Mathews part of three goals in 4-1 win over Saint Mary's

PROVO, Utah – Madie Lyons Mathews scored two goals and assisted on another in BYU's 4-1 win against Saint Mary's Saturday night at South Field.

"We've spent countless hours working on our attack, and tonight it paid off," BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "We had a great week of training, and it translated to four goals."

Bizzy Bowen and Avery Walker also found the back of the net for the Cougars (4-5-3, 1-1). Nadia Gomes tacked on an assist as well as BYU stayed unbeaten all-time in eight matches against Saint Mary's (6-8-0, 2-2-0).

Bizzy Bowen opened the scoring in the 14th minute. After Mathews had a shot knocked down by Gael goalkeeper Sarah Sawatsky but not controlled, Bowen rebounded and put it inside the left post for a 1-0 BYU lead. Mathews was credited with the assist.

In the 26th minute, Mathews scored to double the Cougar lead. Gomes took the ball away near midfield and sent a through pass to Mathews, who wound up in a one-on-one with Sawatsky and drilled it past her for a 2-0 lead.

One minute later, Walker made it 3-0 for BYU. She took the ball deep down the left flank, beat a defender near the endline and fired a near-post shot into the net.

The Cougars entered the half up three goals with six shots compared to the Gaels' four.

Mathews added to her impressive night in the 51st minute, with an arcing shot from 10 yards outside the 18-yard box that found the top-right corner of the goal. That put BYU up 4-0.

Less than a minute later, Saint Mary's got on the board when Jaylen Crim took advantage of a bouncing ball in front of the BYU net. The Cougar defense couldn't corral it, and Crim booted it past BYU keeper Sabrina Macias to cut the Gaels' deficit to 4-1.

Macias played her first complete game between the posts and had four saves. 

BYU outshot Saint Mary's 14-11 on the night.

The Cougars host Pacific next Thursday at 7 p.m. MDT. That game will have a live stream on TheW.tv with radio broadcasts on BYU Radio (Sirius XM 143) and ESPN 960 AM.