PROVO — Within a minute of entering the lines at South Field, Mia Goettsche doubled her season goal scoring tally.

Then the freshman from Eastvale, California, did it again.

Goettsche tallied her first career brace as No. 11 BYU women’s soccer shut out in-state rival Utah State 2-0 in front of an announced crowd of 3,213 fans Saturday night at South Field.

If you didn’t have a Goettsche brace on your bingo card, don’t feel bad; neither did the youngster. She’ll take it though, as the Cougars bounced back from their first loss of the year Tuesday, 1-0 to No. 13 Arkansas.

“First time scoring on South, and I got a brace out of it? I’m so excited,” she said. “We really needed it.”

Paiton Collins made four saves to preserve the shutout for the Cougars (4-1-1), the third in the past four matches for the sophomore from Mapleton.

BYU once dominated the series with its in-state rivals, winning as many as 14 consecutive meetings at one point. But ever since Manny Martins arrived in Logan five years ago, things have changed.

Utah State held a 3-1-1 record against the Cougars in the past five years, including a 2-1 mark in Provo and a 1-0 win in Logan two years ago when BYU was ranked No. 1 in the country for the first time in program history. The Cougars’ only win in that span was the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Provo in 2023.

The loss dropped the Aggies to 1-2-2 on the year, despite a 0.5 goals-against average under Pepperdine transfer goalkeeper Taylor Rath — the 26th-best mark in the country.

“Manny’s obviously done a fantastic job, and we’ve had a hard time with Utah State for the past few years,” BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “So this was a great opportunity for us to come out and get a good win.”

Goettsche gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead about a minute after entering as a substitute, finishing off a corner kick from the right side with a nudge past Rath in the 17th minute.

After Mika Krommenhoek’s set piece into the box, center back Izzi Stratton and forward Ellie Walbruch tried to control the ball. But the loose change fell to Goettsche, and the freshman finished her second goal of the season.

Goettsche doubled the advantage, rising up like a salmon in the 33rd minute to meet Halle Dixon’s cross with a header that skirted just inside the far post en route to the 2-0 halftime advantage.

“I was off the shoulder of the far-side center back, and me and Halle made a little eye contact, so I knew she was going to put it in,” said Goettsche, a former volleyball player who said she’s “used to” getting good contact in the air.

It was the type of goal Rockwood, though, saw Goettsche score over and over against while she recruited her, she said.

“She even had some contact and was able to put it in,” Rockwood added. “I’ve seen Mia score a lot of great goals as a youth player, so it’s fun to see her now at the Division I level. I think she has a lot of goals in her future, too.”

Utah State out-shot the Cougars 23-12, including 15-4 in the second half as the Aggies found more of the ball.

But the visitors only put two of those shots on target after the break, ruing several missed chances to find the scoresheet.

“We made some adjustments at halftime, but I think primarily a mindset adjustment to come up with a little bit more energy, more confidence,” Martins said. “We’re a new team in many ways, and still growing. We’re showing a lot of it in flashes, and we’ve just got to be more consistent. In the second half you could see it.”

Mackenzee Vance made her season debut for BYU, coming off the bench to play 15 minutes in the first half and 34 overall as the senior former UCLA transfers returns from an offseason injury.

“She’s been working so hard, trying to get back from her injury,” Rockwood said of Vance. “We were really excited to give her some minutes, and I thought she looked great out there.

“Hopefully we can build on it and get even more minutes next game, to get back into the starting lineup soon.”

BYU wraps up a five-game homestand next Friday, Sept. 12 against crosstown rival Utah Valley (7 p.m. MDT, ESPN+). The Aggies return to Logan, where they will host in-state rival Weber State at 7 p.m. MDT Thursday on the Mountain West Network.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.