Emojong and Willey — who are from nearby Davis and Newcastle respectively — netted their first collegiate goals in front of a strong contingent of Wolverine supporters on the road in Sacramento. Omar Yehya — a California native himself, albeit from the southern half of the state in Redlands — also scored to ice the game in the closing stages of the match.

Gilles Aurelien, Naime Odeh, and Souley Diouf each picked up assists in their first game as Wolverines. Diouf assisted on both of the second half goals.

The win extends Utah Valley’s impressive unbeaten run in regular season openers to 11 games — all 11 season openers in program history. The Wolverines have 10 wins and one draw all-time in regular season openers, with the lone draw coming on the road at Canisius in 2021.

Sacramento State took an early lead in the fourth minute on a counterattack that knifed its way through the Wolverine defense. The goal would be the lone shot for the Hornets in the first half, and would be the only shot for Sac State until the 48th minute.

Utah Valley leveled the scoring in the 35th minute on a scintillating strike by Emojong. After Gilles Aurelien’s shot was blocked and the referee waved off appeals for a hand ball, Emojong sent a left-footed curler into the top-right corner of the net from about 25 yards out.

The Wolverines dominated the offensive pressure in the first half, but had just the one goal to show for it. Utah Valley outshot the Hornets 9-1 in the first half and 15-4 overall.

After a stalemate for much of the second half, Utah Valley broke through in the 80th minute on Willey’s goal. Odeh sent a cross into the penalty area that clipped off of Diouf’s head to the back post, where Willey was able to tap it in from close range.

Barely 90 seconds later, Yehya doubled the lead with a breathtaking run down the left flank that left his defenders in the dust. Yehya blasted a right-footed shot into the roof of the net from just outside the six-yard box to ice the game at 3-1.

Utah Valley will make the short trip west to UC Davis for the next match on Sunday. Kickoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. MT, and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.

BYU men’s hoops lined up with Ole Miss in preseason

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – BYU will face Ole Miss in the opening round of the 2024 Rady Children’s Invitational, the organization announced on Friday morning.

A rematch of last season’s Final Four between Purdue and NC State opens the four-team tournament on Nov. 28 at Noon PT at LionTree Arena in San Diego, Calif. The Cougars and Rebels finish play on Thanksgiving Day at 2:30 p.m. PT on FS1.

The third-place game is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. PT, with the championship game set to follow at 3 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on FOX.

It will be the second all-time meeting between BYU and Ole Miss, after they met in the First Four of the 2015 NCAA Tournament, a 94-90 victory for the Rebels. Tyler Haws scored a game-high 33 points in the setback, going 13-of-23 from the field, 5-of-9 from three and 2-of-3 from the free throw line with Chase Fischer knocking down six 3-pointers en route to 23 points.

First-year head coach Keving Young returns two starters from last season’s squad that finished fifth in the Big 12 and earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, BYU’s 31^st appearance in the Big Dance. The Cougars enter the 2024-25 season with a Top-15 recruiting class in the nation with Egor Demin, Kanon Catchings, Brody Kozlowski and Elijah Crawford.

Chris Beard enters Year Two in Oxford after going 20-12 in 2023-24, including a perfect 13-0 record in non-conference play. The Rebels are ranked No. 20 in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25, following the addition of Dre Davis, Sean Pedulla, Mikeal Brown-Jones and Malik Dia.

BYU women’s soccer draws with No. 23 Saint Louis

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The No. 4 BYU women’s soccer team came from behind to tie No. 23 Saint Louis 1-1 on Thursday evening at Hermann Stadium.

Junior forward Allie Fryer scored her second goal of the season in the second half, the 21st goal of her career in tonight’s draw.

The Cougars led in all statistical categories on the pitch tonight, outshooting the Billikens 20-11 and taking 12 corner kicks to SLU’s three.

Sophomore goalkeeper Lynette Hernaez tallied six saves for the second game in a row in tonight’s match. With nine shots on goal, the Cougars forced eight saves by SLU’s goalkeeper.

