Dixie State closed the road portion of its 2017 regular season schedule with a tough 2-1 loss at Concordia-Irvine Saturday afternoon at Eagles Field.
The Trailblazers (12-5-0/8-4-0 PacWest) broke a scoreless tie with 1:15 left to play in the first half when DSU seniors Montana Hadley (Bountiful, Utah/Viewmont HS) and Darian Murdock (Herriman, Utah/Herriman HS) combined for the match's opening score. Hadley collected her sixth assist of the year when she served a free kick into the Eagle box to Murdock, who finished with a header in the CUI net for her Pacific West Conference-leading 19th goal of the season.
However that would be the final shot Dixie State would take as Concordia held the conference's top offense without an attempt for the final 46:15 of play. Meanwhile, the DSU defensive unit more than held its own as the Trailblazers kept CUI off the scoreboard through the first 82 minutes of the match.
Concordia-Irvine finally solved the DSU defense midway through the 83rd-minute when Katie Gast took a Cienah Reed pass and tucked home a shot into the left corner of the DSU goal to square the match at 1-1. The duo would strike again with just 45 seconds to play in regulation, this time it was a Reed corner kick to Gast, who headed home the game-winner to complete rally.
"After what we felt was a pretty solid first half, we spent the entire second half defending," DSU Head Coach Kacey Bingham said. "We know our [PacWest] conference is too good for us to get away with that. We are excited to get to play our last game at home and celebrate our awesome seniors."
CUI outshot DSU 11-7, including a 5-4 edge on goal. Murdock led DSU with two shots, while sophomore keeper Felicity Tarr (Tucson, Ariz./Mountain View Marana HS) collected three saves defensively.
Dixie State will wrap up the 2017 season next Saturday vs. Azusa Pacific inside Legend Solar Stadium beginning at 5:30 p.m.
