The Ole Miss soccer team opened their home schedule with a dominant 4-0 win over the Boise State Broncos Sunday afternoon. The Rebels improved their record to 1-0-1, while the Broncos fell to 0-2-0.
“I’m really pleased,” Ole Miss head coach Matthew Mott said. “We came out and had great energy and great focus. We wanted to come out and set the tone of the game early, and we did that.”
After lightning in the area delayed kickoff for nearly an hour, the Rebels came out aggressive and didn’t let up. Junior forward and midfielder Addie Forbus opened the scoring in the third minute for the Rebels. Forbus shot from a tight angle, and though the Boise State goalkeeper made the save, the rebound came back to Forbus. She was then able to knock it home.
“One of our goals is to be the first ones to put the ball in the back of the net,” Forbus said. “It was a great ball from Gretchen [Harknett]. We looked at each other and just knew it was the time to play it, and it worked out.”
Junior forward Danielle Gray scored her first goal as a Rebel to give Ole Miss a 2-0 lead. In the 31st minute, the transfer from Kennesaw State sliced through the midfield and laid a pass off to Forbus at the near side of the box. Forbus returned the pass to an open Gray, who knocked it in the upper corner of the net past the diving Boise State keeper.
Freshman forward and defender CeCe Kizer scored the first goal of her Ole Miss career in the 50th minute. Junior midfielder Sara Coleman escaped down the right side and sent a cross into the box. The ball fell to Kizer, who finished into the top corner off the hands of the Broncos keeper.
In the 64th minute, junior defender Georgia Russell pounced on a bad pass by Boise State, ran into the box and was knocked down, earning a penalty kick. Senior forward and midfielder Olivia Harrison sent the Bronco keeper the wrong way and converted the penalty to give Ole Miss a 4-0 lead.
“This was definitely the day we decided we were going to put the ball in the back of the net, and it was time to start scoring some goals,” Forbus said. “We had options moving off the ball and I really think that helped us find a flow in the attack.”
Defensively, the Rebels prevented the Broncos from taking a single corner kick or shot.
“We put a lot of early pressure on the ball that didn’t allow them to serve the ball behind us,” Mott said. “We knew they wanted to try to get the ball behind us, so when they did try to serve it we were in good position. The defenders stepped in and won a lot of balls.”
The Rebels will continue their seven-game home stand Friday night against Louisiana-Lafayette. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.
