(MATCH NOTES - PDF)

OPENING TOUCH: Dixie State (2-3-1/0-1-1 RMAC) opens a four-game RMAC homestand this weekend at Trailblazer Stadium, beginning with a match vs. Colorado-Colorado Springs (1-2-2/0-1-1 RMAC) Friday night beginning at 7 p.m. The Trailblazers will then play host to Regis (2-2-1/1-0-1 RMAC) in a Sunday matinée starting at 1 p.m. Live stats information for both matches can be found HERE.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: Dixie State and UCCS have met only once on the pitch, which came last season in a 5-0 Trailblazer win in Colorado Springs (9/11/17), in a match that saw junior forward Moises Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS) net his first-career hat trick.
    Sunday's match vs. Regis will be the first-ever meeting between the Trailblazers and Rangers on the soccer pitch. 

COACHING STAFF: Head Coach Jonny Broadhead (Colorado State-Pueblo, 2004; 14-8-1 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 came away with a tie and a loss in its RMAC debut on the road last weekend. The Trailblazers opened the two-match trip with a 1-1 draw at in-state rival Westminster College last Friday, and were blitzed by three second-half MSU Denver goals in a 4-1 setback to the Roadrunners this past Sunday.

QUICK KICKS: Junior forward Moises Medina (Mesquite, Nev./Virgin Valley HS) netted his third goal of the season in DSU's tie at Westminster last Friday ... Medina intercepted a Westminster clearing attempt just out of the 18-yard box and drew a foul inside the penalty area to earn a penalty kick, which he tucked home at the 40:01 mark of the match ... Medina, who broke DSU's single-season goals record last season with 12, now has 21 career goals to his credit (#2 all-time at DSU), and he enters this weekend one assist (14) and five points (56) shy of becoming DSU's career leader in those two statistical categories.
    Freshman Daniel Brubaker (Hurricane, Utah/Hurricane HS) scored his first collegiate goal in the first half at MSUD after he finished a through ball played in by senior Ascari Robles (Las Vegas, Nev./Cimarron Memorial HS) in the 25th-minute that tied the match at 1-1 ... Brubaker is currently t-second on the team with four points, which includes assists at Texas-Permian Basin (8/30) and vs. Notre Dame de Namur (9/6) ... freshman midfielder Julius Nguyen (Seattle, Wash./John F. Kennedy Catholic HS) had quite the outing in the NDNU (9/6) win, during which he had his boot on all three DSU goals, starting with his first collegiate tally just 6:05 into the match ... Nguyen also collected assists on a pair of first-half scores from fellow freshman Tony Foulger (Salt Lake City, Utah/Olympus HS), who netted his first two collegiate goals in a span of 6:14 to give DSU the lead for good.
    Junior defender Ricky Nunez (Henderson, Nev./Green Valley HS) quickly made a name for himself in his DSU debut as he netted the GWG just 52 seconds into the second OT at UTPB (8/30) ... junior GK Zach Nielson (West Point, Utah/Northridge HS) earned his 16th-career victory in goal in the NDNU win (9/6) and he now stands six wins shy of becoming DSU's career leader in GK wins.

UP NEXT: Dixie State continues its four-game RMAC homestand next weekend with matches vs. Fort Lewis on Friday, Sept. 28, followed by the homestand finale vs. Colorado Mesa on Sunday, Sept. 30.