Waiting Game

Saturday, November 5

St George, Utah

3:30 PM

California Baptist University

8-5-012-6-0/ PacWest

Dixie State

13-0-015-3-0/PacWest

California Baptist

Dixie State

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

11/5/2016 7:19:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Sammi Wellman, Director of Sports Information

ST. GEORGE, Utah — In the final game of the regular season, California Baptist University came out looking for a win to lock in its postseason hopes. The Lancers, who rank fifth in the West Region, battled but came up short with a 2-1 loss at Dixie State, the fourth-ranked team in the region.

CBU drops to 12-6-0 overall and concludes the PacWest at 8-5-0. The Trailblazers finish conference action in first place with an undefeated record of 13-0-0 and 15-3-0 overall.

"That's difficult to take," said Coach Coe Michaelson of the loss. "One mistake and one long throw and you're walking away saying 'what just happened?' There is a reason they win, they are as good as any team in our region at capitalizing on mistakes and absorbing pressure."

Both teams finished with 13 shots on the day, but it was the Trailblazers who took advantage of their opportunities. Noah Oyler made seven saves to keep his team in the game.

The Lancers went on the attack early, earning themselves a corner kick within the first minute of play, but couldn't get anything out of it.

Aidan Apodaca had a good look in the eighth minute, but the DSU goalkeeper made the save to keep it 0-0.

Caley Powers provided a spark off the bench and fired off a shot in the 31^st minute that was just inches too wide as it bounced off the post instead of finding the back of the net.

After a scoreless first half, DSU broke the barrier in the 53^rd minute to take a 1-0 lead. The Trailblazers added some cushion in the 76^th minute off a long throw-in to put CBU in a 2-0 hole.

Just about a minute later, the Lancers got on the board. Apodaca drew a foul in the 18-yard box and Luca Tschaidse converted the penalty kick with ease to cut the margin in half, 2-1.

The Lancers ran out of time before they could find an equalizer, falling 2-1 to DSU.

Despite the loss, CBU's season isn't over yet, but it has to play the waiting game. The Lancers find out if they're one of the six teams selected for the NCAA Division II tournament on Monday's Selection Show, airing at 3:30 p.m. PDT on ncaa.com/live.

"Now we look forward to Monday," said Michaelson. "We know that some of the teams behind us lost yesterday as well, but we obviously would have felt better taking a win home with us today. We look forward to seeing where we stand on Monday."