PROVO — Matt Affleck and Christopher Lamb helped secure the fifth win of the season for the BYU men's soccer team, putting on an offensive show in a 5-0 win over the California Gold Friday night at South Field.
After a lightning delay that lasted more than an hour, the Cougars exacted their revenge on the Gold, which had recorded a tie and a win in the previous two games for both clubs.
With the win, BYU improves to 5-7-1 and picks up its first win ever over a professional team, while California drops to 1-8-4.
"This is a historic day for us," said BYU coach Chris Watkins. "We came out and did everything to perfection. Our team simply executed the game plan and we won." Two players who could be credited with playing to perfection on the night was both Affleck and Lamb.
"We are a lot faster than they are with our forwards against their defenders," said Lamb. "I would just see Affleck breaking through and we would run by their guys and when you get a shot with just you against the goalkeeper, those are the best."
The duo of Affleck and Lamb teamed up for the first goal of the night in the 20th minute as Affleck hit Lamb with a pass from the right side of the box and Lamb fired a shot into the back of the net.
In the 38th minute the duo struck again on the same play to put BYU up 2-0 over the Gold.
Five minutes later in the 43rd minute it was Affleck's turn to score. This time it was Brad Peterson who sent a cross into the Gold's box and found Affleck's head for the goal.
Going into the break the Cougars had managed to build a 3-0 lead over the Gold while out-shooting California 15-1.
Coming out of the break Affleck picked up where he left off by scoring his second goal of the night and eighth of the season.
Affleck took the ball on the deep left side and weaved his way through the Gold"s defense and placed a shot over the Gold"s keeper Mitchell Watson.
Up 4-0 and time winding down, BYU put another goal on the board when Josh Robbins crossed the ball to Gilbert Gaertner-Neto, who sent a header from 15 yards out between the pipes.
The win marked the second shutout of the season for keeper Brandon Gilliam and the Cougars, it also sits as the largest margin of victory over an opponent for BYU since joining the Premier Development League.
BYU is off until next week while the Gold travel to Salt Lake to play the Blitzz on Saturday.