PROVO — If you've beaten the same team three times by a combined score of 17-0, how do you possibly get up for a fourth encounter?
You can either listen to Anthony Robbins tapes until his motivation becomes an ear-piercing pain, or you can be patient.
For their own sanity, the Utah Blitzz opted for patience and it paid off in the form of a 5-2 victory over the Northern Nevada Aces on Saturday night.
"The biggest dilemma was trying to motivate them to go out there and get the win and not let the win come to them," said Blitzz coach Chris Agnello.
That became somewhat difficult in the beginning. Nevada came out with a very defensive approach, obviously embarrassed by the previous three results against Utah, including Friday's 5-0 shellacking.
The Aces were content to drop five guys back, play defensively and hope for a counterattack opportunity.
"I was pretty impressed with their coach," said Agnello. "He played us like we play a lot of teams."
The approach paid off right away as Ernesto Oliden unspooled a 40-yard rocket into the upper right-hand corner to put the Aces up 1-0 in the eighth minute. Not bad for a team that in eight games had only scored twice. It's especially impressive considering Utah hadn't allowed a goal in over 430 minutes.
None of this worried the Blitzz.
They knew that despite their offensive mediocrity through the first 55 minutes, there was still plenty of soccer to be played. And like clockwork, the goals started soaring in from all angles.
Blitzz defender Adolfo Ovalle snapped the 1-1 tie with a 57th minute header off a Jorge Estrada corner. Two minutes later Fadi Afash scored his team-leading ninth goal, and eight minutes after that an Aces' own goal put the Blitzz up 4-1.
"I don't know if there was any point during the game that I didn't think we'd get the result we wanted," said Agnello.
Northern Nevada made things interesting in the 79th minute when Rafael Loera scored on a breakaway to cut the deficit to 4-2. Unfortunately for the Aces, the excitement was short-lived as Utah's Ovalle recorded his second goal on another header in the 82nd minute.
The victory improved Utah's record to 6-0-1.
Utah returns to action next weekend when they visit the Northwest to wrap up U.S. Open Cup qualifying. The Blitzz will play Seattle on Friday and Portland on Saturday. Both teams are in the A League, but for Open Cup qualifying they're paired with Utah.
Utah's next home game is Saturday, June 23, against the Denver Cougars.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com