Hatch, Murphy lead No. 17 BYU over Santa Clara

PROVO, Utah – Two goals apiece from Ashley Hatch and Michele Murphy helped the No. 17 BYU women’s soccer team knock off Santa Clara 5-2 Thursday night at South Field.

“Santa Clara is one of the top programs in the country,” head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We have a tremendous amount of respect for them and all of their coaches and to beat a quality opponent like that is certainly a big deal for us. But most importantly we wanted to get three points tonight to move closer to our goal of winning the conference.”

The win for BYU (11-3-2, 5-0-0) is its 10^th consecutive victory and first over Santa Clara (10-6-0, 3-2-1) in program history. The Cougars remain undefeated in West Coast Conference play and have a 12-game win streak against conference opponents dating back to last season. The two goals for Hatch moved her into a tie for fifth place on BYU’s career multiple-goal games list with four.

The Cougars got the scoring started early. In the third minute Elena Medeiros found Hatch inside the box, the sophomore forward took the shot that deflected off a Bronco defender into the net giving BYU an early 1-0 lead.

Santa Clara responded seconds later. Sofia Huerta laid a beautiful cross to Mariana Galvan who deflected the ball off her chest past BYU’s keeper Katherine Snyder, snapping her three-game shutout streak.

Murphy found herself with nothing but grass between her and the Bronco keeper on a breakaway in the 23^rd minute. The keeper came to meet her at the top of the box, Murphy gave a little fake to beat her and then flicked in the goal with her left foot to put BYU up 2-1.

The Broncos didn’t stay down for long again. Minutes later, Brittany Ambrose scored off a free kick to tie the game up at two.

Hatch took matters into her own hands in the 29^th minute. She took a touch from Marissa Nimmer and battled three Bronco defenders in the box while keeping control of the ball and beat the keeper with her left foot to put BYU up 3-2.

Murphy got on the board again in the 47^th minute when Niki Fernandes crossed the ball and Murphy drilled it off the post past the keeper to make it 4-2 BYU. Freshman Nadia Gomes scored her second goal of the season in the 87^th minute to seal a 5-2 BYU victory.

Up next for BYU is San Francisco at South Field Saturday, Oct. 25 at 7:00 p.m. MDT. It’s the final home match of the season and the Cougar seniors will be honored before the game. The game will be broadcast live on BYUtv and simulcast on BYU Radio on Sirius XM channel 143. The Cougar IMG Sports Network will broadcast the game live on BYUcougars.com and the BYU Cougars app.