Jarom Jordan

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PROVO, Utah (May 17, 2011) — The first home game of the Premier Development League season for the BYU Cougars (5-1-1) is this Friday, May 20 at 8 p.m. MT at the Stadium at South Field versus the Fresno Fuego (2-0-2). The game will be televised live on BYUtv and online at www.byutv.org/live.

“It’s going to be fun to play in front of a home crowd,” said assistant coach, Chad Sackett. “The opportunity to play Fresno again is big time. They have a great organization. They possess the ball well. They’ve got some guys up top who can hold the ball pretty well. We need to use our width to our advantage because of our wide field.”

It is the second time BYU will play Fresno in nine days as the Cougars opened the PDL season at Fresno on Thursday, May 12, losing 2-0. The Fuego have won three in a row against BYU and own the series history (6-3) dating back to 2003. The Fuego are led by Milton Blanco and Andrew Campbell who lead the team with two goals each.

“This week we’re looking to continue what we did last time,” said BYU senior goalkeeper, Cory Cosgrave. “We started knocking the ball around pretty well. We gave up the two goals when we hit a wall in the 70th minute. We want to con- tinue to improve at the end of the match again.”

UP NEXT
BYU will play its only midweek game of the season against the Ogden Outlaws on Tuesday, May 24 at 8 p.m. MT. The game will be live on BYUtv and online at www.byutv.org/live with Robbie Bullough doing play-by-play and former Cougar, Hugh Van Wagenen doing color commentary.

COUGAR QUICK HITS
-BYU welcomes back 10 returned missionaries from two year LDS missions across the globe for the 2011 season who were on the team prior to their missions in 2008. Those include Colby Bauer (Oregon), Will Burton (Mexico), Easton Folster (Argentina), Scott Heaton (Japan), Jonathan Junca (Chile), Garrett Losee (Puerto Rico), Mike Moreno (San Diego), Derek Taylor (New Jersey), McKay Corbett (Canada), and Jace Green.
-Five starters return to the team including BJ Pugmire, Tyler Christiansen, Toni Niccoli, Doug Clark, and James Bindrup.
-Seven of BYU’s eight home games will be televised live nationally on BYUtv and online at www.byutv.org/live
-The Cougars went 3-0 in the fall season with victories against Utah State, Weber State, and Utah Valley. In the spring non-conference season the Cougars beat UNLV on the road, Utah Valley at home, and defeated three Puerto Rico professional clubs (Mayaguez, Fenix, and Bayamon) to go 5-0.
-BYU competes in the top U23 semi-professional soccer league in the nation (Premier Development League). BYU players are not paid and do not have scholarships.

GAME #8 FAST FACTS
Fresno Fuego (2-0-2) vs. BYU Cougars (5-1-1)
Friday, May 20, 2011 at 8 p.m. MT
Stadium at South Field in Provo, UT

Coaches
Fresno-Scott Alcorn (34-20-14, 5th Season)
BYU-Chris Watkins (236-70-20, 17th Season)

TV
BYUtv (Jarom Jordan, play-by-play; Hugh Van Wagenen, color commentator; Lakia Holmes, sideline)

FRESNO FUEGO PROFILE
Record: 2-0-2, 8 points (2nd in PDL Southwest)
2010 Record: 8-4-4, 28 points (4th in PDL Southwest)
Highlights:
-Defeated BYU 2-0 on Thursday, May 12 in Chukchansi Park in Fresno, CA
-Led by Milton Blanco and Andrew Campbell who have two goals each
-Pitched three straight shutouts to start the season before giving up two goals to Ogden in a 4-2 win last Saturday
-Fresno has won three in a row against BYU and leads the series 6-3 with a +9 (20-11) goal differential.

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