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Jarom Jordan

PROVO, Utah (June 18, 2010) – The BYU Cougars picked up their first home victory and second win of the season with a 2-1 decision, Friday night against the Southern California Seahorses.  BYU is now 2-4-2 while Southern California evens out at 4-4-0.

“That was nice,” said BYU head coach, Chris Watkins.  “I felt like we deserved to win tonight.  It meant a lot to the guys because we’ve played well but not had results.  Hopefully this is something we can build on.”

“The first half I thought we did really well,” said senior midfielder, Brent Jensen.  “We created some good chances.  Playing down a man in the second half, we did an awesome job.  I’m really proud of how well our team played.”

Brent Jensen scored his first goal of the season, Friday night. (BYU Photo)

The Cougars scored first for the second time this season, in 33rd minute with a world-class goal from Brent Jensen.  The senior midfielder volleyed a rocket from 25 yards away that hit the inside netting.  Jensen scored his first goal of the season and fifth of his career.  “That probably would have been the goal of the World Cup if it had happened in the World Cup,” said Watkins.

At the end of the first half Jensen was called for his second yellow of the game, resulting in a red card.  It was his first career red card.

Despite playing down a man for the remaining 45 minutes, the Cougars added another goal in the 66th minute.  Kip Critchlow made a run down the left flank, jumped over a tackle, and sent in a cross to Toni Niccoli in the penalty area who put away his team-leading, third goal of the season.  “Kip had a fantastic run.  Toni did a great job of staying in the biggest gap and found time and space to slot it in,“ said Watkins.

Southern California scored in the 89th minute to make things interesting after Jacob Ravenscraft scored on a right-footed flick for his team-leading, third goal of the year.

BYU’s two wins this season have come against the Seahorses.  The Cougars now prepare for division leading, Orange County Saturday night.  Watch the broadcast live on BYU Television or www.byu.tv at 8 p.m. MT

Starters:
GK: Bryan Black
D: Cameron Lamb, KC Whitworth, James Bindrup (Doug Clark 78’), Tyler Christiansen
M: Brit Osborne (Pedro Vasconcelos 57’), Brent Jensen, Kip Critchlow
F:  Brady Marshall (Matt Rider 45’), Toni Niccoli (65’), BJ Pugmire (Blake Tillotson 63’, Jantzen Romney 87’)

Attendance: 471

Cautions/Ejections:
BYU  4’  Brent Jensen (Y)
BYU  45’ Brent Jensen (Y)
BYU  51’  Cameron Lamb (Y)
BYU  59’  James Bindrup (Y)
SoCal  60’  Joel Bagby (Y)
BYU  88’  Jantzen Romeny (Y)

Notes:
-Bryan Black took Britton Osborne’s co-captain’s arm band when he subbed out
-BYU won its first home game of 2010
-BYU scored first for the second time this year and is now 2-0-0 when scoring first.
-The Cougars two victories haven come against Southern California
-BYU went 179 minutes without allowing a goal before Jacob Ravencrafts goal in the 89th minute.
-Brent Jensen scored his first goal of the season
-Kip Critchlow had his second assist of the season
-Toni Niccoli scored his third goal of the yearTweet

Jarom Jordan

Click here for complete PDF game notes.

PROVO, Utah (June 17, 2010) — BYU returns to the Stadium at South Field this weekend for the first time since May 22.  The Cougars are 1-4-2 and look to pick up some points at home against Southern California (3-4-0) on Friday and division leading, Orange County (6-0-3) on Saturday.  Saturday’s game will be broadcast nationally on BYU Television and online for free at www.byu.tv.

BYU hosts Southern California and Orange County this weekend. (BYU Photo)

“Southern California is a pretty good team,” said BYU head coach, Chris Watkins.  ”We scored early and really settled down (in the first game).  We’re in for a challenge.  Orange County seems to be able to score at will lately.  They’ll create a lot of problems for our defense.  Hopefully we’ll get a result.  We have them on the second night of a back-to-back.  We like our chances against anyone in that situation.”

Friday marks the end of the first half and Saturday the beginning of the the second half of the PDL season, with BYU in eighth place with five points.  Two of BYU’s three games with points came against this weekend’s opponents.  May 29 the Cougars garnered a 2-0 victory against Southern California and May 8 BYU tied Orange County 2-2.  The Cougars are looking for their first home victory of the season after dropping games to L.A. and Lancaster on May 21 and 22.

“It’s been a pretty frustrating start,” said sophomore defender, James Bindrup.  ”I think it will only go up from here.  We have a good team.  We should be winning a lot more than we have been.”

