This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Logan • When she recruited Jessica Brooksby out of nearby Sky View High School, Utah State soccer coach Heather Cairns gambled on the talented but injured-plagued forward.

Jackpot.

Now a junior, Brooksby has developed into one of the top offensive players in the Mountain West Conference. She has seven goals already this season — bumping her career total to 13 — and helped make Utah State look like a factor in the league race.

The Aggies come off an uplifting 2-0 win at Utah. They take a 5-3-1 record into this weekend's Mountain West openers against New Mexico (Friday) and defending champion San Diego State (Sunday).

"We were a little up-and-down in the beginning, due to the typical injuries and fitness issues you run into early in the season," Cairns said. "But we've played better as we've gone along and, right now, we're playing some of our best soccer. Hopefully we continue to build on that."

Brooksby has been a key to Utah State's early-season success. She recently produced the Aggies' first hat trick since 2011 during a 5-3 win over Idaho State. She scored the clinching second goal in the final minutes against Utah. She leads the Mountain West in goals scored and ranks 18th nationally.

For a time, however, Brooksby didn't know if she would get the opportunity to play college soccer.

At Sky View, she tore her ACL twice, which probably discouraged some coaches from recruiting her.

But not Cairns.

"It took a lot for coach to take a chance on me," Brooksby said. "But I'm glad she did."

In her first two seasons at Utah State, Brooksby played in 42 games. including 21 starts. She scored six goals and handed out five assists while continuing the grueling process of overcoming those knee injuries.

"It was tough coming back from that," Brooksby said. "It took me awhile. This is the first year since then I've felt completely healthy. So that's been a huge factor to my success on the field. … It's nice to feel healthy and strong."

Along with Brooksby, Utah State is led by goalkeeper Jeannie Woller, a senior from Waterford Academy. She made a career-high 13 saves in the win over Utah — the most by an Aggie since 1998.

"Jeannie has been fantastic for us," Cairns said. Behind the play of Brooksby and Woller, Utah State seems poised to make a run at qualifying for the Mountain West Conference tournament. The top six teams in the 12-team league advance to postseason play.

"We're going to take it one game at a time, but that's our short-term goal," Cairns said. luhm@sltrib.com

Twitter: @sluhm —

By the numbers

The career statistics of Utah State's Jessica Brooksby, including games, starts, goals and assists:

Year G S G A

2015 9 8 7 1

2014 20 17 4 3

2013 22 4 2 2