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PROVO — Lucas Cawley grew up a soccer player on the Wasatch Front, so when the Premier Development League comes to BYU’s South Field every year, it isn’t a foreign concept to him.
But Cawley wasn’t suiting up for the nearby BYU men's soccer team. Instead, Cawley, who starred as a freshman at Utah Valley during the Wolverines’ first year in Division I soccer last fall, walked onto the grass wearing the black-and-white jersey of the opposing team, the Las Vegas Mobsters.
“I knew that you can’t stop playing soccer,” Cawley said before the match. “You have to develop, no matter where you are. So I knew I had to put myself in an environment in the offseason to keep developing, and I wanted to go to a place that would win, with a great team.”
The Mobsters (1-2-3, 6 points) earned a 2-2 draw with the Cougars on Cawley’s first return home Tuesday evening after the summer in a soccer-focused environment. Craig Carney scored the opening goal for Las Vegas, bending a free kick inside the right post in first-half stoppage time to give the Mobsters a 1-0 lead at halftime.
After the break, BYU (0-2-4, 4 points) came out hot. The Cougars forced Las Vegas goalkeeper Hector Diaz to make five saves, and second-half substitute Ryan Botcherby scored the equalizer on his first touch in the 77th minute.
“It was kind of surreal,” Botcherby said of his goal. “I was in for maybe a minute, and I was hoping that guy didn’t get to it before I did. I just waited on it, took it down, and tried to slot it in the other side.”
Just two minutes later, Dallin Cutler gave BYU a 2-1 lead on a rebound goal after Jacob Miles’ shot was saved by Diaz. But the Mobsters’ Uzi Tayou put back the final score of the match on an ambitious effort from distance with just under 10 minutes to go as both teams split the points.
“I’m disappointed in the first 45 minutes of the match, where I thought we learned that lesson Friday night,” BYU coach Chris Watkins said. “In the second half, we came out and let it up. But to throw away points like that is tough.”
For the Mobsters, the draw comes three days after earning their first win of the season, a 2-1 win over the Fresno Fuego. Cawley has taken to his new team well, too. The former Deseret News Mr. Soccer from Viewmont High School leads Las Vegas with two goals on 12 shots, and his 540 minutes played is tied for the team-high with defender Jason Khamvongsa.
The UVU sophomore-to-be’s role is anything but defensive, too. Mobsters coach Paul Barron, who spent 14 years as the goalkeeper coach in England with clubs like Coventry City, Queen’s Park Rangers, Aston Villa and Newcastle United, sees Cawley as a strong piece for a highly attacking Las Vegas side.
“He scored early on for us, a couple of games,” Barron said. “We’ve got a very attacking team, so he’s been getting forward well. He’s done well for us.”
“He’s been outstanding, and played every game. He hasn’t missed a minute yet.”
For Cawley, playing in the PDL represents a step toward his ultimate goal — to play soccer professionally. The Centerville native currently lives in Las Vegas with his girlfriend, and his focus is squarely on daily training and regular games with the Mobsters in locales such as Provo, Albuquerque and Tucson.
“I have a good situation,” Cawley said. “I don’t see it as a vacation, but it’s close to it; you really are living the good life, playing soccer and living in Vegas.
“It’s near the professional level, and that’s where my dream is. I’m just taking this as a stepping stone to try to get to that level.”
As good as Southern Nevada has treated him, Cawley was excited to return home for a few days as the Mobsters took on BYU for Tuesday night’s match.
“Home is just down the street for me, so I feel like I am playing in my backyard,” he said. “There are a lot of family and friends here to see me, so I am excited to play in front of them.”
After he wraps up the summer with the Mobsters, Cawley feels like he’s learned how to be a better player for UVU. After the inaugural season in Division I, the Wolverines (9-7-2) have high expectations after a one-loss home record and a short trip to the Western Athletic Conference men’s soccer postseason tournament.
“I feel like we’ve got that historic year out of the way,” Cawley said. “We always wanted to get down to business, but I think this year is really going to be the year to get to it. We had the first-year program things out of the way, and now we’ve established ourselves as legit contenders. It’s going to be good.”
