Blazing Past the Trailblazers

Saturday, September 30

St. George, Utah

3:30 PM

California Baptist University

3-0-05-3-0/ PacWest

Dixie State

2-2-06-3-0/ PacWest

California Baptist

Dixie State

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

Blazing Past the Trailblazers

9/30/2017 5:25:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Sammi Wellman, Director of Sports Information

ST. GEORGE, Utah — California Baptist University came out fired up and grabbed a 4-1 victory at Dixie State Saturday afternoon to extend its winning streak to four-straight games.

The Lancers improve to 5-3-0 overall and remain undefeated in the PacWest with a 3-0-0 mark while the Trailblazers drop to 6-3-0 on the year and 2-2-0 in conference.

"Hard to play on the road," said Coach Kristen St. Clair. "The players stepped up and focused on execution. Overall, it was a good team performance. We had great goals, great opportunities. It was nice to see the players' hard work rewarded with those goals."

"The group of girls on this team this year are so special," said goalkeeper Sara Escobedo, who finished with 13 saves in the game – just one shy of the single-game record. "Every single person worked so hard today, despite adversity. Among the many reasons we came out with the win today, the main reason was that we played for each other. The only thing I can ask is that every game, every time we step on the pitch, we do that. We have so much talent and heart and we definitely showed that today."

Less than nine minutes into the game, the Trailblazer goalkeeper tried to kick the ball out of danger, but didn't get good contact on the ball, sending it low and right to Jordan Dow. Dow took a couple dribbles and caught the keeper off her line from almost 30 yards out to put the Lancer up 1-0 early.

Escobedo had to come up big in the 24^th minute, coming off her line to make a point-blank save, but Haley Wheelon gave the Lancers another good look in the 38^th minute. The senior put a low free kick past the wall, but the DSU goalkeeper managed to dive and tip the ball out of danger.

Just a minute before halftime, Lanai Navarro got in behind the defense on a breakaway, but once again the Dixie State keeper made the save to keep the score 1-0 in favor of CBU heading into halftime.

The Lancers were explosive coming out of the break, scoring their second goal of the game just two minutes into the second half. Desarae Felix dribbled past multiple defenders to get one-on-one with the goalkeeper and despite her first effort being blocked, Felix tucked away the rebound to make it 2-0.

"It felt great to get it back and be able to finish it," said Felix. "I was excited for the team."

Dixie State responded in the 57^th minute, 2-1, but not even a minute later Felix struck again. The Lancers drew a foul in Trailblazer territory, allowing Symone Mack to send in a bouncing ball deep into the 18-yard box where Felix got on the end of it inside the six-yard box, took a touch past the goalkeeper and tapped it in, 3-1.

"When they scored, I was just thinking that we couldn't let them come back," said Felix leading up to her second goal. "Once that ball got sent in off the free kick, I knew I had to get on the end of it."

CBU wasn't safe yet, however, as the Trailblazers hoped to make it a one-goal game once again, but Escobedo kept her team's upper hand with some crucial saves.

Miranda Hald tacked on some extra insurance with just over 10 minutes to go off an assist from Navarro, 4-1, powering home a shot from just 15 yards out.

The Trailblazers gave the Lancers one last scare with less than 50 seconds left to play when a penalty kick was awarded. Escobedo wasn't about that, however, and read the attempt perfectly to make the diving save and give her team the 4-1 victory.

"I wanted to beat them badly," said Escobedo. "Of course I would have liked to come out with a shutout today, but at the end of the 90 minutes, that doesn't matter all that much to me. I am so proud of every single one of my teammates. We grinded to the end and proved we were the better team."

CBU returns home to host Concordia University of Irvine on Wednesday and Point Loma on Saturday, both set to kick off at 1:00 p.m.

"We're very excited to come back home," said Felix. "We've been working so hard so this feels good."