Dixie State tied a season-high with five goals as the Trailblazers rolled to a 5-2 Senior Night result over Azusa Pacific on Saturday night at Legend Solar Stadium. DSU closed the year with a 12-5-0 overall record under first-year head coach Jonny Broadhead, which included a fifth place finish in its final season of Pacific West Conference play at 8-5-0 (24 points).
The two sides traded two quick goals in the opening four minutes of play, with the Cougars (6-10-1/6-6-1 PacWest) opening the scoring on a Lloyd Alexander goal at the 3:37 mark of the match. DSU then got the equalizer just 20 seconds later when senior Sean Jenne (Las Vegas, Nev./Centennial HS) played a middle ball into junior Dominic Damato (Las Vegas, Nev./Shadow Ridge HS), who blasted home his second goal of the year into the right side of the frame.
The Trailblazers then took the lead for good with three unanswered goals, the first coming on a Christian Hall (Layton, Utah/Northridge HS) header set up by a Moises Medina corner kick with 6:42 to play until the halftime break. With the assist, Medina (14) pulled into a tie atop DSU's career assist list with senior Bryan Baugh (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley HS).
DSU would net two goals over the first 21-plus minutes of the second half to extend to a 4-1 advantage. Sophomore Jandir Porta tallied his sixth goal of the year early in the 54th-minute, while Baugh headed home his fourth-career goal in his final match in a DSU kit at the 66:44 mark on a Blake Damato free kick.
Alexander got one of the goals back with 13:21 to play to draw the Cougars to within 4-2, but the Trailblazers would answer with a penalty kick goal off the boot of senior Alexiz Beiza to provide the final result. Beiza drew the PK chance on hard foul deep inside the APU penalty box and was rewarded with his first career DSU goal.
Dixie State outshot APU by a 16-13 count, including a 7-5 edge on goal. Redshirt freshman keeper AJ Snell collected two first-half saves to earn his first collegiate win in goal.
