Bolstered by a strong offensive and defensive effort, Dixie State’s men’s soccer team extended its winning streak to eight straight and remained perfect in Pacific West Conference play with a 3-0 road victory at Hawai’i Pacific on Monday in Waipahu.
DSU (8-3-0, 6-0-0 PacWest) broke open the scoring late in the 22nd minute when sophomore midfielder Gabby Medina netted his team-leading fourth goal of the year on a straight-away blast from 25 yards out to put the Trailblazers up 1-0.
Dixie State tacked on a pair of insurance goals in the second half, the first coming off the boot of junior midfielder Sean Jenne (two) in the waning seconds of the 53rd minute. Then 11 minutes later, junior midfielder Ather Dawood tucked home his third goal of the year to stake DSU to a three-goal cushion.
The offensive support was more than enough for the DSU defense, which held the Sharks (2-4-4, 2-2-2 PacWest) to just two shots on goal and seven total attempts for the match. Trailblazer goalkeeper Zach Nielson, who earlier in the day was named PacWest Freshman of the Week, stopped the only shot attempt he faced in nearly 67 minutes of action to pick up his third collegiate win, while sophomore reserve netminder Eddie Ortiz played a scoreless 23:15 in goal with one save to close out the match.
DSU will play match three of its four-match Hawaiian road swing this Thursday at Hawai’i Hilo.
Steve Johnson is the Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations and Collegiate Licensing at Dixie State University. For more DSU Athletics news, please visit www.dixieathletics.com and follow Dixie State on Twitter at @DixieAthletics.