Region 9 girls soccer recap: Desert Hills tops Dixie to stay unbeaten in region

Desert Hills at Snow Canyon, St. George, Utah, Aug. 25, 2020 | Photo by Dave Larson, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Region 9 girls soccer action continues to heat up, with Desert Hills prevailing at home Thursday night over Dixie to improve to 3-0 in region play. The Flyers dropped to 2-1 in region play with the loss, putting Dixie in a tie with Hurricane and Cedar for second place in the Region 9 standings. See chart at bottom of story for team standings and season records to date.

On Tuesday, all four contests were shutouts. However, on Thursday nearly every team scored. Here’s a recap of this week’s action, followed by a gallery of assorted game photos:

Thursday’s games

Cedar 2, Crimson Cliffs 1 

Crimson Cliffs at Cedar, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 27, 2020 | Photo by London Richards for St. George News / Cedar City News

At Cedar City, the Reds scored two goals in the first half and hung on to defeat Crimson Cliffs, 2-1. Jaccey Messer and Sydney Craft each netted a goal for Cedar. Mustang goalkeeper Ellie Nielsen was sidelined in the second half after taking a knee to the eye. Jantzyn Losee scored for the Mustangs with five minutes left in the game.

“We outshot them and just couldn’t finish,” Crimson Cliffs head coach Andy Yergensen said.

Pine View 4, Canyon View 2

At Pine View, the Panthers fell behind by two goals early in the game, as Addison Newman and Brylee Bergener each scored for the Falcons.

Pine View rallied to even the score 2-2 by halftime, thanks to goals by Emma Lloyd and Emmy Eide. The Panthers then pulled away with two more goals in the second half to win 4-2. Cierra Barber and Mairen Maclellan accounted for those two scores, each of them being assisted by Katelyn Leavitt. Maclellan’s was a header off a corner kick.

“We played well in the first half but simply ran out of steam in the second half,” said Canyon View coach Steven Newman.

Pine View coach Sam Johnston added: “Our defense did a much better job in the second half of limiting their opportunities.”

Desert Hills 3, Dixie 0

At Desert Hills, the Thunder faced the only other 2-0 team in Region 9, the Dixie Flyers. During the scoreless first half, the teams battled evenly, but Desert Hills opened up offensively in the second half and eventually rolled to a 3-0 win.

Dixie at Desert Hills, St. George, Utah, Aug. 27, 2020 | Photo by Ryne Williams, St. George News

“We’ve got to get a little bit more prepared at the start, and that starts with me,” Desert Hills head coach Benji Nelson said of the Thunder’s somewhat sluggish first half. “We changed our formation the second half.”

Nelson added that the move is designed to create more offensive opportunities.

“We’ve done that in the last couple of games,” he said. “We’re trying to see what’s best, and I think we figured out the last couple games, where we’ve gotten to the one formation that is providing a lot more attack, and we’re still doing well defensively.”

Maia Parry, Kooper Dennison and Elle Tremea each scored a goal for the Thunder in the second half.

Despite his team’s 3-0 start in region play, Nelson said Desert Hills still has a lot of work to do.

“We know we’re winning, which is great,” he said. “But right now I don’t feel like we’re ready to go win a state championship. We’ve still got lots of improvement to do, which is a good thing. We’re not peaking yet, and we’re going to just keep getting better every game, and hopefully things will work out that we start peaking towards the end of the region and into the state playoffs.”

Hurricane 4, Snow Canyon 2

At Hurricane, the Tigers got a standout performance from Lydia Prince, who recorded two goals and an assist. Hurricane led 3-2 at halftime and netted one more insurance goal in the second half.

Lilly Wittwer and Lauren Scott each scored a goal for the Warriors.

Tuesday’s games

Hurricane 1, Canyon View 0

Hurricane at Canyon View, Cedar City, Utah, Aug. 25, 2020 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News

At Canyon View, the Tigers scored the only goal of the game with about 10:30 left in the second half, when Kendie Postma connected from long range. Goalkeeper Jazz Shannon recorded the shutout for Hurricane.

Hurricane coach Craig Butcher credited the standout performance by midfielder Hailey Lemmon in helping the team get its first win of the season.

“Her energy is amazing,” Butcher said.

Dixie 1, Cedar 0

At Dixie, the Flyers shut out the Reds 1-0, with Katie Mills earning the shutout for Dixie. Hali’a Pelton scored the only goal of the game in the second half, knocking in a ball that had been getting knocked around by multiple players inside the goalie’s box.

“They put it in before we could clear it,” said Cedar head coach Scott Kamachi. “We played well, just couldn’t get the ball in the goal.”

Desert Hills 2, Snow Canyon 0

At Snow Canyon, the Lady Thunder picked up a tough 2-0 win on the road over Snow Canyon. Jaynee Hinton scored in the first half, assisted by Ellie Hendricks. Jayden Nelson netted an insurance goal in the second half, assisted by Kooper Dennison.

Goalkeeper Kenna DeCastro recorded the shutout for the Thunder.

Crimson Cliffs 4, Pine View 0

At Crimson Cliffs, Jantzyn Losee scored a hat trick for the Mustangs as they defeated Pine View 4-0. Losee’s first goal came midway through the first half, when she took a pass from teammate Ally Matheson, sped past the defenders and fired a shot into the corner of the net.

A few minutes later, Matheson scored on an assist from Belle Meadows. Meadows also assisted on Losee’s third and final goal in the second half.

“I can’t say enough about the Mustang defense,” Crimson Cliffs head coach Andy Yergensen said. “They turned away the Pine View attack many times.”

The game marked the third consecutive shutout for Mustang goalkeeper Ellie Nielsen.

Region 9 girls soccer standings (as of Aug. 28)

  1. Desert Hills 3-0 (3-2)
  2. (tie) Dixie 2-1 (2-4)
  3. (tie) Hurricane 2-1 (2-3)
  4. (tie) Cedar 2-1 (2-3)
  5. (tie) Crimson Cliffs 1-2 (2-3)
  6. (tie) Canyon View 1-2 (3-2)
  7. (tie) Pine View 1-2 (3-2)
  8. Snow Canyon 0-3 (2-4)

St. George News reporter Ryne Williams contributed to this report.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.

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