ST. GEORGE, Utah—Dixie State didn't wait long to get a leg up on visiting Hawai`i Hilo on Thursday afternoon during a 2-0 women's soccer win at Legend Solar Stadium.
The Trailblazers scored less than two minutes into the match and again less than two minutes after the start of the second half to win their third straight match and send the Vulcans home with their third straight loss.
Dixie State improved to 10-3 on the season and to 6-2 in the Pacific West Conference. The Vulcans leave the southwest having dropped all three matches on this road trip against three squads in the upper half of the standings. They are now 6-6-1 overall and 3-5-1 in the PacWest.
Trailblazer fans weren't even settled into their seats when Dixie's Kilee Lamb scored on a set piece off a corner kick. Tana Singley sent the corner to the far post, where Nichole Mertz passed it to Lamb on the opposite side, and Lamb put it back inside the right post just 1:38 into the match.
Dixie State continued to fire, putting eight shots towards Vulcan goalkeeper
Jenna Hufford in the first ten minutes of play. They even had a penalty kick in the 24
th minute but it went wide right. The Vulcans weren't shy either, firing four shots in the first 25 minutes of action.
The score stayed 1-0 into halftime, but 1:32 into the second half, the Trailblazers struck again. This time it was the PacWest's leading scorer, Darian Murdock, who on a breakaway beat her defender and drew Hufford out of the box before flicking her 16
th goal of the season into the net.
That would be all the Trailblazers would need, although they would keep Hufford and the Vulcan defense busy all day. Dixie State finished with 23 shots on the afternoon, nine of them on goal. Hufford finished with seven saves. The Vulcans had ten shots, six of them on goal as Felicity Tarr earned the save for the home team.
The Vulcans will return home tomorrow, and that's where they will play their final four matches of the season, beginning with a Tuesday, October 24 match against Notre Dame de Namur.
