Becoming pro-ficient

PROVO — At 4-1-1 the BYU men's soccer team is off to another good start in the Northwest Division of the Premier Development League.

That record is good enough for a solid second place in the division with the Tacoma Tide sitting in first place, three points ahead of the Cougars.

The Cougars earned a split on the first road trip of the season in Washington defeating the Cascade Surge 2-1 before falling to Tacoma 0-2.

After that, BYU rolled off three straight wins against the Abbotsford Rangers on the road and then the Yakima Reds and Spokane Spiders at home before earning a 1-1 tie against in-state rival Ogden.

The early season success, added to the success the Cougars have seen over the four prior years in the PDL, has them feeling confident moving forward.

"We can clearly play with anybody," said BYU coach Chris Watkins. "We can play with MLS teams. We may not win, but we can compete with anybody. Our guys recognize and can play at this pace."

BYU's recipe for success has more to do with solid fundamentals and a multitude of solid players than having one or two phenomenal players. This is evident by the fact that seven players have contributed to the Cougars' eight goals so far this season. Only Jake Cavanaugh has more than one goal for the Cougars.

"We don't have quite enough special players to get every result we want," said Watkins. "But we have enough good ones that we can almost beat anybody any night. We've come a long ways in four years, but we still have no hardware to show for it."

The hardware Watkins speaks of would be championships, which were commonplace for the Cougars in their nation-dominating Collegiate Club days.

Despite not winning a professional-league title, the Cougars came close to winning the division last year and even closer to pulling out a win for the Western Conference championship. A loss to Ogden in the last regular season game last year cost the Cougars the division crown.

After defeating Southern California at home in the Western Conference tournament last year, the Cougars scored two goals late to tie Orange County before falling 6-4 in penalty kicks in the championship game.

Despite the lack of hardware, BYU has elevated its game tremendously over the time it has been playing in the more competitive PDL.