California Baptist University
Dixie State
Storm Report: Lots Of Goals
10/26/2012 12:49:00 AM | Men's Soccer
The seven goals are a season high and the most since Oct. 27, 2009. The best defense in the Pacific West Conference also picked up its third straight shutout.
CBU improves to 11-3-1 overall, 9-2-0 (27 points) in the PacWest and keeps pace with conference-leading Grand Canyon, whom the Lancers play twice over the next two Saturdays with the victors likely snagging the conference title.
Dixie State falls to 5-9-2, 4-6-2 (14 points).
For Garrison, it's his first career multi-goal game.
It took the Lancers less than eight minutes to get on the board as Carlos Figueroa scored his first goal of the year, finishing a cross from Jonathan Fausto. In the 20th minute, the route was on when Michael Salazar scored for the fourth straight game.
"We've played a lot of good soccer this year and failed to score in the first half, which makes the game harder," said CBU Head Coach Ryan Jorden. "Scoring twice in the first half really opened the game for us, because it forced them to make decisions."
The Lancers got goals from six different players. Five of them came from the bench and four of the goals came in the final 11 minutes.
"We were able to play a lot of guys who haven't played a ton because we haven't been able to score the goals that we've needed to," said Jorden. "I'm most proud of our work rate today, especially from our bench. We worked hard and they executed the principles and style that we try to implement."
Dominic Escalera had a goal and an assists, and he made it 3-0 just four minutes into the second half when Garrison played him in behind the Red Storm defense.
The Lancers held a three-goal advantage for the next half hour before blowing the game wide open with four goals from the 79th minute on. Timothy Herrera got things started in the 79th, getting in behind the defense, getting a perfectly placed ball from Garrison and striking the ball clinically and into the net.
Garrison then buried a penalty kick in the 82nd minute and completed the onslaught with 52 seconds left, putting home a rebound from an Escalera shot. In between Garrison's two goals, Thomas Carter headed home a corner kick from Josh Robison in the 87th minute.
"You can't be good in this game unless you can score and defend," said Jorden. "You have to be able to do both, and the guys did a good job paying attention to both today."
Ian Clark made two saves for his third shutout of the season.
