Boise State Cruises to 4-0 Win In Home Opener

Thursday, August 26

Boise, Idaho

5 P.M. MT

Boise State

2-0-0, 0-0-0

Dixie State

1-2-0, 0-0-0

Dixie St.

Boise St.

8/26/2021 8:47:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

BOISE, Idaho – Four different Broncos scored their first goals of the season as Boise State women's soccer rolled past Dixie State 4-0 in its home-opening match at Boas Soccer Complex Thursday evening.

It only took the Broncos four minutes and 32-seconds to find the opener when junior-forward Keile Hansen scored off of the rebound of her own shot to give her team the early advantage.

A little over eight minutes later Abby Bivens dribbled the ball to the top of the box and delivered a beautiful strike past the keeper to open up the match 2-0 where it remained going into the half.

The Trailblazers opened up the second half with a pressing attack that led to several corners in the first few minutes. Goalkeeper Sydney Smith made an acrobatic save on a shot that was heading for the top corner of the goal to keep Dixie State off of the board.

The Broncos settled in soon enough, and in the 68th minute Grace Pekovich put a ball through to redshirt-freshman Sophie Drown who sneaked it in for the first goal of her collegiate career. Two minutes later Payton McBride linked up with Mia Burns who netted it with ease, and in the blink of an eye Boise State was up 4-0.

Boise State has now won four-straight home openers. The zero on the Trailblazers' side of the board also meant it was the first time since 2008 that the Broncos have had back-to-back shutouts to start a season.

Smith's outstanding performance pushed her further up the ranks in Boise State history. She now sits alone at No. 3 for career shutouts with 15 and tied Jeanne Orm for fifth in program history with 21 career wins.

But even with a 4-0 result, head coach Jim Thomas knows the team still has room for improvement.

"It was certainly an up-and-down game for us," said Thomas. "This is going to be our journey this year. We're a lot further out of this new era of our program. This is a new personality and a new identity for us. We have so much depth it's mind-blowing, but we're really young in that and still learning the essence of competition."

The Broncos are back in action Sunday as they host Pacific at 1 p.m. at Boas Soccer Complex. A neutral-site match between North Dakota State and Dixie State will take place before at 10 a.m. at Boas Soccer Complex.