Freshman earns unexpected start — and clean sheet — in Boise State soccer’s home opener
Genevieve Crenshaw had no idea she’d be starting until she saw her name written on the whiteboard in the locker room Friday afternoon.
With the winningest goalkeeper in program history (by percentage) in line ahead of her, the freshman from Cypress, California, had to take a minute to slow her pounding heart.
In her first collegiate start, Crenshaw made six saves and earned a clean sheet to help the Boise State women’s soccer team take down previously unbeaten Fresno State, 3-0, on Friday in Mountain West action at Boas Soccer Complex. It was the Broncos’ first home match in nearly 500 days after the coronavirus pandemic derailed their traditional fall season in 2020.
Crenshaw started in place of junior Sydney Smith, a Caldwell High graduate, who had started the Broncos’ first three games of the season in goal and has a career record of 19-6-1. Smith also started all 22 of the Broncos’ games in 2019.
“We’re really, really lucky to have two tremendous goalkeepers,” Boise State coach Jim Thomas said. “It’s the weirdest position out there that everyone else gets rotated all the time but when you have a good goalkeeper, you normally just stick with the good goalkeeper. Right?
“But we have two tremendous goalkeepers, and you can see Birdie (Crenshaw) was fantastic today, and it’s important that we continue to develop and offer opportunities to play. That’s all it is. Sydney’s been brilliant all week, and we’ll figure out what we’re gonna do on Sunday. Good problem, though.”
While Thomas will assume the burden of determining who starts in goal for Boise State’s 1 p.m. home game Sunday against San Jose State, Crenshaw and Smith haven’t let the competition for playing time affect their friendship.
“I would say that’s one of my strongest relationships on the field, even off the field, too. We get along really well,” Crenshaw said. “She’s made it very easy to transition in. If you saw after the game, she’s one of my biggest supporters. ... It makes it really easy for me to want to play good to make her even better as well. I think pushing each other is one of the best things that we do at practice.”
If Crenshaw was fighting nerves in the opening minutes of Friday’s match — her first in nearly a year and a half — sophomore teammate Keile Hansen provided the rookie a boost of confidence with an unassisted goal in the 6th minute. It was Hansen’s first goal of the season and second of her career.
“Keile’s a tremendous finisher,” Thomas said. “She’s a forward by trade, but she’s learning the outside back role. So sticking her back in the old nine (spot), she was happy with it. I’m proud of her for getting the goal, and I thought she was really effective throughout the day.”
The Bulldogs (3-1-0) outshot the Broncos 6-5 in the first half, including a series of three different shots from Fresno State senior Ele Avery in the 40th and 41st minutes and another from junior Lorena Montanes in the 44th that put Crenshaw’s mettle to the test.
“Birdie did so well today. We are so proud of how she played,” Hansen said. “It’s always a competition for them in practice, and I think they have a lot of fun with it.”
The Broncos (2-1-1) ended up with a 14-11 shot advantage after an attacking second half that saw a goal from freshman forward Mariah Albin, a Boise High grad, in the 79th minute off a cross from sophomore Grace Kaufman-Fuller. Albin leads the Broncos with two goals this season.
Boise State struck again less than a minute later when freshman Mia Burns scored her first collegiate goal with an assist from senior Aubree Chatterton (Bishop Kelly High).
“I think we have to learn, grow (and) educate. Bring people on to the culture of our program, whilst winning,” said Thomas, whose Broncos have claimed at least a share of the last two Mountain West regular-season titles. “We’re not rebuilding, we’re just trying to reteach. We’re trying to win the whole thing, and that’s why today against a team as good as Fresno State, that was a really important victory for us.”
The Mountain West is playing a condensed spring soccer season consisting of a 10-match, conference-only schedule in a divisional double round-robin format. The two divisional winners will then face off April 17 to determine the conference’s NCAA Tournament qualifier.
Boise State is in the West Division along with Fresno State, San Diego State, UNLV, Nevada and San Jose State. The Mountain Division consists of New Mexico, Colorado College, Colorado State, Air Force, Utah State and Wyoming.
The Broncos, who were voted co-preseason favorites with SDSU by the league’s 12 coaches, have five home games and five road matches. Their remaining home games are Sunday (San Jose State), March 27 (Nevada), April 9 (San Diego State) and April 11 (UNLV).
“I think we have a lot of learning to do,” Hansen said. “If we continue to play the way that we do and we continue to build one week after another, then by the end of this we can keep building this momentum and head straight into the fall.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 12:29 AM.
