Ole Miss defeats Boise State 4-0 for first win of season
Ole Miss soccer coach Matthew Mott felt like one got away from his team on Friday night at Florida Gulf Coast. Even some of his players were feeling the same way.
That wasn’t the case Sunday afternoon against Boise State as the Rebels (1-0-1) came out as the aggressors and didn’t give the Broncos any sort of room to breathe on offense. Ole Miss struck first on the scoreboard and continued its scoring attack into the second half on its way to a 4-0 victory.
(Click here for the box score.)
Olivia Harrison’s penalty shot in the second half insured the Rebels their first win of the season.
“Our goal was to come out with a ton of energy and I think we did that,” junior forward/midfielder Addie Forbus said. “We were definitely dominating them for the first 25 minutes. I think it’s always important to get the first goal.”
Ole Miss defeated Boise State 4-0 Sunday. (Photo credit: Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)
Sunday’s game was scheduled for tip-off at 12 p.m. CT, but due to a couple of 30-minute weather delays, both programs had to go to their respective locker rooms until the lightning passed them. The short delay didn’t seem to steer the Rebels in the wrong direction in their first home game of the 2015-16 season.
“With a weather delay, I thought we came out with great energy, great focus to start, especially with a long travel yesterday and playing Friday night down in Florida,” said Mott, who saw his team record 17 shot attempts and 14 corner kicks.
“Got that early goal, settled things down and was happy to get the second one before halftime and I thought we did well.”
Ole Miss controlled the entire first half with its defense, which led to a steady, fast-paced offense. In the third minute of the first half, Forbus followed her first shot attempt with a swift hard kick past Boise State’s goalkeeper Janelle Flores into the net. The Mississippi native added an assist to her stats sheet when she found freshman Danielle Gray by herself for an easy score from the top of the box.
The Broncos (0-2-0) couldn’t muster any rhythm on offense as Ole Miss smothered their attack and held Boise State to zero shot attempts. After the first 45 minutes, the Rebels held a 2-0 lead over the Broncos. Boise State’s only positive came from goalkeepers Tara Fisher and Flores, who combined to record six saves.
Flores had the most saves with five.
“We talked about coming out and setting the tone early and I thought we did that,” Mott said. “We talked about winning the first tackle, winning the first corner kick, and trying to get the first shot off. I thought on Friday, we were kind of on our back foot to start the game. And as we go forward, we want to be on the front foot to start for sure.”
Ole Miss will spend its next two games at home, starting with Louisiana-Lafayette (7 p.m. CT, SEC Network+) on Friday night, then facing Austin Peay (3 p.m. CT, SEC Network+) on Sunday afternoon.
(Feature image credit: Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics)
