PROVO — A 3-0 victory for the Blue squad was led by sophomore Nadia Gomes’ seven shots in BYU's annual Blue-White inter-squad soccer scrimmage on Tuesday.
“Nadia was phenomenal tonight in every aspect," said head coach Jennifer Rockwood. "I’m pleased with the creativity she brought to the game.
“I was just really excited to see the girls play,” said Rockwood. “We are in a different spot than we were last year with a lot of players returning, so I was happy to see them back on the field again.
Gomes got the first goal of the match for Blue after she took a pass from Maddie Lyons up the right side and fired a low shot past keeper Hannah Clark. In the 48th minute, Gomes also had a breakaway that was saved by Clark. She finished the night with six saves for White.
Elena Medeiros got the second goal of the night in the 46th minute. Michele Murphy Vasconcelos fired a shot from the right side that was saved by Clark. Medeiros fired the deflection off of the bottom of the crossbar for the goal.
Vasconcelos got the third goal in the 69th minute from a low shot on the right side. The assist came from sophomore Jocelyn Loomis.
Both teams combined to fire 17 shots in the first half, 11 of them coming from White. Goalkeeper Rachel Boaz saved six of those shots for Blue in the first half, with seven saves total for the night.
Brianna Hatch got things started for the Blue squad by taking the ball down the left side after the opening whistle, letting the first shot fly from 18 yards out. She also had another shot that came in the 14th minute from the same side.
Gomes shot five of her seven total in the first half. One of the shots came courtesy of a through ball played by Vasconcelos. Gomes took the ball 10 yards before firing a shot off, but Boaz was able to get her body in front of the ball to block the shot.
“We were expecting a lot of attack, which I think we saw tonight," said Rockwood. "I was really pleased to see how well our starting group of attacking players combined. As coaches, we were pleased to see how well we played.”
The Cougars will host Arizona in an exhibition game on Saturday at 7 p.m. at South Field. The game will be broadcast live by BYUtv.
Michelle Wood is a public relations student at Brigham Young University with a dream of making it to the Super Bowl one day. While she isn't studying for tests and classes, you can find her in the offices of BYU Athletics, working on media relations.