Fresh-faced Cougars snap losing skid with 2-0 win over Boise State

PROVO — It may have been the youngest starting 11 in BYU women's soccer history, but Wednesday night proved the kids are all right after a tough week for the Cougars.

Freshmen Ella Labrum and Halle Dixon each opened their season account as BYU women's soccer snapped a two-match losing skid 2-0 against Boise State in front of an announced crowd of 4,141 fans at South Field.

Playing their second consecutive match without two of their top scorers from last year's team in Allie Fryer and Erin Bailey, the Cougars started five freshmen and four sophomores that settled in and held off an excitable, hard-pressing Broncos side in front of a standing room-only student section on the first night of classes of the fall semester.

"I think this is the youngest team that's ever started a BYU soccer game, would be my guess, and as far as the amount of minutes played," said BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood, who took the program from club status to NCAA Division I nearly 30 years ago. "We're also getting more experienced. We've got five games behind us against some of the toughest competition in the country, and we've stood strong and gotten better, learning our positions, and some people are stepping up.

"It's what we wanted to do before conference play starts. We've got one more test against Arkansas, another very athletic, physical, direct team and this was a very good test for us."

The Cougars (2-2-2) were coming off back-to-back losses last week — a 1-0 road setback at then-No. 3 UCLA followed by a 2-1 defeat to in-state rival Utah State, which propelled the Aggies (5-0) to No. 11 in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll and dropped the Cougars out of the rankings (BYU, like crosstown rival Utah Valley, received five votes).

Unbeaten in three matches against Portland State, Idaho State and UC Riverside, Boise State came out firing in the opening minutes.

The Broncos out-shot BYU 5-2 early, including one that caromed off the right post less than a minute in, but couldn't put a shot on target before the 16th minute. That's when freshman Labrum crashed the box in her first career start and placed the edge of her left boot on Emma Hamberlin's cross from the end line to give the Cougars a 1-0 advantage with their first shot on target.

It was the second-earliest goal scored by BYU in the 2024 season, which had just four goals to five goals against en route to a 1-2-2 start.

Dixon doubled the advantage in the 35th minute, taking a turned over ball across midfield before lacing a rocket from close to 30 yards out under the crossbar for the 2-0 advantage.

The 5-foot-2 freshman from Carlsbad, California, cut to the left, reversed course to the right, and found herself wide open in the middle of the park for her first of her career after redshirting the 2023 season.

"I saw there was an open gap, and honestly just hit it — and it went in," Dixon recalled.

With a moment of candor and a laugh, Rockwood joked Dixon's shot was an example of the many players "shooting from probably further out than we should."

"Halle is one of our best shooters, and so it's not surprising she was able to put that in," Rockwood said.

Dixon hit the ball with confidence, but from an unlikely position — for some, at least. Before a stunned home crowd raised the decibels, BYU teammate Ellie Walbruch, who has been something of an assistant coach while rehabbing an ACL injury in the spring, saw the moment play out and yelled, "take a shot."

And Dixon didn't think twice.

The Cougars held Boise State without a shot on goal until Carly Cross' directed one directly at Hernaez in the 34th minute. The Broncos matched the hosts with eight shots apiece in the first half, but BYU put four of its shots on target to just one for Boise State.

Lynette Hernaez made three saves to earn the shutout for BYU (2-2-2), her second of the season and first since a 1-0 win over then-No. 19 Wisconsin in the season opener Aug. 15.

"We're finding our groove as a team, game-by-game, making progress and getting better every day," Dixon said. "That's kind of our motto this year. We found a lot of pockets as a team, and the younger girls are stepping into their roles. It was a total-team effort tonight, and I'm so proud of us."

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