AMES – From the first minute of the game, the Iowa State soccer team couldn’t find success, resulting in a 7-0 loss against No. 6 BYU which dropped the Cyclones to 4-8-1 on the season.

Iowa State couldn’t get anything going both offensively and defensively as they allowed an opening goal to the Cougars in the second minute of the game from Bella Folino off an assist from Kendell Petersen. This defensive mistake set the tone for the entirety of the match.

At the 12-minute mark of the match, Abigail Miller crossed a perfect ball to Mira Emma who headed the ball towards goal. However, she missed wide right of the net. That chance would be one of the Cyclone’s closest at shortening the blow that the Cougars gave them.

The only stat-line where the Cyclones did better than BYU was in saves. The Cyclones got a new team best-of-the-season 13 saves thanks to the duo of Avery Gillahan with five and Haley Woodward with eight. Woodward saw her first action as a Cyclone for the entire second half when most of the reserves were in.

“We can learn plenty,” head coach Matt Fannon said. “We knew with a three-game week that we’d be rotating our players throughout the game, and everyone got the opportunity to show what they can do.”

The Cougars came to Ames and showed why they were once the No. 1 team in the nation and how they are currently the No. 6  team as they showed no mercy from start to finish. They scored their second goal of the match at the 12-minute mark off a powerful free-kick strike from Brecken Mozingo. Less than 10 minutes later, Erin Bailey got on the box score for the Cougars with a goal thanks to an assist from Sierra Pennock, making it 3-0.

At the half, the game wasn’t entirely out of reach. However, BYU led the match 3-0 with a 12-6 shot advantage, 8-0 shot-on-goal advantage and 5-1 corner-kick advantage.

The Cougars came out hot after halftime and put another goal on the Cyclones at the 50-minute mark from Bailey, her second goal of the game. Folino and Olivia Wade-Katoa each got credited with the assist.

The Cyclones seemed to have waived the white flag, considering every starter and player who consistently gets minutes did not touch the pitch for the rest of the game. BYU did not care and would go on to score three more goals in the second half, tallying to a 7-goal performance. Ellie Boren, Zoe Jacobs and Ellie Walbruch all contributed to the blowout and were responsible for the Cougars’ three unanswered second-half goals.

BYU ended the matchup with a 30-10 shot advantage, a 20-2 shot-on-goal advantage, an 11-2 corner-kick advantage and a 57% possession advantage over the Cyclones.

The only thing that the Cyclones could do was try to drain the clock and get ready for their next match in three short days.

“We realized that at the end of the day, BYU is a team that is challenging for the national title, and we’re not there yet,” Fannon said. “We were able to put in a game plan where we got to see people were ready for it, but we’ll be doing something very different on Thursday.”

Fannon respects BYU and acknowledged the gap in where their team is compared to the Cyclones at this point. All he can do is get his team ready mentally and physically for their next match and hope to turn things around to get back into the Big 12 Conference race.

The Cyclones look to get back on track as they travel to Texas to take on Baylor at 7 p.m. Thursday. The game will stream on ESPN+.