PROVO, Utah (May 22, 2010) — BYU lost its second straight home game Saturday night to the Lancaster Rattlers, 1-0 at the Stadium at South Field.  The Cougars controlled most of the possession for the game and out shot the Rattlers, 22-7, including 8 corner kicks but were shut out for the weekend.  The Cougars are now 0-2-1 and Lancaster improves to 1-1-3 in the Southwest Division of the Premier Development League.

“I would put this as one of the most disappointing weekends we’ve had at home,” said BYU head coach, Chris Watkins.  “We played two games we could have won and we lost.  To go 0-2 at home is a major blow for us.  We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

BYU senior defender, Drew Van Wagenen, who played his 5,000th minute as a Cougar tonight was called for  handling in the penalty area, resulting in an Andres Bueno penalty kick that gave Lancaster a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute.  Cougar opponents have scored the first goal in all three PDL games this year.

Senior defender, KC Whitworth says BYU will still have a good season. (BYU Photo)

BYU had multiple quality chances to get an equalizer but didn’t connect.  Lancaster dropped nine players into the defensive half for the final 45 minutes, repelling multiple attempts by Toni Niccoli, BJ Pugmire, and Jantzen Romney.

“It’s incredibly disappointing,” said Watkins.  “With 22 shots you can make an excuse on one but with 22 you need a little more quality.  You’ve got to expect a little more of yourself individually.  Our forwards didn’t take anyone on and beat someone in the offensive third.”

“It’s an interesting game,” said senior defender and co-captain, KC Whitworth.  “It’s whoever gets the ball in the net more.  We didn’t score this weekend so we can’t expect to win.  It’s really hard.”

Lancaster received three bookings on the night with yellow cards going to Hany Helmy (28), Zach Brunner (36), and Tyler Coombs (86).  Whitworth received a yellow in the 64th minute.  BYU was shut out on back-to-back games for the first time since May 30 and June 9 of last season.

“Most of our issues are psychological,” said Watkins.  “One goal would go a long ways but we’ll go and practice hard.  I don’t have a whole lot of drills in my rolodex here to try and boost our psyche to believe they are great players.  They have to earn that on the field.  We’ll try to replicate that in practice.”

“We’re only three games into the season,” said Whitworth.  “Both teams we played this weekend, they were doing dances in the locker room because they know that we were the better team.  We are a great team.  It will be a good season.”

BYU travels next week to play the Los Angeles Legends on Thursday, May 27.  Miss the game?  Watch it for up to two weeks after the airdate on www.byu.tv.

Scoring Summary
LAN 1-0   34′  Andres Bueno (PK)

Final Stats
LAN      BYU
Goals                  1          0
Shots                  7         22
Fouls                  10         9
Offsides               4          5
Yellow Cards       3          1

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