The Cougars came out with a fast offensive push, taking two corner kicks in the first two minutes of the match, cleared out by the Billikens backline.

In the 10th minute, freshman Presley Freeman dribbled up the field and crossed the ball to MacKenzee Vance at the top of the penalty area. With a quick touch to her right foot, Vance fired off a shot to the left corner of the goal, forcing a diving save.

The Billikens followed with a counterattack of their own as they had a breakaway run up top, forcing Hernaez to make a diving save of her own.

With a mistouch by Avery Frischknecht in the back, SLU forward Emily Gaebe gained control of the ball and fired off a shot past Hernaez to take the lead, 1-0 in the 19th minute.

The Cougs immediately pushed back with Addie Gardner taking a shot from 20 yards out, punched over by the keeper. The Cougars earned back-to-back corner kicks after Gardner’s shot, with each being cleared by Billiken defenders.

In the 30th minute, Hernaez had another crucial diving save as the Billikens had a chance off the head of Sarah Sarnowski inside the six-yard box.

The Cougars saw another chance on goal in the 32nd minute as Gardner sent a through ball up the field to sophomore Caroline Stringfellow, who collected and passed to Fryer right in front of the goal, grabbed by SLU’s Emily Puricelli.

Despite heading into halftime down 1-0, the Cougars held possession through most of the first half and led in shots, 12-4 and corner kicks, 6-1.

The Cougars had their first look on goal in the 48th minute as Halle Dixon beat two players to send a long ball up the field to Fryer, who hit it out of bounds for a goal kick.

In the 68th minute, Stringfellow settled a throw-in and sent a long ball over the top of the Billiken backline to Fryer, who beat two defenders and fired a shot into the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1.

Fryer did not let up as she took on several defenders in the 73rd minute, forcing another tough save by Puricelli.

In the 79th minute, Fryer and Dixon combined inside the six and Fryer took another shot, punched over the top crossbar by Puricelli.

In the final minutes of the match, the Cougars were not able to capitalize on their offensive press, ending the game in a 1-1 draw.

The Cougars continue their road trip on Saturday evening as they take on Long Beach State in California. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ at 8 p.m. MT.

UVU women’s soccer ties UCF

ORLANDO, Florida – Utah Valley’s Ruby Hladek scored in the 81st minute to secure a 1-1 draw against Big 12 foe UCF in the Knights’ home opener on Thursday night at the UCF Soccer Complex. With the draw, Utah Valley remains unbeaten, moving to 2-0-1 on the season.

The Wolverines have played all three of their games on the road this season. UCF is now 1-0-1.

“UCF is a really talented team that will have a great season, and they were all over us early on,” said Utah Valley head coach Chris Lemay. “I’m proud of how our players settled in and battled. A 1-1 tie is a fair result when you look at the game as a whole, but when you have the lead with five minutes left, you get greedy and really want the win. This match had the feel of a late-round NCAA tournament game in the second half. It was a great game against a strong team, and I’m proud of our effort. We’ve played all three of our matches this season on the road, and now we’re nearing the end of a 14-day road trip, with our toughest test still ahead of us against a nationally-ranked Virginia team that just knocked off No. 3 Penn State tonight.”

Hladek’s goal came after Manthy Brady made a crucial play to keep the ball from going out of bounds near the end line. Brady delivered a cross to Hladek in front of the goal, and she slotted the ball across the line to put the Wolverines ahead. UCF responded in the 85th minute when Chloe Netzel fired a left-footed shot into the back of the net to level the score. UCF outshot Utah Valley 23-17 and held an 8-5 edge in shots on goal. Faith Webber led the Wolverines with a match-high six shots, including two on goal, while Hladek registered four shots with one on frame. Nixan Jackson contributed two shots. CJ Graham was strong in goal for Utah Valley, recording seven saves in 90 minutes of action. She remains unbeaten in the box this season.

Utah Valley will conclude its four-game road trip with a match at No. 21 Virginia on Sunday in Charlottesville, Virginia. Kickoff is set for 10 a.m. (MT). The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.