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BYU's Ellie Walbruch (facing camera) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against No. 1 UCLA in a women's college soccer match at South Field on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Ellie Walbruch (in black) celebrates scoring a goal in a women's college soccer match against No. 1 UCLA at South Field on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Ellie Boren (11) controls the ball during a women's college soccer match against No. 1 UCLA at South Field on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Rachel McCarthy (33) shows emotion after scoring a goal in a women's college soccer match against No. 1 UCLA at South Field on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Sierra Pennock celebrates with fans after the Cougars upset No. 1 UCLA 3-1 in a women's college soccer match at South Field on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU students knock over a barrier while celebrating a goal by Erin Bailey is a 3-1 upset of No. 1 UCLA at South Field on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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A sellout crowd of 5,209 fans filled South Field for a matchup between No. 7 BYU and No. 1 UCLA in women's college soccer on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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The BYU women's soccer team celebrates a 3-1 upset of top-ranked UCLA in a women's college soccer match at South Field on Thursday, August 31, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU’s Ellie Walbruch entered Thursday’s epic matchup against top-ranked, defending national champion UCLA just past the midway point of the first half and took all of 63 seconds to reintroduce herself to her former teammates.

Walbruch’s stunning goal in the 24th minute gave the seventh-ranked Cougars a lead they would never relinquish, eventually finishing out a 3-1 upset in front of 5,209 fans at South Field.

It was the first time in seven tries that BYU has earned a victory against a top-ranked team.

“It means a lot,” said Walbruch, who earned a championship ring with the Bruins in 2022 before opting to transfer back home (she’s from Highland) last January. “I think it really shows that we are one of the best teams in the country and we just beat the best team in the country. It just shows we can compete with anyone. We put a lot of hard work into this game. It’s awesome.”

All three BYU goals came from substitutes: Walbruch, Rachel McCarthy and Erin Bailey.

“We got tremendous minutes from our bench tonight,” Cougar coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We needed them. We lost a little momentum and they brought us right back into it. We had to rely on them in the second half and so it was a really big team effort.”

The two teams played pretty even over the first 25 minutes of the match before Walbruch subbed in and changed the momentum in a hurry.

Walbruch’s younger sister, Mallory, gave a stirring rendition of the national anthem before the game but Ellie brought the rockets (red glare) and bombs (bursting in air).

In other words, the offensive fireworks.

Kendall Peterson sent a long service in front of the Bruins 18-yard line and Ellie Walbruch battled with two defenders for possession of the ball. UCLA goalkeeper Neeku Purcell raced off her line to make a play but Walbruch chipped the ball over her and ran away to celebrate before her shot even reached the back of the net.

“The energy in the game was super high,” Walbruch said. “Jen (Rockwood) told me to just keep to the back line. I got the ball over the top pressed and there I was. I already knew it was going in and I celebrated with the crowd, which was awesome.”

Walbruch had a hand in BYU’s second goal, which came in the 37th minute. She laid a pass off to McCarthy, who blasted a shot from 25 yards past the keeper for a 2-0 Cougar advantage.

“No extra motivation was needed for Ellie or any of the girls,” Rockwood said. “I’m super happy for Ellie. We’re happy to have her. She’s going to score a lot of goals for us in her career.”

BYU took the 2-0 lead at the half, the first time the Bruins trailed 2-0 at the break since the 2016 season in a 4-3 loss to Florida.

UCLA, annually one of the most talented goal scoring teams in the country, put a tremendous amount of offensive pace on the Cougars in the second half. The Bruins cut the deficit in half in the 54th minute, taking advantage of a BYU giveaway in the defensive third. Reilyn Turner slid into a shot that just evaded Cougar goalkeeper Savanna Mason to make the score 2-1.

UCLA continued to press but the Cougar defense stood tall.

“We knew we had to try and keep the ball,” Rockwood said. “You want to keep the ball away from a dangerous team and I thought our backline was phenomenal tonight. They were under a ton of pressure. Hopefully we had to make them (UCLA) run defensively and play more defense than they’re used to.”

BYU put the game away in the 78th minute when Olivia Wade-Katoa slotted a pass into the box to a wide-open Bailey, who smashed her shot into the net for a 3-1 advantage that would hold up.

With 18 seconds remaining, UCLA was called offsides and the home crowd reached a deafening crescendo as they counted down to zero for the historic victory.

“It’s obviously a huge win for us against an outstanding UCLA team that’s very dangerous and made us nervous till the very end,” Rockwood said. “What a great atmosphere for women’s college soccer tonight. We love Cougar Nation showing up and girls came out well. Our mantra is to ‘score first, score early, score again’ and we were able to do that. This is a huge, huge win, a career win for all the seniors. But we also know that it is just a game that’s preparing us for where we want to be at the end of the season and and it should build us some confidence knowing that we can go out there and compete against some of the best teams and best players in the country.”

UCLA outshot BYU 20-15 but committed 11 fouls to the Cougars’ five.

BYU (5-0-0) will make a short trip to Orem on Saturday to take on Utah Valley. The Bruins (3-1-0) will host Long Beach State next Thursday.