PREVIEWING THE OPPONENT-SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
BYU is looking to sweep the season series against Southern California for the first time after a 2-0 win on May 29.  The Seahorses are in fifth place in the Southwest division with nine points in seven games. SoCal started the season with 1-0 victories against Hollywood and Los Angeles before losing two in a row to Ventura County, then losing to Orange County, BYU, and defeating Lancaster.  Jacob Ravenscraft leads the Seahorses with two of the teams five goals this season.  BYU is 3-5-1 all-time against Southern California and have a three-game unbeaten streak on the line in the series (W,T,W).

PREVIEWING THE OPPONENT-ORANGE COUNTY
BYU seeks its first win against the undefeated Blue Star.  The Cougars are 0-7-3 all-time against them, having tied 2-2 in three of the last four meetings.  The Cougars pulled out a 2-2 tie despite giving up two goals in the first eight minutes on May 8.  O.C. striker, Amani Walker leads the PDL with 10 goals and 23 points this season.  Defender James Turner is tied for second in the league with four assists.   The Blue Star have scored at least three goals in the last five games.  They netted 7 goals against Fresno on May 14 and 6 against Lancaster on June 9. Orange County plays Ogden Friday before coming south to Provo for Saturday’s game.

LAST GAME: BYU TIES WITH THE PDL CHAMPS ON THE ROAD (JUNE 5)
After losing 3-0 to Hollywood on Thursday, June 3 BYU bounced back with a point on the road against the 2009 PDL Champion, Ventura County Fusion on Saturday, June 5.  ”We played really well,” said BYU head coach, Chris Watkins. “It’s been a season where we’ve been working hard. Tonight was no different. Things came together pretty well for us. To come so close on the road is a little heart breaking but I’m proud of our performance tonight.”

PREMIER DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE
After winning seven club national championships from 1993-2001, Brigham Young University joined the Premier Development League in 2003. The Cougars reached the elite eight in 2006 and 2007. The PDL is the top U23 men’s league in North America and features 68 teams within four conferences across the United States and Canada.

FOLLOW THE COUGARS ONLINE
Check out the Cougars on twitter at www.twitter.com/byusoccer or on the official website at www.byusoccer.com.

QUICK FACTS
Who: Southern California Seahorses vs. BYU Cougars
When: Friday, June 18 at 8 p.m. MT
Where: The Stadium at South Field in Provo, UT

Who: Orange County Blue Star vs. BYU Cougars
When: Saturday, June 19 at 8 p.m. MT
Where: The Stadium at South Field in Provo, UTBroadcast: Live on BYUtv and www.byu.tv (Jarom Jordan, Hugh Van Wagenen, Aaron Nilsson)Tweet

Junior midfielder, Josh Patino gives his weekly thoughts about the team on the blog known as “On the Pitch”.

After tying the 2009 PDL Champs, Ventura County, at their home we had a nice week long break. It’s an important week; it’s usually the only break we have from training. We had our first overnight Academy camps last week so for those who were in town helped out and got a good week of work in. I personally have so much fun at camps…soccer literally all day long. But really, is there anything better? We have a break from camps until the 5th of July and then we’ll go throughout the rest of the month running camps. July might be my favorite month of the year.

It’s been about 10 days since my surgery and I’m feeling pretty good, a little sore but for the most part I’m feeling better. That still means that I watch practice from the sideline and watch my teammates work for two straight hours. We have three of our freshmen that have joined us and all of them are looking good. Matt Kurtz, Junior Lartey, and Nate Stoven are all enjoying their first week of the practice with the team. Monday’s practice was intense and after having a week off the team came back together pretty well. Tactically speaking it wasn’t the team’s best, but that was to be expected. Tuesday’s practice focused on creating scoring opportunities from tight spaces and then finishing. A quick comment about our three goalkeepers, Bryan Black, Cory Cosgrave, and Nate Stoven, all three of these individuals is an outstanding goalie. I have no idea how they are able to get on the ground as fast as they do or fly across the goal and stop some of the shots they do. They are a huge part of our defense and I am always impressed with their athletic ability and courage to stand in front of that net. I think our team needed a practice like that; we have to be more creative individually and as a team in the offensive third. It is an absolute necessity that we’re taking advantage of every opportunity on net, we have to score goals. It really doesn’t matter how good we are defensively if we aren’t winning games.

We have the individual talent and depth on the roster to WIN games. I feel that we need to be playing with a little more confidence. We just tied the PDL champs at their home; we can play against the best despite what our current record says. I’m optimistic about the rest of our season. Things are looking up. We have two home games this weekend, and I think the team is anxious to play on South Field once again.

