PROVO, Utah – Goals from Michele Vasconcelos, Nadia Gomes, and Bizzy Phillips Bowen launched the BYU women’s soccer team to a 3-0 victory over the Portland Pilots on Saturday evening at South Field.
“I loved the way we came out tonight,” BYU head soccer coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We talked about playing with more emotion—not just energy, but true emotion. We were just really dominant this evening and I’m really pleased with the way we played.”
A quick goal in the opening minutes of the game set a precedent for the remainder of the game. From deep in the backfield in the sixth minute of the game, defender Danika Bowman hit a long ball up to forward Michele Vasconcelos. She ran the ball inside the six and placed it in the upper left hand corner of the goal for the first score of the game. It was Vasoncelos’ ninth goal of the season and 26th in her career.
BYU held its 1-0 lead heading into the half.
The Cougars opened fire on the Pilots in the early minutes of the second half with three consecutive shots. In the 58th minute, BYU got on the board again as Alyssa Jefferson passed the ball to Gomes in Portland territory. Gomes created space at the top of the 18-yard box, and blasted the ball in the upper left hand corner of the goal. For Gomes, it was her fifth goal of the year.
The pressure was put on BYU goalkeeper Hannah Clark in the 67th minute when teammate Danika Bowman committed a foul in the box and a penalty kick was granted. Portland’s Allison Wetherington took the kick, aiming towards the left side of the goal. Clark read the shot and she dove to knock the ball to the left of the goal, preventing the Pilots from scoring.
In the 77th minute, Vasconcelos passed the ball to Bowen a few yards outside of the 18-yard box. Bowen rifled a shot, placing it in the upper right-hand corner of the net, for her second goal of the season.
The net was lefty empty for Portland as the Cougars took the 3-0 shutout. A total of 21 shots were taken by BYU, 15 of which were in the second half.
The Cougars will travel next to take on San Diego on Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. PDT. Audio of that game can be heard live on the Cougar IMG Sports Network, BYU Radio (Sirius XM 143) and ESPN 960 AM.