Utah Soccer Hammers Houston, 4-1

August 28, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY - Utah soccer opened its home slate in style with a 4-1 humbling of Houston on Friday evening, Max Flom, Taylor Slattery, Natalie Vukic and Katie Rogers all got on the scoresheet for the Utes.

"I was really pleased with our performance in the first half as we showed quality in the attacking half of the field,” head coach Rich Manning said. “It was a great improvement from last week.”

Utah peppered the visiting goal early with six shots in the first 13 minutes. The breakthrough occurred when a ball was floated into the penalty area during the 14th minute. Megan Trabert nicked the ball with her head and Flom was there to poach her first collegiate goal.

In the 28th minute, the Utes doubled their lead when Paola van der Veen played a lovely thru-ball to Slattery. The junior rifled a shot to the lower right corner for her first goal of the season and sixth of her career. Van der Veen had also seen a try ping off the crossbar just moments before the goal.

Two minutes later, Slattery turned provider and delivered a beautiful cross that was finished off by Vukic. Utah dominated the first 45 minutes, scoring three goals and out-shooting the Cougars, 15-0.

In the 62nd minute, Houston’s Selena Peters fired a rocket from about 30 yards out to get the Cougars on the board. However, Utah responded and got the goal back in the 86th minute when a Van der Veen free-kick wasn’t handled cleanly and Rogers chested the ball past the goalkeeper for the final score. It was the first goal of the year for Rogers and the fifth of her career.

"We have to play better for longer stretches and that's something to focus on for Sunday,” Manning added. “We need to play a full 90 minutes. However, we got some people valuable minutes. Some players who worked hard in training got rewarded with time today."

“I was really glad to see us execute and score goals in the first half because we had trouble last weekend,” Van der Veen said. “In the second half, we were able to still create some opportunities but we definitely have some things to work on."

Lindsey Luke played 58 minutes and registered two saves while July Gentry saw her first action as a Ute, playing the final 32 minutes.

The last time Utah scored four goals in a game was last season vs. Utah Valley (4-0, 9/21/14).

Utah returns to action on Sunday when it hosts Cal State Fullerton at 1 p.m