BYU Men's Soccer takes down THE Ohio State in the NIRSA National Championship 3-1. After taking a rough loss last year to Florida BYU is back on top with yet another National Championship.
BYU headed to Round Rock Texas on November 20th in an attempt to regain its National Championship from 2017. The Cougars went undefeated in nearly 40 games until they lost in the Quarter Finals against Florida in 2018. With the lose weighing heavy on the Cougars they knew they had work to do and it showed on game one.
After a long day of travel on Wednesday November 20th BYU had an early game against an extremely defensive Texas A&M team. In soccer the overall states don’t always go with the score line and this was the case in the first game. With countless shots and almost all the posesion BYU finished the game with a disappointing 1-1 draw. However, this would be the spark that set in motion the run to the National Championship.
After taking some time Thursday afternoon to address the challenges during the A&M game BYU came back to win that night 5-0 and put them as the front runner coming out of their bracket. Next up would be Drexel in the round of 16 and BYU would come out on top during a very windy game 2-0. Quarter finals came quickly with little rest as the Cougars step into their fourth game in two days. The task at hand would be to take down a very talented and well coached Michigan. Scoring against the run of play during the first half the Cougars go up 1-0 and with a few adjustments at half time they finish the game with a 3-0 victory and a place in the Semi Finals on Saturday.
With some good rest and some amazing work by team Trainer Deniece Oats the boys start to prepare for the final day of games. BYU takes on North Carolina who went to the Final in 2018 to come up short to Florida 1-0. The weather cleared and the sun was shinning but unfortunately for the Cougars the legs are not yet moving. With a very slow start to the game, Goalkeeper Spencer Sabey comes up with a penalty kick save in the first five minutes as BYU continues to feel out of sorts. BYU finally finds its feet and pulls off another 3-0 victory over UNC and a place in the National Championship game.
Six games in three days is a lot for anyone and yet that’s what BYU will face as they step back on the field Saturday night against Ohio State. Ohio State steps out to draw first blood and give BYU its first goal against since A&M pulled one off five games back. This does not rattle the cougars as they have prepared for almost every situation during the season and shortly after find a way to bring one back through a PK drawn by Jacob Ence and put away by Christian Bain. Not long after Jacob Ence is put in down the Left flank and finishes absolutely perfectly to make it 2-1. The half finishes with BYU up by one goal and up by one man due to a dangerous tackle that saw Ohio State midfielder receive a straight red card. However, even with a man up it did not slow down Ohio and credit is due as they gave absolutely everything to try and squeeze one back. With an outstanding defensive day by Adam Canfield, Andrew Dossett and Isaac Liptrott Ohio could not find a way through. At the end Michael Anderson found once again another way to score and finish the game 3-1 and crown BYU once again National Champions.