Pros and Cougars

PROVO — It's been awhile since the BYU men's soccer team played postseason matches, so the Cougars took to the 2006 Premier Development League playoffs like a kid eating chocolate pudding with a fork — trying to make something good last as long as possible.

Four years after ending its dominance of the national club-soccer scene and making an unprecedented step into professional soccer, BYU hosted the PDL Western Conference semifinals and finals last week, with the Cougars claiming a Friday night upset over the favored Southern California Seahorses and then took the perennial powerhouse Orange County Blue Star to shoot-out penalty kicks before ending its inaugural pro-postseason run.

"The growth of this team in five years is unbelievable," said BYU coach Chris Watkins.

After posting seven national club-championships from 1993 to 2001 and being hampered by Title IX limitations in pursuing NCAA intercollegiate status, BYU opted to go pro and become the first university to own a PDL franchise under the umbrella of the United Soccer Leagues.

BYU promptly went 2-15-1 the first year but progressively improved through its four PDL seasons — this year earning its first PDL postseason berth after finishing second in Northwest Division — a late-season mini-slump costing the Cougars the division's regular-season crown.

In the Western Conference semifinals played Friday night at South Field, the Cougars upset Southwest Division champion Southern California 2-1, a Seahorse squad it had beaten only one in six previous pairings.

BYU's game-winner came on Jacob Cavanaugh's breakaway goal — the only score in the second half after a 1-all match through the first half.

That gave BYU a berth in Saturday night's conference finals against Orange County, a team it hadn't beaten in five matches in the three previous PDL seasons. With a finals victory, BYU would not only advance to the national semifinals but host that match as well.

Those prospects seemed dim as the Blue Star — annually loaded with many of the top post-collegiate talent from the West Coast and Greater Northwest area — took a 2-0 first-half advantage well into the second half before the Cougars' Brady Marshall scored a seemingly too-little-too-late goal in the 86th minute.

Trying to score the equalizer and force overtime, BYU unleashed a late-match barrage of attacks and corner kicks in the final minutes of regulation and the four minutes of stoppage time.