Last night we had our annual barbecue at Coach Watkins’ house. The food was good, the company great, but I think what I liked best is just being with the guys in a setting that doesn’t include a soccer field. Sometimes we get so caught up in being teammates on the field that we forget to be people and friends off the field. It’s interesting how relationships off the field can directly influence a team. Our team could use a few more gatherings that aren’t soccer related. Next week we’ll leave late Wednesday night on a long bus ride to Fresno, CA. Everyone on the team will travel and we’ll be spending a lot of time together as we play and then travel to Lancaster for our final out of state game, and then back home to P-town. That’s Provo, for those of you unfamiliar with P-town. It’ll be a good team bonding experience.Tweet

Junior forward, BJ Pugmire drops some of his writing skills on the blog with his weekly look at the different aspects of the BYU soccer program.

One benefit the BYU men’s soccer team has with regard to its incoming freshman is the opportunity for its recruits to join the team right after graduation in order to give them more experience, and often times help the Cougars win matches.

Matt Kurtz graduated June 10, exactly one week ago and has participated in three official practices with the BYU team.

“The pace of the game is a lot faster than it was in club,” Kurtz said. “The players have a much better touch on the ball and I have been very impressed with the caliber of soccer since I got here.”

That is quite the complement coming from Kurtz, who grew up playing for the Las Vegas Premier. According to gotsoccer.com L.V. Premier is ranked No. 2 in the nation and No. 1 in the western region. Kurtz club side won state cup in Nevada and is headed to the western regional finals, a tournament Kurtz will not be attending because of his commitment to BYU and the team. Also his mother did not think it would be a good idea.

“My mom told me she didn’t want me to miss a week of school,” Kurtz said. “We talked a lot about it and we decided that it was better to move on and come here to start school and join the team.”

Although Kurtz just graduated high school, he is one of the biggest and strongest players on the team. Kurtz is 6’2” and weighs in at 190 lbs. He used his height in high school as he played volleyball all four years along with basketball as a freshman and sophomore.

Although Kurtz played other sports growing up, he said he always knew he wanted to pursue soccer over other sports. After being recruited by colleges for soccer and volleyball, the center midfield player attended BYU camp where shortly after he committed to coach Watkins.

“One of the main reasons I wanted to come to BYU was because of the environment here,” he said. “Along with the high level of soccer, it’s also a great place to prepare to leave on a mission.”

Even though Kurtz is very excited to be here at BYU he does admit to feeling a little jealous as he watched his friends and teammates receive scholarships to play at division I schools across the country.

Players and coaches are impressed with the technical ability of Kurtz considering his size.

“He is a big strong central player,” said sophomore teammate Toni Niccoli. “He’s also very smooth with the ball and has great vision of the field.”

Kurtz is one of three freshmen that have joined the team since graduating high school this season. Junior Lartey (Mountain View HS in Orem, Utah) and Nate Stoven (Brighton HS in Sandy, UT) are the two other freshmen that have joined the team. It is often difficult for players to come right of high school and make a difference on the team, but Kurtz definitely has the potential to help our team improve.Tweet

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Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his weekly thoughts about the team on the blog known as “From the Box”.

The team has had a week off and we’re anxious to step back on the field and prepare for two big games this weekend. Whenever the guys take a week off from training, it takes time to ramp back up to the intensity and quality of play we had before the break. As a coaching staff, we’ll do our best to minimize that time by providing a very competitive environment at practice this week. We’ll also need to get our fitness level back, which means we’ll push the players very hard today and tomorrow.

In our last match, we tied the defending PDL champs on their home field. We had opportunities to win that game and I know everyone is hungry to now play at home in front of our crowd. Six points this weekend will put us right back in the hunt for a playoff spot.Tweet

Junior forward, BJ Pugmire drops some of his writing skills on the blog with his weekly look at the different aspects of the BYU soccer program.

One addition to the men’s soccer program this season is heart rate monitors. With the help of Britt Osborne, coach Watkins contacted a company in Sweden that sold the monitors, in order to find the best deal possible.

From my understanding, the idea came when Watkins traveled to England and attended a number of training sessions with the English Premier League side, Wolverhampton. The players and coaches at Wolverhampton utilized the monitors in order to better prepare the athletes for the rigors of a long season; as well as to help them improve conditioning and fitness.

The monitors allow players and coaches to see how often a player is reaching their maximum heart rate, and for how long. There are five zones in which players can be, zone 5 being a player’s maximum heart rate, zone four being 80% of the maximum heart rate etc. When a player is in a certain zone for over one minute he is given a certain number of points, depending on the effort put forth. If a player is in a higher zone, then he is given a higher point value. This information tells coaches and players how hard they are pushing themselves in practice, and how much more a player can give in order to improve.

One of the best aspects of the heart monitors is that they are individual. Each player can look at the computer screen after practice and see how many points they earned that day, in essence showing them what kind of effort they put forward. As for BYU, the coaching staff will generally give the players a common goal for any given day. Generally if we play on Friday then at Tuesday’s practice the coaches will set the goal of 300, which is the average point value of the team after playing a match. Fortunately they only require 11 players to have reached the point value of the day and not all 25 of us. Then as the week progresses the coaches will lower the point value in preparation for our games, ensuring they haven’t over worked the players before a match. Wednesday is usually around 225 and Thursday around 175.

