It was right there for Carly Wyatt.
The Crimson Tide freshman forward rebounded her own shot on BYU goalkeeper Sabrina Davis, spun around and had a good look at the goal, but she tapped the ball wide left.
That was the best chance for an equalizing goal in Thursday’s season opener with the Cougars at the Alabama Soccer Complex. Alabama fell 1-0.
“If there was someone who we would have liked for that shot to fall to she would be the one,” Alabama coach Wes Hart said. “She’s been burying stuff in practice and she is so good in front of goal but it just didn’t go in for us tonight.”
BYU scored the only goal in the eighth minute by Mikayla Colohan with an assist from Lizzy Brazzy.
The result wasn’t what Hart and the Crimson Tide wanted to start the season but there were positives to be found.
“We showed some things tonight that lead me to believe that we are going to be OK,” Hart said. “Whether we won or lost we have to put it behind us and focus on Utah.”
Alabama came out aggressive in the second half, pushing the ball into BYU’s side of the field relentlessly in the first 30 minutes. The Crimson Tide got off five second-half shots but couldn’t connect.
“I think they had the better of the play early on in the first half,” Hart said. “But as we went to the bench I thought they gave us some energy and as the half went on I think we played ourselves back into the game and created some chances late in the half.
“It took us a little while to get into it but once we got into it and they started believing that helped. I’m gutted by the fact we lost but I’m not disappointed in the quality of the effort.”
Four of Alabama’s 11 freshmen started, including Serena Pham, Macy Clem, Carlee Giammona and Reyna Reyes
“A lot of those freshmen didn’t play like freshmen,” Hart said. “You can go down the list. If they continue to get better like we think they are we are going to be OK.”
Alabama (0-1) hosts Utah on Sunday at 1 p.m.
