PROVO — Under stormy skies at South Field in Provo, the BYU men's soccer team came away with its second win of the season downing the Southern California Seahorses 3-1 Friday night.
The win matches last year's win total for the Cougars, their first season as a Premier Development League team, where they finished 2-15-1. BYU now stands at 2-4 while the Seahorses drop to 3-4 on the 2004 season.
Rain throughout the game made field conditions slippery and soggy and even delayed the flight for some of the Seahorses' starters, causing them to arrive in time for the second period.
"This was our biggest win in two years,' said BYU head coach Chris Watkins.
"(The Seahorses) are a great team but our team did a what they had to do to win." Two Cougars who really wanted the ball were senior forwards Matt Affleck and Ken Ojuka who put the Cougars up 2-0 in the first half while helping the team outshooting the Seahorses 13-3 in the opening 45 minutes.
"Both teams had chances tonight because of the sloppy weather," said Watkins. "There were a lot of balls we got to because we just wanted them more."
Affleck struck his first of two goals on the night for the Cougars after a BYU corner kick landed in the Seahorse box, bounced through several players, found Affleck's foot and went into the back of the net in the 18th minute for the early 1-0 lead.
The Cougars struck again in the 29th minute when forward Brock Blake connected with Ojuka in front of the Seahorse goal for the easy tap-in goal, giving BYU a 2-0 lead heading into the half.
In the second period, Southern California came on strong with the team's starters back in the game and applied the pressure to the Cougars, forcing BYU to switch to a heavy defensive strategy.
The Seahorses' Brent Whitfield cut the Cougar lead in half in the 65th minute with the team's only goal.
Affleck countered with his second score of the evening in the 78th minute, this time taking the serve from Tony Chang and drilling the ball between the pipes to secure the Cougar victory at 3-1.
"It feels good to score and it feels good to win,' said Affleck. "Hopefully we can learn from this game and keep our confidence and intensity up for our remaining games."
BYU next hosts the Colorado Springs Blizzard tonight at 7:30 p.m. at South Field.