Dixie State saw its 2016 season come to a heartbreaking end as the No. 3-seeded Trailblazers were stopped by No. 6 Western Washington on a late overtime goal, 3-2, in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Division II Men's Soccer Championship West Regional tournament played Friday afternoon in La Jolla, Calif.
Dixie State, which won the program's first Pacific West Conference title and advanced to its first-ever NCAA Regional tournament, finished the season with a 15-4-0 overall record. Meanwhile, WWU (10-4-4) will advance to play No. 2 seed UC San Diego on Sunday afternoon.
The Trailblazers struck for the match's first score midway through the sixth minute when freshman midfielder
Angel Estrada (Pasadena, Calif./Pasadena HS) netted his fourth goal of the year to give DSU a 1-0 lead. Junior forward
Ather Dawood (Tucson, Ariz.) fired in a shot that was deflected by Viking netminder Tyler Visten to Estrada, who settled the ball, took a dribble and sent home a shot from the top of the box.
The Vikings, who attempted a DSU-opponent season high 26 shots on the day, rattled off 14 first-half shot attempts against the Trailblazer defense. However senior goalkeeper
Bradley Trella (Chandler, Ariz./Chandler HS) made five saves in the opening stanza, while the DSU defense blocked away six other attempts, including a big team save by senior
Hunter Ketterer (Heber City, Utah/Wasatch HS) who stopped a point-blank shot off a deflection following a terrific diving deflection by Trella to keep the WWU off the board.
DSU held its one-goal advantage until the 74:39 mark of the second half when the Trailblazers were whistled for a foul inside the penalty area, which set up a penalty kick chance for the Vikings. WWU defender Brady Ulen would go on to cash in the attempt to knot the score at 1-1.
Dixie State then got unlucky four minutes later when sophomore defender
Dominic Damato (Las Vegas, Nev./Shadow Ridge HS) was ejected after his second yellow card of the match, which left the Trailblazers down a player for the final 11-plus minutes of regulation play. The Vikings then drew another penalty kick chance with just 2:23 left to play on a handball call. Ulen would again come on and tuck home his second PK goal to stake his side a 2-1 lead.
The Trailblazers would fight back, pressing the issue in their offensive third and managed to draw a foul of their own just outside the penalty area to set up a free kick. Freshman midfielder
Blake Damato (Las Vegas, Nev./Shadow Ridge HS) then stepped up and went top-shelf just under the cross bar into the upper left corner of the net for his first collegiate goal to pull DSU even at 2-2 with 1:07 to go.
In overtime Dixie State had the first real chance at the "golden goal" midway through the 96
th-minute when freshman forward
Moises Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS) flipped shot to the left post, but Visten did just enough to deflect it away.
Then on WWU's next trip down the field the Vikings sent in a corner kick to Jeremiah Lee, but again the DSU defense came up with a big team save to turn away the chance. On the Vikings' ensuing throw-in Stephen Jinneman headed home a ficked-on throw-in to the near post that just snuck by Trella at the 97:39 mark to lift WWU to the victory.
"It's kind of a sour feeling, but we knew coming in that you don't to the [NCAA] tournament to have any easy days," DSU Interim Head Coach
Nyle Ortiz said. "I think once this settles for a bit I think the guys will realize that we still have plenty to celebrate on the season, just as a program and as a school for what we were able to accomplish. We all agree that we've been absolutely blessed this season with the way things have gone for us."
DSU finished with 15 shots, seven on goal, including three attempts apiece for
Blake Damato (Las Vegas, Nev./Shadow Ridge HS) and sophomore midfielder
Gabby Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS), while Trella wound up with seven saves in his final collegiate match.
Dixie State finished the 2016 regular season with a school-record 15 victories, all won consecutively after an 0-3-0 start. The Trailblazers also set a PacWest record with 13 conference wins and became just the second PacWest school to finish a conference season unbeaten and untied, joining former league member Grand Canyon, which went 6-0-0 in the league's first season in 2006.
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