CEDAR CITY — Dixie High School girl’s soccer team visited Canyon View High and left with a 4-2 victory, thanks to help from the youngsters.
The Flyers dominated the match in many aspects and led the Falcons in all categories including more fouls and cards.
But it took some help from the Flyers youth movement to finish the job. All four goals were scored by underclassmen. DHS head coach Burt Myers thinks the team is making strides physically and mentally.
“Some players are in better shape than others right now,” he said. “Those are the ones that are seeing a lot of the minutes and producing for us. I think we are behind where we’ve been the last few years because of the fact we haven’t had a decent field to practice on and lights in the morning to practice with (because of construction). This game was a big stepping stone for us. It gave us some confidence. I was happy with what we accomplished. I was happy (that) the freshmen Kelsee (Call) had two (goals) and Kennedy (Warnick) had one, and then our sophomore Vanessa (Bonilla) had one. I’m glad to see them attacking the goal and getting some good shots.”
Dixie’s Bonilla started the scoring in the match with 20:29 left in the first half with a nice run off a pass to stay onside, but then was left basically one-on-one with the keeper for an easy score. Call scored next 10-minutes later on a similar play.
“I think we played really well together as a team,” Call said. “We were able to combine, and that’s how we were able to score all those goals.”
It looked like it would be all Dixie the rest of the game until a counter-attack gave the Falcons a free kick, and a Flyer defender a yellow card, just outside of the box. Ryane Caldwell took it and put in the goal over the keeper and off the crossbar. Dixie led 2-1 at halftime.
Momentum stayed in favor of Canyon View as the second half got underway when CV’s Allie Lloyd found the back of the net just eight minutes into the half to tie it up. Moments later Lloyd also got a great pass and found a way around the keeper to have a wide open goal that she put just wide of the post.
“I thought it was going to be 3-2 — (Lloyd) just pushed it by the post and it was wide open,” Myers said. “We put some fresh legs in there and I think that’s what gave us the advantage. They didn’t match our change. We were fresh and we were able to get that one quick goal and then we had them on their heels.”
Dixie’s Warnick then scored the go-ahead third goal for Dixie with a slick run through defenders and a chipped shot over the keeper with 17:15 left in the game. She said she knew someone needed to make a play to ensure a victory after the near-miss by Lloyd.
“We knew we needed to step it up and not let it get into their half,” Warnick said. “We just realized that we weren’t going to get ahead if we didn’t try harder.”
Dixie’s Call also scored one more goal with 10 minutes left in the match to put the game further out of reach. Dixie had 18 shots on goal compared to CV’s four shots.
“We got some good looks,” Myers said. “We had one off the crossbar. I’m glad, because we’ve been passing up shots. In the second half, I thought we came out and instead of passing up shots, we were trying to find something even better. They were taking that opportunity and it was working out well for us.”
Dixie, 2-2-0, plays Clark High School from Las Vegas next on Friday at 7:30 p.m. CV drops to 1-3-1.
Desert Hills 6, Millard 0
Brooklyn Lott scored three times for the Lady Thunder in the blowout win.
Senior Kenzie Done scored two goals of her own as D-Hills cruised to the win. At one point, the Thunder scored four goal in an eight-minute span to take a relatively close 2-0 second-half lead and push it out to that six-goal advantage.
Brittney Moore got the shutout in goal and the Thunder improved to 1-3-1 on the season. Desert Hills next plays at Canyon View at 10 a.m. Saturday. Millard falls to 2-1-0.
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