BYU Assistant Coach, Clay Christenson gives his thoughts about the team “From the Box”.

Saturday night was great, a well deserved three points for the men in blue. What I was most impressed with was our finishing, we finally put balls in the back of the net. In fact, Doug Clark’s goal was one of the finest I’ve ever personally witnessed. Doug has really done a nice job for us a left back. He’s a dynamic weapon going forward, while working very hard defensively to make sure we don’t give anything up.

It’s time to move forward, really move forward and put a winning streak together. With a week of preparation before our next match, we have plenty of time to improve as a team while riding the confidence we gained on Saturday night. A ‘good’ problem we currently have is the number of players earning more minutes and proving they deserve to be on the field. Unfortunately, only 11 can be rewarded with a start and just a handful more will enter the match so I’m fully anticipating the most competive week of practice we’ve had all year. Back to work on Tuesday, Go Cougs!Tweet

Doug Clark scored a memorable goal on Saturday. (Daily Universe)

PROVO, Utah (June 25, 2011) — In BYU’s breakout game of the season the Cougars played a first half to remember en route to a 3-1 win Saturday night against the Los Angeles Legends. It was the first home win and most goals in a game this season.

“It was refreshing,” said defender, Doug Clark. “We’ve been looking for it. It’s about time.”

BYU attacked early and often resulting in a goal in the eight minute. James Bindrup fed Winston Sorhaitz a through ball on the right side of the penalty area that Sorhaitz buried far post to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. It was his second goal as a Cougar in his second game as a starter.

Five minutes later (13th) Jace Green gathered a Sorhaitz pass in the box that was deflected, then he put the rebound in the back of the net for his first career PDL goal as a Cougar to give BYU a 2-0 lead.

“It was exciting,” said Green. “It wasn’t the prettiest goal but whatever. I got the fortunate bounce.”

The goal of the nigh and season came in the 42nd minute when a BYU corner kick was way long and behind the box. Doug Clark let the ball bounce once hard at him then ripped a rocket at goal with his left foot that careened off the right post and in.

“I was just waiting on the corner of the 18,” said Clark. “I got a deflection off the corner kick. I saw it bouncing and I just thought ‘hit it on the goal. Hit is far post.’ So I did.”

At the end of the half BYU’s Tyler Christiansen was called for a foul in the penalty area in stoppage time resulting in a Victor Sanchez penalty kick. BYU goalkeeper, Cory Cosgrave dove to his left and made the PK save without a rebound to end the half.

In the 55th minute the Legends got on the board with a rebound shot by substitution, Victor Florez to make it 3-1. BYU would hold on for the victory.

BYU will now prepare for the Ogden Outlaws next Saturday, July 2.

“There’s no bad team in the league,” said Clark. “It’s always going to be tough. Soccer is so much more when you are scoring goals.”

Follow the Cougars on byusoccer.com and twitter (@byusoccer).

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

Tough weekend. The good news is we dominated our opponents, we just couldn’t find the back of the net. To say that we’re going to be hungry for a win this weekend is an understatement. Any time you get 40 shots off in 2 games without a goal, you’re beyond anxious for the next game to start so you can have a better result. That’s where we’re at now, nowhere to go but up, and I’m confident the guys are up to the challenge.

With only 2 days to train before we hit the road, we’ll have to be efficient and pick out the most important things to work on. Obviously finishing will be at the top of our list, but we’ll also need to instill a renewed confidence in all the players. I’m very excited for the uphill climb. I think the best way to find out how much character a team has is to see how they react when their backs are against the wall. The one thing I guarantee about this team is that we’ll fight until the very last minute of the very last game of the season.

Go Cougs!Tweet

Jarom Jordan
jarom.jordan@byu.edu

PROVO, Utah (May 21, 2010) — The Los Angeles Legends (2-1-2) defeated Brigham Young University (0-1-1), 2-0 Friday night in the Cougars first Premier Development League home game.  BYU was shutout for the first time since July 11, 2009 versus Orange County.

“I think we won the ball pretty well, playing into our game plan, except for those final balls,” said BYU head coach, Chris Watkins.   “Tomorrow’s game becomes even more important to get three points.  It’s so early that it’s not necessarily going to be a big problem.  We play decently on the road.  If we go 0-2 on the weekend, we will have problems.”

BYU head coach, Chris Watkins. (BYU Photo)

The scoring started when L.A. midfielder, Jesus Ochoa ripped a right footed blast into the lower right corner of the net for the first goal in the 12th minute.  That was followed by a Daniel Martinez finish in the 45th minute to put the Legends up 2-0.  BYU outshot the Legends 16-13 and had five more corners (8-3).  BYU’s Brady Marshall and Blake Tillotson both had breakaways in the first half but came up short.  Referee Brad Jensen made four bookings on the night including a yellow to BYU’s Brent Jensen and a pair to Raul Palomares and Erick Robert.  Robert received a red in the 80th minute.

“We came ready to play but we didn’t have the focus to put the ball away,” said sophomore forward, Blake Tillotson.  “We definitively need to improve on that.”

“Our guys didn’t play as excited (as the Mexico game),” said Watkins.  “You’ve got to play every game like it’s a World Cup final or else we would have been prepared for those breakaways.”

BYU will face the Lancaster Rattlers tomorrow at 8 p.m. MT.  BYUtv will broadcast the game live on television and online at www.byu.tv.

Scoring Summary:
LA  1-0  12′  Jesus Ochoa (Daniel Martinez)
LA  2-0  45′  Daniel Martinez (Eders Roldan)Tweet