There was no rust factor for the BYU Cougars football team in the Big 12 Football Tournament on Monday.
Because the Cougars are the No. 2 seed in the tournament, they had a bye in the first round last Saturday and faced the 10th-seeded Oklahoma Sooners on Monday with a trip to the tournament semifinals on the line.
BYU opened its berth in the conference tournament early thanks to a ninth-minute goal from Bella Folino, and then the Cougars went crazy, scoring five goals in the second half to claim a commanding 6-0 win.
Folino led the way with two goals and added four more in the win for BYU.
After a fairly even first half in which both teams had four shots each, the Cougars came into action in the second half and had a 4-0 lead in the 68th minute and a 14-8 advantage in shots.
As if the outcome wasn’t yet certain, BYU added two more goals in the final ten minutes of the game to seal the deal.
“At halftime we talked about getting back to what we do as a team,” head coach Jennifer Rockwood said in a news release. “The Sooners did a good job in the first half frustrating us with their direct play, and in the second half we decided to calm down and take advantage of our opportunities.
“A phenomenal second half for us and we were really proud of the way we played. We had a lot of different scorers tonight and when they tried to stop one or two, we had others ready to put the ball in the net.”
Overall, the Cougars outscored the Sooners 17-13, including an 8-2 advantage in shots on goal. Lynette Hernaez and Savanna Mason kept clean sheets, with Hernaez playing the first 75 minutes and Mason coming on for the final 15 minutes.
In the semifinals, the Cougars will face the winner of Monday’s late game between third-seeded TCU and sixth-seeded UCF.