In preparation for the World Cup, the US men’s national team is also using the same heart rate monitors in order to prepare. One of the benefits the national team has, is time and means to create specific work out plans for each player, becoming even more individualized in their approach.

At BYU we are extremely blessed to have and use these heart rate monitors in order to become a better team and program. Many professional teams have yet to discover the benefit these heart rate monitors can be. I am certain in the near future all teams in almost every sport will have and use these monitors to help improve their athletes.Tweet

Jeffry Eynon of BYU’s campus newspaper, The Daily Universe, published this article on BYU’s technological fitness advantage.

High-tech monitors give Cougars advantage

BYU men’s soccer team recently purchased high-tech heart rate monitors that give them an upper hand on the competition.

Head coach Chris Watkins went through some coaching developments in England in January where he visited the Premier League team, the Wolverhampton Wanderers. Watkins observed that all the teams in Europe used these heart rate monitors to measure the fitness of their players.

“In Europe, everyone from Manchester United to FC Barcelona, every professional team uses the exact same system we use,” Watkins said.

While watching Wolverhampton, Watkins decided the heart rate monitors would be a great way for him to monitor his team’s fitness.

“They were nice enough to really take me through for a couple days and show me everything that they were doing, and I got a good close look at how they use this system and felt like it was something we needed to do,” Watkins said.

The heart rate monitor is a belt each player wears around his chest that has a built-in computer chip and receiver that send data to a nearby laptop computer.  The data is then analyzed to see if the players are at their maximum heart rate.

“It basically allows us to tailor their fitness program more to each individual,” athletic trainer Deniece Oates said. “I feel like our fitness level is something that has been an advantage for us.”

The heart rate monitors transmit up to 985 feet away.  The data gathered allows the athletic trainer to monitor players’ exertion in practice and to create reports comparing each player.

“It’s a very unique thing, they’re quite expensive,” defender Cameron Lamb said. “We’re fortunate to have it to be able to use the technology today, to use every advantage that we can in order to increase our performance on the field.”

A player receives points for being at certain percentages of their maximum heart rate.  The higher the percentage of the maximum heart rate, the more points they receive.

Each practice, the players set goals for the number of points they want to attain.  The team also sets a goal as a whole. Each goal they set is dependant on when they will play their next game and how much recovery time will be allotted.

“It’s a great motivational tool for our players to really recognize that they’re being watched, that their energy and effort is being tracked and watched in real time,” Watkins said. “If they want to take a day off and be a little lazy, we’re going to know about it.”

The men’s soccer team is the only athletic team at BYU that uses this high-tech piece of equipment. The team purchased the heart rate monitors and software for $10,000 from the Swedish company Activio. The Cougars are one of three teams in the United States that use the Activio technology.

“We’ve been in better shape than every opponent we’ve seen,” Watkins said. “We feel like this year we have even more of an advantage.”Tweet

Junior midfielder, Josh Patino gives his weekly thoughts about the team on the blog known as “On the Pitch”.

Mid-morning on Monday I underwent surgery for my sports hernia…I’m a bit sore two days later. This week is our week off for the summer. It comes at a good time while we have several players trying to recover from nagging injuries or just a little banged up from the past two weekend trips to California. This week is the first week of overnight camps so many of the players are involved with that this week. The team has been great and I’ve received phone calls, emails, and had visits from my teammates to make sure I’m doing well. I asked about the game against Ventura and the responses are optimistic. It does something for our team to tie the best team in the league in their home. After talking with Toni Niccoli, he said, “We just need to be consistent.” I think what he’s alluding to is the fact that we are a good team, we can tie the U21 Mexican National Team at home and the best team in the league at their home and somehow we need to find that rhythm in every game, not only in the big games.

This is an important time in our season. We’ve almost played half of all our games and we have a single win, 4 losses, and 2 ties. Now the teams we’ve lost to have been good teams but, in my opinion, we shouldn’t have lost at home. I look at our roster and we definitely have the manpower and depth to be the better team in almost every game. We get our opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, we possess decently well and we’re probably the “most-fit” team in the league. I’m excited to have this week off and have the guys get a little break from all the traveling and spend some time at home recovering. The second half of our season is going to be exciting! We have a few games next week at home and it’ll be nice to play in OUR stadium, with OUR fans, at OUR home. Here come the cougars!

Just a recap: The surgery was quick and went extremely well. I’m in bed for most of this week and have a follow up with the doc next Friday. I hope to be back on the field asap! Deneice Oates, the most amazing trainer ever, said she’ll have me working back into things slowly…I can’t even wait! I can’t believe I haven’t played soccer in this long. I’m glad that it’s just recovery now.Tweet