Kip Critchlow led the Cougars to victory, Friday night. (Daily Universe)

PROVO, Utah (Sept. 24, 2010) — The BYU men’s soccer team dominated Utah State to the tune of 3-1 on Friday night at South Field in Provo.  The Cougars outshot the Aggies, 21-3 and controlled possession the entire game.

“Our starters were brilliant,” said BYU head coach, Chris Watkins.  “They did a great job of keeping the ball on every occasion and I’m not sure Utah State crossed the midfield stripe but one time while our starters were out on the field.”

BYU scored three minutes into the game with a Tyler Christiansen goal, curled into the far post from a Doug Clark pass out of the midfield.  The Cougars continued holding the ball all of the first half, finishing another goal in the 42nd minute with a laser inside the near post from Janzten Romney, assisted by BJ Pugmire.  The “Y” added a third goal in the 67th minute from Kip Critchlow who found himself wide open on the back post after a beautiful cross from sophomore, Toni Niccoli.  Utah State got on the board with a score in the 85th minute on a header from a set piece.

Chris Watkins was pleased with BYU’s play as well as the attitude of a team, rebounding from a tough PDL summer season.

“The team looked really excited,” he said.  “You could feel the rhythm was there.  The movement was there.  I think we’re excited to be out there to play.”  “We were pinging the ball really well.  We probably connected 10-12 passes on every possession.”

Sophomore midfielder, Kip Critchlow led BYU in assists as a freshman and continued his great possession play Friday night.

“Kip was the man of the match,” said Watkins continued.  “He controlled everything.  He had the ball the whole game and they couldn’t do anything about it.”

BYU next game is Friday, October 8 at 7 p.m. against Weber State.  The alumni game will be played at 4 p.m. the same day.

“I took a little bit from this than I normally would,” said Watkins.  “I really enjoyed watching the team.  They played with great rhythm.”

Starters
F-Janzten Romney, Blake Tillotson
M-Toni Niccoli, Doug Clark, Kip Critchlow, BJ Pugmire
D-Junior Lartey, James Bindrup, Tyler Christiansen, Ethan Meyer
GK-Cory Cosgrave

Scoring Summary
Min.  Goal                               Assist
3′      Tyler Christiansen          Doug Clark
42′    Janzten Romney            BJ Pugmire
67′    Kip Critchlow                  Toni NiccoliTweet

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.

In this weeks profile story, we will highlight a player who is playing in his first year with the Cougars, but has already had a very positive influence on the team. One interesting fact that many might not know about Kip Critchlow, is that he is the grandson of Dale Critchlow who plays the part of the old man in Napolean Dynamite that shoots the cow.

Kip is another Utah native on the team that was discovered by coach Chad Sackett while playing with the men’s league team Olympique Montreux out of Salt Lake.  He is the third of four children in his family and claims that he was a soccer player from the start.

“I don’t really remember ever playing other sports as a kid,” Critchlow said. “My oldest brother played soccer and I remember starting to play with him in the backyard, and then later on the playground and I just stuck with it.”

Growing up Critchlow played with the club team the Nighthawks who were the Utah state champs in 2004. In his junior season at Hillcrest High Kip was an honorable mention, all-state player.

Within the ranks of the team Kip is known as the man who can run forever and also one who can spit rhymes.

In preseason training the joke on the team and the sad reality for us, was that Kip was in a league of his own. We were separated into different groups based on our physical fitness and Kip literally had a group created just for him that no one else was worthy of.

In response to the question of how he became so fit, Kip said, “It’s all natural I guess, I have a lot of dreams where I run away from people so that might be it.”

As far as spitting rhymes (battling people with words and a beat) is concerned, I can remember sitting next to Kip on the bus home from Las Vegas and listening to him pick apart different players who thought they could battle him. My personal nickname for Kip is Deejay Critchflow.

“Kip has some pretty mad skills,” said freshman teammate Matt Rider jokingly. “But I’m not scared to battle him anytime any place.”

Kip said he enjoyed listening to rap growing up and then when his family bought their first Mac he learned to use garage band and started creating his own beats which helped him to progress.

As for now Kip is excited to finish off the season well and hopes to serve a mission in the near future. He has no idea what he wants to study, but hopes to learn Spanish on his mission and return and continue his studies. He said his favorite player is Zidane and loves the style of play Zidane had. Finally, Kip is rooting for the Netherlands Sunday in the World Cup Final!Tweet

Dustin Graham just returned from a mission and will train with the team for the season. He played in 2007 out of Mountain View high school in Orem. He is Curtis’ younger brother.

Tweet

Jarom Jordan
jarom.jordan@byu.edu

Toni Niccoli – Forward (Fr.)

Brady Marshall – Forward (Jr.)

Kip Critchlow – Midfielder (Fr.)

PROVO, Utah (April 9, 2010) — After a frantic, all out offensive assault, BYU scored the game winning goal in double overtime to beat the Dixie Red Storm, 2-1 in Provo on Friday night. KC Whitworth played Brady Marshall the ball wide who then scored the game winning goal in the 107th minute, his second goal of the spring exhibition season.

“It feels great,” said junior forward, Brady Marshall. “KC (Whitworth) played me the ball and I turned and let it run … and put it in the far post. It was all KC. I just finished it off.”

Toni Niccoli, assisted by BJ Pugmire, got BYU on the board in the 68th minute with his first goal since the 2007 PDL season before his mission. Dixie tied the score in the 78th minute with a penalty kick. The Cougars relentlessly attacked Dixie with shot after shot only to play 17 minutes of the possible 20 in overtime to win with Marshall’s golden goal.

“I think we’re doing well,” said freshman forward, Toni Niccoli. “We’ve made huge steps in the two games this week. We’re starting to create a lot more opportunities now. It’s just putting them in.”

The Cougars outshot the Red Storm, 21-7 and made five saves on the night.

“I loved it,” said freshman, Kip Critchlow. “The fans were really loud and we got the win so it was great.”

BYU’s next game is April 24 at 6 p.m. on Haws Field in Provo. Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for students and children.

Chris Watkins rallies his team after the first overtime to victory against Dixie.