With two minutes remaining in the first half of a must-win game at rival Utah on Oct. 30, the screech of the referee’s whistle stopped everything. From the sideline, Chelsea Peterson could see her teammate, Paiton Collins, was down on the pitch.
The Cougars’ 18-game starter at goalie was holding her right knee. The ACL was gone, and Collins’ season was instantly over. Adding to the stress of the night, without a victory, BYU’s year would be over, too.
“Paiton’s injury — it made me sick,” Peterson told the “Y’s Guys” livestream show this week. “You hate to see it, but when someone goes down, someone has to come in. It’s just how it works.”
With Collins down, Peterson was in.
The turn of events that brought the 5-foot-8 former Ute back to Ute Field to play for BYU could fill the pages of a fiction novel, but the story is very real. Peterson’s journey includes tough decisions, two continents and the courage to follow her feelings.
First prompting
After spending three years as goalkeeper for Utah, which included the combined 2020-2021 COVID-19 seasons, the former Orem Tiger felt the urge to walk away from soccer and serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It just came. It came hard and fast that (a) mission was what I had to do,” Peterson said. “It just felt right. I couldn’t shake it.”
Called to serve in the football hotbed of Manchester, England, Peterson packed her bags, her scriptures and her cleats and crossed the Atlantic.
“It was absolutely transformative,” Peterson said of her mission experience. “Everything about me, spiritually and in a lot of different ways, changed and developed and became way better and it’s made me hopefully a better person and a better soccer player.”
Peterson spent her first nine months proselytizing in Manchester where loyalties are deeply split between football rivals Manchester United and Manchester City. She also spent six months in Liverpool, the home of her favorite team growing up. Peterson’s soccer prowess came in handy with youth groups and older, diehard fans.
“It would be really easy to talk to people about soccer,” Peterson said. “To have some random American missionary start talking tactical with people on the bus and talk about formations that Man U. is playing, they are like, ‘What?’ They just couldn’t figure it out.”
Second prompting
After returning home, Peterson decided not to return to the University of Utah and entered the transfer portal to explore her options. Still harboring childhood dreams of playing for BYU one day, Peterson reached out to the Cougars — and was turned away, just as she was in high school.
“I figured God has plans for me. I felt, ‘If you sent me, you are going to take care of me when I get home,” she said. “Once again, I felt (an) extremely strong (feeling) to come to BYU and study Exercise Science.”
Accepting the possibility that her playing days were over, Peterson spent last year attending classes as a regular student. However, a text message in early August changed everything.
“Are you still here at BYU?” asked her former club coach and current BYU assistant Steve Magleby.
“Yeah,” Peterson responded.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“OK,” Peterson said.
Third prompting
The two met and Magleby explained how an unexpected departure left the team shorthanded at goalie.
“So, are you in?” he asked.
Peterson was surprised by the invitation. She had been out of soccer for three years, but the answer became quite clear.
“I felt like I should, so I did,” she said. “That’s kind of a theme with me.”
For a daughter who grew up in a True-Blue family, the development seemed heavenly. So many of her childhood memories were tied to BYU events, including Tanner Mangum’s Hail Mary pass to Mitch Mathews to stun Nebraska 33-28 on Sept. 5, 2015.
“I can remember exactly where I was,” Peterson said. “I was camping with my family. We were listening in the truck. Everybody was like, ‘Be quiet! Be quiet!’ My dad was driving. We were sitting in the back trying to figure out if he caught it and then Greg (Wrubell) erupted, “Touchdown!’ It was a big one.”
Return to Ute Field
In a full circle moment, Peterson’s return to Ute Field as BYU’s goalie capped a whirlwind adventure while at the same time, it kickstarted another one — and just as improbable. With help from a valiant group of defenders, Peterson preserved the Cougars 2-0 victory to qualify for the Big 12 Tournament.
Making her first start of the season in Fort Worth, Texas, BYU upset No. 5 TCU. Peterson held her ground 4-3 in a penalty kick shootout. Two days later, the Cougars shut out No. 23 Baylor 4-0 and then they blanked Kansas 1-0 in the championship game. Peterson was named the Defensive Player of the Tournament.
“This team makes me look a lot better than I am,” she said. “They get some big stops and when (people) see zeros on the board, they look at the goalkeeper, but everyone is contributing to that.”
Marathon shootout
Winning the Big 12 Tournament landed a first-round home game in the NCAA Tournament last Friday against Utah State. After regulation play ended in a 1-1 tie, Peterson and Aggie goalie Taylor Rath delivered a joint performance for the ages — an 11-round duel of penalty kicks.
Each attempt required Peterson’s complete focus as one Aggie after another took their shots.
“Their run up, their approach, their right foot, left foot, how they plant on the field,” she said. “We scout them leading up to the game. There is a lot that goes into it, but at the end of the day, it’s kind of my gut.”
With a sold-out crowd at South Field hanging on every play, BYU faced three elimination kicks, and each time Peterson found a way to keep the Cougars in the game.
“In a shootout, it’s on the shooters, not on me,” Peterson said. “Soccer is interesting. It’s not like basketball where all 10 guys get points on the board. There are goal scorers and goal stoppers. In a shootout, the shooters are the ones who win the game for us. Yeah, I make a stop, I do the things I need to do, but they are the ones who win it.”
Utah State’s final penalty kick went wide of the net and BYU survived 7-6 to advance into the second round. Peterson, 24, believes her current success is directly connected to her mission.
“Goalkeeping is so much based on decision making. I think a little bit of age on me, a little perspective with the mission has really made me better. I think I can think through things a little bit better, make better decisions,” she said. “I think perspective too, that my world doesn’t revolve around soccer, which it used to. The mission gave (me) a lot of perspective knowing there is so much more to our life and so much higher joy than winning. Jesus Christ is the ultimate joy.”
The rematch
BYU (11-6-5) will play UCLA (12-5-3) on Friday at Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament (5 p.m., ESPN+). With Peterson watching from the sideline, the Cougars beat the then-No. 4 Bruins 1-0 in Provo on Aug. 23. Ellie Walbruch, a UCLA transfer, scored the lone goal in the 14th minute.
“It’s going to be a really good matchup,” Peterson said. “UCLA is a real big possession team. They keep the ball. We do as well. I think it’s going to be high-level soccer, which is real fun to play.”
With another year of eligibility remaining, Peterson’s playing days appear far from over and her life’s story is just getting started — but what a ride it’s been already and her post-mission, mission remains clear — keep following the promptings.
“Just to glorify God. He knows. I just try to do my best to do that. I fall short a lot. But he has a better plan, and you just work super hard to do whatever that is and go all out and it will all work out. If it doesn’t work out now, it’s eventually going to work out,” Peterson said. “We are in the middle of it now. I don’t know what my journey looks like, because I could not have called this. I’m just super grateful and excited to see what is in the future for myself and this team.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.