BYU women’s soccer fans have a message for you.

“We got the ball!”

Soccer fans in general are known for chants and singing during matches, and while watching the No. 4 seeded Cougars completely dominate the run of play from start to finish in a 6-0 NCAA first round victory over New Mexico on Saturday at South Field, BYU fans started singing “We got the ball” over and over again.

Then it became, “We won the game!” as the Cougars advanced to next week’s second round, outshooting the Lobos a whopping 40-4, getting 12 shots on goal to UNM’s one and owning corner kicks 13-1.

Indeed, BYU “got the ball” and refused to share it.

“We just kept grinding,” Cougar coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “Sometimes you don’t score and people panic. We didn’t panic. We kept our composure and we really played a great 90 minutes, a full 90.”

New Mexico’s strategy of staying back on defense worked for much of the first half, despite BYU holding possession almost 90 percent of the time. The Cougars finally broke through in the 36th minute after Lobos goalkeeper Emily Johnson came way off her line and misplayed the ball. Cameron Tucker was the beneficiary and slotted a shot into the unprotected goal for a 1-0 BYU lead and that was the score at halftime.

“You definitely get a feeling out on the field but I think it all depends on that first one and making sure we get it in” BYU’s Brecken Mozingo said. “After that, our coaches always say score first, score early and score again. That’s our motto.”

Mozingo put her boot to work and scored two goals within two minutes of each other from virtually the same spot on the pitch in the 53rd and 55th minute. She drilled the ball past Johnson with two swings of her powerful left leg for a 3-0 BYU lead.

“We know that the game of soccer is kind of a game of chance and anything can happen,” Mozingo said. “So we all just came out and decided that this half we needed to go off on offense.”

BYU scored three more times – one goal each for Jamie Shepherd, what was ruled an own goal after a cross from Kendall Peterson and an Ellie Maughan strike – to complete the rout.

“This is a huge win,” Rockwood said. “The girls have worked really hard all year. We’ve gone through a lot and you know, there are always some surprises come tournament time. There were a lot of surprises in games before our game. So we just wanted to remain focused and just keep playing as we have been playing with a lot of discipline and composure.”

BYU (14-4-1) continues on in the Women’s College Cup and will play a second-round match against Alabama (11-9-1), a 1-0 upset winner at Clemson on Friday. The match will be played in Charlottesville, Virginia, with date and time to be determined.

A victory would likely match up the Cougars against host Virginia, a No. 1 seed and the same team that eliminated BYU in last spring’s NCAA Tournament.

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