The Tacoma FC followed up Friday night’s win over the Ogden Outlaws with an equally impressive victory over the BYU Cougars. On a night where the home crowd exceeded 500, the Tide players were the real story. Once again, the yellows got off to a hot start. In the 9th minute of the game, midfielder Ciaran O’Brien played a ball over the BYU back line. Stadium High School senior Rory Agu latched onto it before he was fouled from behind. At first glance, it seemed unfortunate for the home side not to draw a red card as Agu was clearly in a scoring position and the foul came from the last man. That disappointment was immediately erased when Ciaran O’Brien took the corresponding free kick. O’Brien whipped the ball around the wall and into the top corner. The sublime finish made the score 1-0 in the first ten minutes.

The first half was controlled by the Tide, and in the 37th minute, the possession paid off again. Similar to the sequence that set up the first goal, O’Brien slipped a through ball to Rory Agu. This time Agu wasn’t brought down and he made BYU pay. Agu calmly shot the ball past the goal keeper and scored his third goal of the season.

The second half was calm. A few chances came to each team. Jordan Jennings picked up his second clean sheet of the year. Jennings wasn’t forced to make any exceptionally difficult saves, but each touch of his glove was clean. O’Brien was again in focus in the second half. Late in the game a run toward the box drew a second yellow card for BYU defender Morgan Gilliam. The red card sealed the victory.

With the win, the Tacoma Tide take sole possession of first place in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. They sit with 7 points after 4 games.

Starters: Tacoma - Jennings, Lee, Hoss, Mohn, Cochran, Fishbaugher, O’Brien, Tangney, Knapp, Agu, Schomaker

                BYU - B Gilliam, Graham, H. VanWagenen, A. VanWagenen, M Gilliam, Trejo, Bindrup, Nicoli, Cavanaugh, Maglesby, Christensen