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BYU Stuns No. 3 Portland, 2-1 Willardson-Viernes nets game winning goal.
Aug. 30, 2002
PROVO, Utah - The BYU women's soccer team made history Friday night, upsetting third ranked Portland 2-1 in front of 1,570 vocal Cougar fans. Portland's number three ranking marks the highest ranked opponent BYU has defeated in school history. The Cougars previous best was a 3-2 win over No. 6 Stanford Oct. 5, 1998. "Our players started preparing for this game last summer, and that allowed us to pull off the biggest win in the school's history," said BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood. In the 80th minute, after leading 1-0 for virtually the entire game, the Cougars surrendered a goal to the Pilots when Portland midfielder Erin Misaki's shot deflected off Amanda Gott's out-stretched hands into the right corner of the net.
BYU answered seven minutes later, however, as BYU senior Jeni Willardson-Viernes took a pass from freshman forward Jaime Rendich and hooked a pin-point shot into the right corner of the net to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead and the win.
"I was thinking, 'Jaime, just drop it to me,' then I was praying it would go in, and it did," Viernes said. "It's a huge win for us, we worked so hard this summer knowing this was our first game." Viernes also made the first goal of the game on an alert play in the fourth minute. Pilots keeper Cristin Shea attempted to switch the field but her kick was blocked by Viernes, who then gathered in the rebound and scored the first goal of the Cougars' season. For the game, Viernes led all players with seven shots on goal. "Jeni Viernes stepped up with two big goals for us," Rockwood said. "We needed our senior leadership and she really stepped up for us." The Pilots, playing without All-American Christine Sinclair, were kept in wraps in the first half by BYU's aggressive and fleet-footed defenders. Sinclair is playing for Canada in the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship. "Our back five players, including Aleisha Cramer-Rose, did an outstanding job of slowing down their attack," Rockwood said. BYU's dominating defense allowed the offense to spend much of its time on the attack, keeping the Pilots busy with penetrating drives and several near misses. The Cougars continued to attack early in the second half to keep Portland reeling. In the 50th minute, senior Kelly Hunsberger threaded a pass to forward Lydia Ojuka whose shot just missed left of the goal. Sophomore Kimmie Davis took a cross from Viernes in the 65th minute right in front of Portland goal, only to have it deflected out of bounds at the last moment by Portland. Another scoring opportunity came for the Cougars in the 78th minute when Viernes broke away from the Portland defense only to have her shot blocked by Portland keeper Shea. Portland continued to battle throughout the night, making several deep runs late in the second half. The Pilots' freshman defender Lindsey Huie took five shots on the night and proved to be the biggest challenge for the Cougars' defense. For the night, BYU took 15 shots while Portland took 13. "I was a little worried," Viernes said. "The momentum started to shift a little bit but our defense continued to play well." The Cougars travel to Michigan to play the Wolverines on Labor Day at 1 pm. Michigan beat the University of Florida 2-0 Friday. BYU's next home games are next Friday and Saturday, Sept. 6 and 7, respectively. Kentucky comes to South Field on Friday, while Northwestern will play in Provo on Saturday. |
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