BYU did not need another 19-shot argument. It needed one finish and a goalkeeper who could make it stand.
Bella Woods supplied the finish in the 51st minute, bending a direct free kick around Cincinnati’s wall and into the bottom-right corner. Paiton Collins supplied the rest in her first start of the season, making four saves as No. 20 BYU beat Cincinnati 1-0 Monday night at Gettler Stadium.
The result was a tidy answer to the Cougars’ 2-0 loss at West Virginia four days earlier. BYU again spent long stretches in the attacking half and again reached halftime scoreless. This time, the first useful opening after the break became a goal. This time, the opposing response stopped with Collins.
BYU improved to 8-3-2 overall and 4-1-1 in the Big 12. Cincinnati fell to 3-6-4 and 1-4-1 in conference play. The Bearcats also took their first home loss of the season.
BYU-Cincinnati score and match receipt
| Match detail | BYU | Cincinnati |
|---|---|---|
| Final score | 1 | 0 |
| Halftime score | 0 | 0 |
| Shots | 15 | 11 |
| Shots on goal | 6 | 4 |
| Corner kicks | 8 | 5 |
| Fouls | 11 | 12 |
| First-half shots | 8 | 5 |
| Second-half shots | 7 | 6 |
Woods scored on her only shot. Afton Perry led BYU with five attempts, while Presley Freeman, Sophie Sivulich and Anna Neff took two each. Collins played all 90 minutes and recorded the first shutout of her season.
The finalized WMT game record also gives the shape of the match: BYU held a 3-2 edge in shots on goal in each half. The Cougars did not overwhelm Cincinnati with one giant wave. They won both halves by a small margin, then put the only goal inside theirs.
That is a meaningful change from Thursday. At West Virginia, BYU put nine shots on frame and never moved the scoreboard. Against Cincinnati, six were enough because Woods made the restart count and Collins did not let the home side answer.
Woods changed the night with one dead ball
The deciding sequence began with Emma Neff carrying the ball toward the middle just outside the Cincinnati penalty area. A defender stopped her with a foul. Woods took the free kick.
The senior center back sent a low, bending shot around the wall and into the bottom-right corner. It was her second goal of the season and the game-winner.
Woods has been one of BYU’s more willing shooters from the back line, but Monday did not require volume. Her official line was one shot, one shot on goal and one goal. After a night when three of her attempts were saved at West Virginia, that economy was welcome.
The location of the foul mattered too. BYU’s attack had spent the first half manufacturing pressure without finding a clean central finish. Neff’s dribble forced Cincinnati to defend the most dangerous strip of grass on the field. Once the Bearcats arrived late, Woods did not have to solve a packed box in open play. She had a stationary ball, a wall and a corner to find.
The pregame guide asked whether BYU could make goalkeeper Amber Brandon move across goal rather than stay square behind predictable shots. Woods answered with a restart. The ball traveled around the wall and toward the lower corner, the kind of delivery that changes the goalkeeper’s picture before she can settle behind it.
This was not BYU suddenly curing every open-play issue. Perry’s five attempts produced one shot on goal, and the Cougars did not add insurance after the opener. The important part is that they found another route. When crosses, combinations and second balls did not produce a first-half goal, a direct kick did.
Collins made her first start look overdue
A one-goal road win leaves no room for a goalkeeper to ease into the job. Collins did not need any.
Cincinnati threatened early. Joy Kimwemwe appeared to score in the 11th minute, but the goal was disallowed for offside. That warning came before BYU had established its long spell of first-half possession.
The sharper test arrived shortly after Woods scored. Cincinnati played Brooklyn Schomaker into the center of the box, giving the Bearcats a fast chance to erase the lead. Collins came forward and made a sliding save. The margin stayed 1-0 before the match could swing back toward the home side.
She finished with four saves, doubling her season total in one night. More important, she completed BYU’s fourth shutout of the year in her first start.
The defense helped the finish. Cincinnati earned two corners while chasing the equalizer, but BYU cleared the danger and kept the Bearcats to two shots over the final 25 minutes. Avery Frischknecht and Woods played the full match in front of Collins as BYU protected the middle without abandoning the chance to play forward.
There is a useful distinction here. BYU did not protect Collins by allowing no danger. Cincinnati took 11 shots and put four on target. The Cougars protected her by keeping the late pressure from becoming a flood, and Collins handled the saves that still reached her.
