'An unbelievable effort': BYU's 4 second-half goals upend North Carolina for College Cup berth

PROVO — After falling to North Carolina 3-2 in last year's Round of 16 and trailing by as much as 3-0 at halftime, No. 6 BYU women's soccer flipped the script on the winningest program in collegiate women's soccer.

Olivia Wade-Katoa scored the game-winning goal off an assist from Brecken Mozingo, and the Cougars scored four unanswered goals to rally past No. 3 North Carolina 4-3 in front of a sold-out crowd of 3,487 fans Friday night at a wintry South Field.

Bella Folino scored twice for BYU (20-2-3) and Mozingo added a goal in addition to her match-winning assist.

Ally Sentnor had two goals and an assist for North Carolina, which was out-shot 25-14 including 13-8 shots in shots on target after holding back-to-back teams without a shot on goal in tournament wins over Alabama and Texas Tech.

Macey Bell added a goal for UNC (13-2-8).

"What an amazing game," BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "To have North Carolina at South Field for that game was an honor; Anson and his program have been the standard since before I started coaching."

With the win, the Cougars advanced to the College Cup semifinals for the second time in program history — all in the last three years — with the largest second-half rally in South Field history.

"We felt like we had turned the momentum around towards the end of the first half, and we challenged them to believe we could get one more goal," Rockwood said. "An unbelievable effort; you could feel the momentum shifting throughout the second half."

Down but not out early, when the Cougars needed a moment of magic, it was UCLA transfer Ellie Walbruch that delivered.

After trailing from the second minute — and 3-0 after a half hour — Folino pulled one back in the 60th minute, recovering Wade-Katoa's blocked shot to cut the deficit within 3-1.

Game on.

"After those three goals, we were shocked. But I don't think we ever got to a point where we didn't think we could come back from this," BYU defender Laveni Vaka said. "Back again to grit; this team has so much grit and so much passion."

Mozingo scored off a corner kick in the 81st minute, but the Cougars weren't done yet.

Walbruch took advantage of a turnover and sprinted to the end line, where she crossed a ball into the box in the 82nd minute. After taking a touch off the UNC defense, Folino poked home the rebound at the back post to equalize and send the standing room-only crowd to its feet.

With the win, BYU advanced to the NCAA College Cup semifinals Dec. 1 in Cary, North Carolina. The Cougars will be joined by No. 1 overall seed Florida State, No. 2 Stanford, and the winner of Saturday's match between No. 2 Penn State and No. 1 Clemson.

After back-to-back shutouts without allowing a shot on goal, North Carolina played from ahead from the second minute. That's when Ally Sentnor sent a corner kick to Bell's head, and the fifth-year senior directed a high-arching shot inside the far post for the 1-0 advantage.

Sentnor doubled the advantage in the ninth minute, cutting across the back line before sliding a right-footed shot into the back of the net to go up 2-0. The U.S. U-20 international who helped the Americans to a runner-up finish at the U-20 World Cup did it again in the 20th minute, ripping a free kick from the right corner of the box to stretch the lead to 3-0.

Walbruch had a chance to pull one back in the 25th minute. But after dispatching a hapless defender for a turnover, the UCLA transfer's shot toward the bottom left corner was saved by Emmie Allen — the redshirt sophomore's first save since the opening round of the tournament back on Nov. 10.

The Tar Heels out-shot the Cougars 8-5 in the first half, holding the hosts to just two shots on goal while producing six of their own.

But a player-led meeting at halftime turned the whole thing around for a BYU squad that out-shot the visitors 25-14 with 13 shots on target, team captain Jamie Shepherd said. The meeting came after Rockwood and her assistants addressed the team briefly. The theme of the message: Go find one goal, and see what happens.

The seniors had another idea.

"We gathered together and said, 'we got this,'" Shepherd recalled. "You could feel that in the second half. … We came out and played our game, and when we're playing our game, we score goals."

Folino's goal in the 60th minute followed a spell of pressure and a blocked shot by Wade-Katoa. But the senior was in front of goal to put her right boot on the ball slam it into the back of the net to prevent the shutout.

BYU made it interesting with 10 minutes to go, when Mozingo bent in a corner kick from the right side that caromed off a UNC defender into the back of the net to cut the deficit to 3-2.

That set up a comeback for the ages, with Folino nodding home her second goal off a back-post run in the 82nd minute before Katoa crushed the match-winner just over a minute later.

Anson Dorrance, the former U.S. women's national team coach and convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in his fifth decade coaching at North Carolina, said he had never seen anything like it.

"Anson has set the standard for all of us coaches and players and every program in Division I women's soccer," Rockwood said. "If he hasn't seen something like that, I'm not sure if it's ever happened before."

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