By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Two years removed from a national championship game berth in the College Cup, sixth-ranked BYU showed Thursday night that it's still one of the elite programs in the country.
Scoring two goals in the first 21 minutes and out-shooting Baylor, 20-3, in the first half, the Cougars (8-1-1) picked up their first Big 12 win with a dominant 4-0 shutout before a season-high crowd of 843 at Betty Lou Mays Field.
"They're very good, we knew that," said Baylor coach
Michelle Lenard, whose team fell to 5-4-1 overall and 0-2 in the league. "That's why they were ranked No. 1 in the county, and they'll be back at the top.
"It gives us an idea of where the standard is. And we need to know that. We knew going in, we weren't going to be where they are yet. Our goal is to minimize the difference, continue to grow and learn from each game."
Dominating possession, BYU kept the heat on Baylor goalkeeper
Makinzie Short with three goals in the first 3 ½ minutes and jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 13
th minute when Ellie Boren found Rachel McCarthy on the back side for her fourth goal of the season.
Less than five minutes the later, the Cougars took advantage of a defensive lapse and scored on Allie Fryer's one-on-one shot to the back corner.
"In the beginning of the game, I think it's silly stuff," Lenard said. "We've got a forward who jumps and dives in on that cross on the first goal. It's poor defending in the box in one moment, but these defenders have done well over the course of the season. It's not just the backline. As a team, we didn't defend well one-v-one in several critical moments. Yes, they're very good, and we have to be better defenders in those moments."
BYU got off 13 shots before Baylor's first, with
Hannah Augustyn shooting one wide left of the goal in the 26
th minute.
"We're impatient because we want to get shots, we want to try to find ways to score, and we're wasting opportunities with some of these shots from too far out," Lenard said. "That's just a team that wants to put a shot on the board, but I want to put a goal in the back of the not, not just a shot on the board. We need better decision-making there."
The Bears' best chance in the first half came on a shot by freshman forward
Salma Simonin that BYU goalkeeper Lynette Hernaez tipped and deflected off the crossbar, with
Callie Conrad's rebound shot going wide of the frame.
The game appeared to be headed to the halftime with Baylor trailing 2-0, but freshman midfielder
Theresa McCullough was called for a foul just barely inside the 18-yard box. Short actually guessed right, diving to her left on the penalty kick, but Brecken Mozingo snuck one in just inside the far post into the right bottom of the goal for a 3-0 halftime lead.
"They're just putting a lot more on us than we're used to," Lenard said. "The third goal is like a nail in the coffin. It's so hard to climb out of something like that. At 2-0, you've still got some hope. We really needed to the half at 2-0. I thought we gave up kind of bad goals in the first half. There was no reason that 2-0 couldn't have been a reasonable halftime score."
The Bears had more opportunities in the second half, getting out-shot just 9-6, but couldn't find the net as BYU recorded its second shutout of the season.
"We've got to have an attack, or they're going to be coming down our throat all the time," Lenard said. "Once we were able to get forward, then it took some of the pressure off of our goalkeeper and our backline. It just took us too long to do that."
Baylor will try to bounce back when it hosts 25
th-ranked Texas Tech (8-0-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday. The Red Raiders upset 14
th-ranked Texas, 2-1, when Hannah Anderson headed in a Macy Blackburn free kick as time expired.
THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – Baylor soccer fell against No. 6 BYU, 4-0, Thursday night at Betty Lou Mays Field.
BYU dominated most of the first half, scoring two goals in the first 21 minutes before notching their third goal on a penalty kick in the 45
th minute.
Salma Simonin had the Bears only good look in the first half, when her shot was saved by the BYU goalkeeper and bounced off the top crossbar.
Following halftime, Baylor doubled its chances with six shots,
Tyler Isgrig putting two of those on frame. With back-to-back corners in the 56
th minute, BU tried to find the back of the net but BYU stopped the Bears to keep the shutout.
The Cougars found their fourth and final goal in the 77
th minute.
Hannah Boughton and
Hannah Augustyn each put shots on goal in the final 10 minutes but ultimately weren't able to come away with a goal.
Baylor's goalkeeper,
Makinzie Short made seven saves, six of them coming during the first half, limiting the Cougars to just one shot on goal in the second half.
HIGHLIGHTS
QUOTABLE
Michelle Lenard on the game …
"It gives us an idea, like I said earlier, of where the standard is. And we need to know that. So, we knew going in, we weren't going to be where they are yet. Our goal is to minimize the difference, continue to grow and learn from each game. We've got to be stronger on the ball. We've got to do better in our one-v-one defending situations and in our decision-making around the edge of the 18 (box). We're impatient because we want to get shots, we want to try to find ways to score and we're wasting opportunities with some of these shots from too far out. And that's just a team that wants to put a shot on the board, but I want to put a goal in the back of the net, not just a shot on the board. So, we need better decision-making there."
WHAT'S NEXT
The Bears will host No. 25 Texas Tech on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 1 p.m. at Betty Lou Mays Field.
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