Courtesy BYU Photo

It had been 18 days since the BYU women’s soccer team scored a goal.

Through a quirk in the schedule, the Cougars had only played one game since Sept. 17. BYU beat Utah 2-1 on a last-minute goal, followed by a bye week and then a scoreless tie at Saint Mary’s four days ago.

Jennifer Rockwood’s crew needed a goal like Cougar fans football need all-black gear delivered in time for Saturday’s game in Las Vegas against Notre Dame.

The offensive flood gates opened against San Francisco on Wednesday as BYU routed the Dons 6-0 at South Field, breaking out of a scoring slump in a big way with furious attack that gave the visitors little chance to withstand it.

“It felt really good,” Rockwood said in her post-game interview with BYU Radio. “We came out really strong and that’s something we’ve lacked here and there. There have been other games where we’ve come out strong but then we’ve kind of faded. The girls kept after it tonight. We’ve been through some ups and downs. We’ve played some really good soccer but haven’t been able to play a full 90, a complete game. We certainly saw that tonight.”

The Cougars finally broke into the scoring column in the 31st minute of the first half, with Brecken Mozingo threading a seeing-eye pass to Allie Fryer just outside the 18. Fryer’s shot from the right side went high and inside the post for a 1-0 BYU lead.

The second goal came quickly, just five minutes later. Mozingo dribbled down the middle, eluded a pair of USF defenders and launched a left-footed smash past the USF goalkeeper for a 2-0 advantage.

BYU took that 2-0 lead into the halftime break, having dominated the first 45 minutes with a 17-3 shots differential and a 6-1 lead in corner kicks.

It didn’t take long for BYU to notch another couple of goals in the second half. Ellie Maughan tallied a shot just under the crossbar in the 49th minute and it was 3-0. Just a few moment later, Maughan laid off a ball to a charging Jamie Shepherd, who blasted a shot to the net to make the score 4-0.

Savanna Mason made a great save on a punch away during a breakaway from San Francisco, which the Cougars turned into a counter attack on the other end. Olivia Wade scored from straight on for a 5-0 lead in the 58th minute.

Erin Bailey, the Cougars sixth different goal scorer, topped off the offensive explosion in the 8rd minute by outracing the defense and lifting a shot over the goalkeeper into the net.

The BYU dominance was reflected in the final statistics, with a 35-7 advantage in shots, a 15-2 lead in shots on goal and a 13-1 mark in corner kicks.

The six goals was a season high for BYU, besting a 5-0 victory against Cal State-Northridge on September 3.

“We had a great effort from our bench,” Rockwood said. “We went back and looked at when we were playing our best soccer and it was in the first four or five games of the season. So we went back to that lineup. We rely so much on our back line to start our attack and create the rhythm of our tempo and possession. They really kept the ball moving.”

The Cougars came into the night leading the NCAA in home attendance (3,147). The final fan count on Wednesday at South Field was 2,988.

“What a crowed for a Wednesday night,” Rockwood said. “The support we get here is phenomenal. It gives our players a lot of energy. The girls take a lot of pride in playing in front of Cougar Nation.”

BYU (1-0-1 WCC, 5-4-2 overall) will be at Pacific at 8 p.m. MT on Saturday. The match will be carried on BYURadio.org/BYU Radio app/BYU Radio 107.9 FM.

San Francisco (0-2-0, 5-4-3) will be at Santa Clara on Saturday. The Dons have lost three straight matches by a combined score of 14-0.

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