in overtime and now holds a 2-3 on the season.
In the first meeting between these teams on Sept. 8, USU lost 5-0.
“We played really well,” USU goalkeeper Paul Dowdy said.
Before the game started, the BYU announcer commented that BYU had not been scored on at home this season, he said.
Almost as if the comment jinxed BYU, USU scored when midfielder Brandon Peterson took a crossing ball from forward James Barnard and scored on a header. This was 30 seconds into the game Dowdy said.
Though USU went up 1-0 on the goal, the team soon had to suffer the loss of a player. Early in the game, forward Neal Obray received a yellow card. Shortly after, he received his second yellow card on an aggressive tackle and had to leave the game. This left Utah State a man down with about 85 minutes to go in regulation.
BYU was able to capitalize on their advantage and tied the game with about 14 minutes left in the first half.
In the second half, with the score tied 1-1 and being down a player, Utah State moved Barnard back to the midfield to strengthen their defense.
“It worked out well,” Dowdy said. “We were able to close off the middle and still get good looks at the goal.”
The game remained tied throughout regulation and went into an overtime period. BYU scored 1:18 into overtime for the victory.
Despite the loss, Dowdy said everyone on the team played extremely well.
“We hung tough despite being a man down,” Dowdy said. “It was an awesome performance by everyone.”
Dowdy was especially praiseful of the Aggie defense.
“BYU had a lot of chances but I give a lot of credit to the defense,” Dowdy said. “I was tested a couple of times but our defense played so tough it made my job easy.”
Dowdy said the game on Saturday was the closest USU has played BYU in his four years on the team. BYU seemed surprised USU came out so tough, especially after beating them 5-0 in their first meeting.
Since then, Dowdy said, Utah State has had time to come together as a team.
“We have our lineup figured out now,” Dowdy said. “I have confidence in this team.”
Utah State will be playing again this weekend when they travel to California for a tournament. This will be the first time this season they play an out of state team.
The team will be leaving Wednesday to travel and then have games on Thursday, Friday and Sunday before returning home.