(MATCH NOTES - PDF)

OPENING TOUCH: Dixie State (3-7-2/1-5-2 RMAC) heads back to "The Centennial State" this weekend to close out its four-match RMAC road swing. The Trailblazers open the trip in Grand Junction this Friday night at No. 12 Colorado Mesa (8-0-3/6-0-2 RMAC) beginning at 7 p.m. DSU will then travel to Durango to take on Fort Lewis (5-4-2/3-4-1 RMAC) Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.
    Live stats information for both matches can be found HERE.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: Dixie State and Colorado Mesa have squared off six previous times, including earlier this season at Trailblazer Stadium (9/30), which ended in a 2-1 DSU loss to the Mavericks. The Blazers trail in the overall series by a 2-4-0 count, though both DSU wins in the series have come on the road in Grand Junction (1-0; 9/6/09 and 1-0; 9/8/11).
    Sunday's match vs. Fort Lewis will be the third meeting between the Trailblazers and Skyhawks on the soccer pitch. In 2009, FLC claimed a 3-1 home decision in Durango (9/4/09), while DSU claimed a 4-1 result at Trailblazer Stadium this past Sept. 28.

COACHING STAFF: Head Coach Jonny Broadhead (Colorado State-Pueblo, 2004; 15-12-2 overall) is in his second season on the Trailblazer sideline after guiding DSU to a 12-win season last year, which included a fifth-place finish (8-5-0) in its final season of Pacific West Conference play. Broadhead came to DSU from Utah Valley University, where he served as a volunteer assistant coach for two years before being elevated to a full-time assistant position prior to the start of the 2016 season.
    Before his time at UVU, Broadhead served a two-year stint as assistant coach at Colorado Mesa with former DSU head coach Josh Pittman. The Mavericks went a combined 20-12-8 during his two seasons in Grand Junction, including a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament championship in 2013.
    Broadhead is joined on the sideline again this season by former DSU standout netminder Bradley Trella, who will serve as a student assistant coach and work with the goalkeepers.

SO...WE'RE NEW HERE...: After 10 years playing as a member of the Pacific West Conference, Dixie State embarks on its first season as full members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 2018.
    The Trailblazers won one PacWest men's soccer title (2016) over their conference membership and posted a 57-61-12 overall record (.484) in 130 league games. DSU won eight or more PacWest matches in each of its final three league campaigns, including a perfect 13-0-0 march through the PacWest during its championship season in 2016.
    The 13 league wins that year were both DSU and PacWest single-season records, while the Blazers 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.

TRAILBLAZERS PICKED FIFTH IN THE RMAC IN 2018: Dixie State was voted to finish fifth by the RMAC coaches in the annual preseason poll released by the league on August 15.
    Defending RMAC champion Colorado School of Mines was the overwhelming choice to defend its title as the Orediggers received nine of a possible 12 first-place votes to top the poll with 118 points. Colorado Mesa claimed two first place votes to finish second with 102 points, followed by Fort Lewis (one first-place vote, 96 pts) in third, Regis (81 pts) in fourth, DSU (79 pts) in fifth, and MSU-Denver (78 pts) in sixth to round out the top-half of the 12-team poll.
    In addition, DSU's top-returning goal scorer, junior forward Moises Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS), was the Trailblazers' lone representative on the RMAC's preseason all-conference team.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Dixie State started its final long RMAC road swing of the 2018 campaign with a loss and a tie last weekend. The Trailblazers opened the trip with a hard-fought 1-0 loss at RMAC-leading and current No. 9 Colorado School of Mines last Friday in a match that saw DSU surrender just one Oredigger goal on 25 total CSM shot attempts (9 SOG). DSU then turned around and picked up its fifth point in the RMAC table with a scoreless draw at South Dakota Mines on a wet and frigid pitch in Rapid City.

QUICK KICKS: Junior forward Moises Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS) tallied his team-high fourth goal of the season in DSU's win over Fort Lewis (9/28), he then became DSU's career assists leader with his 15th-career dime on the Blazers' lone goal vs. CMU (9/30) ... Medina, who broke DSU's single-season goals record last season with 12, now has 22 career goals to his credit (#2 all-time at DSU), and he enters this weekend two points (59) shy of becoming DSU's career points leader.
    Freshman defender Idris Alabi (Vail, Ariz./Cienega HS) netted DSU's third multi-goal match of the season with a pair of second-half insurance goals in the FLC victory ... Idris scored his first collegiate goal at the 78:46 mark of the match, then struck for another goal just 3:02 later .. junior forward Gustavo Ortega (Las Vegas, Nev./Cimarron Memorial HS) recorded DSU's second two-goal match (and his second-career two-goal match) of the year in the Blazers' 3-2 home to Colorado-Colorado Springs (9/21) ... freshman Tony Foulger (Salt Lake City, Utah/Olympus HS), who scored his third goal of the year on Medina's record-breaking assist vs. FLC, notched the team's first multi-goal game with two goals, including his first collegiate goal as the GWG, earlier this season vs. Notre Dame de Namur (3-1; 9/6).     
    Senior MF Dominic Damato (Las Vegas, Nev./Shadow Ridge HS) collected assists on DSU's first two goals vs. FLC, including the game-winning tally scored by freshman Traedon Chamberlain (Sandy, Utah/Brighton HS) (his first collegiate goal) just four-plus minutes into the second half ... Damato (11) two dimes moved him into solo third place on DSU's career assists list and into a tie for 10th on DSU's career points list (19).
    Speaking of assists, junior goalkeeper Zach Nielson (West Point, Utah/Northridge HS) picked up his first career helper on Alabi's final goal vs. FLC when his punt took a high hop over the Skyhawk defense, which set up an Alabi breakaway chance ... Nielson's assist was the first dime recorded by a keeper since former keeper and DSU assistant coach Bradley Trella was credited with an assist in DSU's 2-0 home win over Hawai'i Hilo (10/10/15) during the 2015 season ... Nielson (110 saves) recorded a career high eight saves in the loss at CSM and in the process became the third DSU goalkeeper in program history to collect 100-plus career saves. 

UP NEXT: Dixie State returns to its home pitch at Trailblazer Stadium to start its final homestand of the 2018 season next weekend, beginning with a match vs. Colorado State-Pueblo on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. DSU will also host Adams State on Sunday, Oct. 21, at 1 p.m.