That is how a one-goal lead becomes a result rather than a countdown.
The first half was patient without becoming harmless
The opening 15 minutes belonged to neither side. Each team had one shot through the first 13 minutes, and Cincinnati had the apparent Kimwemwe goal erased by the flag.
BYU then began to hold the ball higher. The Cougars took three shots in a three-minute stretch beginning in the 16th minute and spent much of the next quarter-hour in Cincinnati territory. Perry forced Brandon into a save in the 29th minute. Sivulich followed the rebound with a header over the goal.
That sequence captured the problem BYU carried in from Morgantown. The Cougars could create a first action, but the second action still had to be cleaner. A save and an off-target header kept the match level.
BYU finished the half with eight shots to Cincinnati’s five, three shots on goal to two and four corners to two. The score was 0-0 for the seventh time this season at halftime.
The difference was that BYU did not come out of the break asleep. West Virginia scored at 47:43 on Thursday. Monday, Sydney Snow forced a save from the top of the box after Perry earned a corner in the 48th minute. Neff drew the foul moments later. Woods scored in the 51st.
The Cougars had circled the first minutes after halftime as a problem. They treated them like one.
BYU fixed the immediate problem, not the whole attack
The final should feel good. Cincinnati had been 2-0-3 at home in regular-season play and had allowed one goal across those five matches. BYU became the first visitor to leave Gettler Stadium with a win.
It also would be a mistake to treat 1-0 as proof that the finishing question has disappeared.
BYU took 15 shots and put six on goal. Woods’ restart accounted for the only finish. Perry stayed active but placed one of five attempts on target. The Cougars did not turn the lead into the second-goal margin they found against UCF and Kansas State.
The difference Monday was that the rest of the team made one goal sufficient. Collins was clean. The back line held up under the immediate response. Cincinnati had only two shots in the final 25 minutes, when a home team trailing 1-0 should be applying its greatest pressure.
That is progress, even if it is not the complete attacking answer. Good teams need more than one way to win. BYU has already won conference matches by scoring three against UCF, answering Kansas State with two goals in 8:21 and now protecting one set-piece finish on the road.
The uncomfortable version of this match would have looked familiar: BYU controls the ball, misses the second goal and concedes late. The Cougars refused that script. Cincinnati’s first home loss came because BYU won the restart and then managed the state of the match.
What the road split changes
A loss at West Virginia followed by a win at Cincinnati gives BYU three points from the two-match trip. That is not the six the Cougars wanted, but it keeps one bad finishing night from becoming a road slide.
BYU now has 13 points through six Big 12 matches. The attack still needs to convert more of its control against the league’s best teams. The defensive response is easier to trust after Monday: a first-time starter in goal, a narrow margin and a home side pushing for its first result against BYU, yet no equalizer.
The next test is larger. No. 12 Texas Tech visits South Field on Friday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. Mountain. The Red Raiders will bring a different level of pressure than Cincinnati, and one goal may not be enough. BYU will need the restart quality Woods supplied, the composure Collins supplied and more production from open play.
The women’s soccer schedule carries the permanent Texas Tech event and access links. The results archive now holds the Cincinnati final, while the soccer hub keeps the roster and season pages together.
Monday’s lesson is smaller and sturdier than a claim that BYU solved everything. The Cougars found one exact finish, then made it survive for 39 minutes. Four days after nine shots on goal bought nothing, that was enough.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: No. 20 BYU beats Cincinnati 1-0 for the official match sequence, Woods’ free kick, Collins’ first start and saves, team records, first home loss and Texas Tech follow-up.
- BYU Athletics event 25211 and the official box score for the stable schedule ID, completed status, venue, final and official result paths.
- Finalized WMT game 6602582, player statistics and readable match table for the final, period splits, team totals, player lines, records, attendance and finalized-stat flag.
- Cincinnati Athletics: Bearcats fall to No. 20 BYU for opponent-side confirmation of the final, Kimwemwe’s disallowed goal, second-half response, full-match players and Cincinnati’s next match.
- University of Cincinnati color guide for official UC red
#E00122, black#000000and white used in the original matchup art. - BYU Sport Nuts: Cincinnati watch guide, West Virginia recap, women’s soccer schedule and results.
