BOISE, Idaho - After a close loss to open the 2017 season Friday night, the Southern Utah soccer team made the trip to Idaho to take on the Boise State Broncos. The Thunderbirds were able to strike first, but five unanswered goals from the Broncos gave them the 5-1 win over Southern Utah.

"Credit to Boise, they came off of a tough loss on Friday, losing on an own goal," head coach Fred Thompson said. "They did a really good job pressing and sometimes we handled that easily and sometimes we didn't. They are a good team and they have some good athletes and it is always going to be a difficult game."

Payton Wells scored the lone goal for the Thunderbirds, the team's first of the season, when she blocked a kick from Bronco goalkeeper Janelle Flores off the crossbar and hammered home the rebound to put the Thunderbirds up 1-0 in the third minute.

"No matter how you are playing, at the end of the day you need goals to win games so that was a great way to start," Thompson said. "It gets that first goal taken care of in the first weekend instead of going two or three weekends without scoring a goal."

The Thunderbirds held a 1-0 lead until the 27th minute when BSU's Sarah Taylor tied the game with her first goal of the season. The Broncos would go on to score two more goals in the first half, giving them a 3-1 lead at halftime.

The Thunderbirds were stronger defensively in the second half, holding the Broncos to just nine shots, but Boise State was still able to extend their lead with goals in the 76th and 78th minutes. Senior Baylee Blaser had a two goal game for the Broncos with a goal in each half. For the second game in a row the Thunderbirds had less fouls than their opponent, with just seven to BSU's 10.

"As coaches we learned a lot today," Thompson said. "We learned physically who can do more on Sundays and what adjustments we will need to make to the lineups and such moving forward. It's a learning process and we'll take this information and use it to get better from here."

The Thunderbirds will now turn their attention to next weekend when they will face two more Mountain West opponents in Wyoming and UNLV.

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