Dixie State soccer teams remain red hot with Saturday sweep

Photo courtesy DSU Athletics

ST. GEORGE –The Dixie State soccer teams continue their early season success. After both teams had tremendous closes to their seasons last year, they have continued that through their preseason and early conference schedules. The men’s team has now won 21 regular season games in a row, including 15 straight PacWest games. The women’s team finished last year winning nine of its last 11. Combined with this year’s start, they have won 15 of their last 18. Below are recaps of today’s matches:

Men’s soccer
Dixie State 1, Biola 0

Dixie State got a little luck in its home match against Biola and then played some tough defense to make that luck stick.

“The Biola goalkeeper was called for carrying the ball out of the box,” Dixie State head coach Jonny Broadhead said. “It was a controversial call, but that gave us a free kick right outside the box. Ather Dawood stepped up and got the shot on goal. The keeper was able to stop it but it went through his hands and dribbled across the line. Ascari Robles was there to make sure it went across with a tap. But Ather got the goal because it had crossed the goal line.”

The matchup was very physical. The teams combined for 33 fouls and five yellow cards. Two of those yellows came back-to-back from Robles and he was disqualified with just under 15 minutes remaining in the game.

“Biola was very physical, but not in a negative way,” said Broadhead. “They seemed to have a similar game plan that we had. They attacked our offense and tried to keep us from controlling the ball. Their physicality rattled us a little bit and we responded. We talked at halftime about keeping cooler heads. “

Down a man, the Dixie defense had to step up to protect its slim lead.

Bryan Baugh

“Our back line played very well,” Broadhead said. “Bryan Baugh did a good job getting to the crosses as did goalkeeper Zach Nielson. He had four saves tonight. Our midfield struggled defensively. We brought in Zach Beckman for defense in the midfield and that helped out tremendously.”

Biola outshot the Trailblazers 15-9 with both teams getting four shots on goal.

The Trailblazers remain undefeated at 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the PacWest. Biola drops to 1-4-1 overall and 0-1 in the conference. DSU has shutout its opponents the last four matches. The Blazers will host Hawaii Pacific in a conference matchup on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

Women’s soccer
Dixie State 2, Biola 0

Dixie State remained unbeaten in Pacific West Conference play after posting a hard-fought 2-0 result over previously-unbeaten Biola Saturday morning at Legend Solar Stadium.

Montana Hadley got the Trailblazers on the board late in the ninth minute of play when she caught the Eagles flat-footed on a corner kick chance and bent the attempt into the net for a game’s first goal.

Dixie State’s Bailey Kroll (25), Dixie State University vs. Dominican University, Women’s Soccer, St. George, Utah, Oct. 29, 2016, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Dixie State held the one-goal advantage for most of the second half, though the Trailblazers had several good looks to add an insurance goal in the stanza. In the 70th minute, Darian Murdock had a header chance blocked away by an Eagle defender, while Dixie High alum Alexa Estridge had a pair of shots stopped by the Biola keeper.

The Trailblazers finally broke through in the 84th minute when Tana Singley blasted a corner kick to the center of the box, which was headed over by Estridge to Bailey Kroll. She tucked in a header just past Rodriguez to spot DSU a two-goal lead.

The DSU defense played a stout 90 minutes as the Trailblazers held off eight Biola corner kick chances and limited the Eagles to just 10 shot attempts, four on frame. DSU net-minder Felicity Tarr made four saves, but none bigger than on a diving stop on a Biola blast from 12-yards out in the 63rd minute to preserve DSU’s lead.

“This game was a great test for us and a good battle. It was a great overall team win,” DSU head coach Kacey Bingham said. “We talked about our disappointment on corner kicks in our last game (vs. Chaminade Thursday) and the team responded well today. Our defense was amazing today. Kiley Lamb had an all-star game in the midfield and back line.”

Dixie State finished with 22 shots, 11 on goal, with Estridge accounting for four of the total attempts, while Kroll was credited with three shots on goal.

Dixie State continues its five-match homestand this Tuesday, Sept. 26, with a PacWest test against Hawai’i Pacific at 4:30 p.m.

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