Bateman's Top Shelf Tops JUCO Champs with 8 Seconds Left

Baltimore, Md. — The Cougars rose to the occasion on Thursday night, beating defending National JUCO Champions Essex CC 10-9 in Baltimore, Md. The unprecedented win builds on successes BYU enjoyed last fall.

After falling behind 4-1 in the first quarter, the returning Cougar defense clamped down on shut out Essex in the second quarter, allowing the offense to turn up the intensity. Senior midfielder Phil McClure (Sewickley, PA) scored BYU’s second goal of the day in transition and got the team fired up for the remainder of the half. The Cougars killed several man-down situations and tied the score 4-4 when the second quarter ended., UT

The Cougars kept the game close and the score was tied 7-7 in the fourth quarter. Junior attackman Jarom Winn (Greenville, DE) finished a transition play with an underhand shot to tie the game. Essex rattled off two goals, appearing to pull away. Minutes later, freshman midfielder Dan Cole (Sandy, UT) drove hard down the right side of the box and finished a bounce shot to the top corner of the cage to pull BYU within one, 9-8.

Although BYU lost the ensuing face-off, the Cougar defense continued to stifle Essex’s shooters. Freshman goalie Chris Powers (Sandy, UT) and sophomore Glenn Makechnie (Andover, NH) split quarters for the Cougars and both made multiple saves in crunch time.

On their next settled offensive possession, senior midfielder Mark Tschaggeny (West Jordan, UT) drove down the right side of the box, rolled to his left, and fired a shot into the net, tying the game 9-9. With a minute left in the game, junior midfielder Walker Bateman (Salt Lake City, UT) cleared the ball out of a man-down situation and coach Jason Lamb called time-out with 28 seconds left. On their last offensive set of the game, Tschaggeny drove down the right side of the box, rolled out of a double and found freshman Zach Austin (Brewster, NY) at the top of the box. Austin made one extra pass to Bateman on the left side of the box , and Bateman rifled in the game winner past the near pipe for his third goal of the afternoon. Eight seconds remained on the clock.

Lamb said the win felt great. “We came east to play the game at it’s highest level. Today I felt like we played a talented and very well coached team. This was a great win for our team considering how young we are. I worried about playing with only 7 returning players from 2004, now I think that we have learned that we can play with anyone.”

BYU continued the Maryland trip on Saturday with scrimmages against C.W. Post, Towson University, and NYiT at the Genessee Valley Tournament.

From BYU release.