OPENING TOUCH: Dixie State men's soccer heads on the road for the first and second games of a five-game road trip to southern California. The Trailblazers are coming off a 2-0 loss to WAC competition California Baptist University. The Trailblazers head on the road for the first time in the 2021 season to face two schools for the first time in institution history.
Live stats and video information for all matches can be found at
www.dixiestateathletics.com.
DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: Dixie State has never played UC Berkeley or Saint Mary's in men's soccer before.
KNOW YOUR FOE:
UC Berkeley: UC Berkeley is a PAC-12 conference member and are 0-1-1 in the regular season so far this season. The Bears lost their home opener 1-0 to DSU's second game of the road trip, Saint Mary's. The Bears were shutout in that game. UC Berkeley has scored just one goal through two games of the 2021 season, that goal coming in the teams 1-1 draw with UC Santa Barbara. The Bears were 4-5-1 overall last season.
Saint Mary's: The Gaels are a member of the West Coast Conference and 1-1 so far in the regular season. The team has scored two goals, one against UC Berkeley in the teams 1-0 win at home to open their regular season play. The team then went on to lose 2-1 to Cal Poly. The Gaels were 6-2-1 in the 2020-21 season.
COACHING STAFF: Jonny Broadhead (Colorado State-Pueblo, 2004) is in his fourth season as Dixie State head coach. Broadhead has a 34-28-3 overall record at Dixie State. He has led the program to 10 or more wins in two of his three seasons at the helm.
Broadhead has brought with him assistant coaches
Kyle Coffee and
Nick Vorberg who are both in their first seasons with DSU.
TRAILBLAZERS PICKED TENTH IN THE WAC: Dixie State was voted to finish 10th in the WAC men's soccer preseason coaches' poll released on August 17th. Grand Canyon was picked first with six first place votes. Seattle U was picked second with four first place votes. The Trailblazers did not have any members selected to the 2021 Preseason All-WAC team.
LAST SEASON IN THE WAC: The 2020-21 season faced many cancellations and games rescheduled due to COVID-19. The Trailblazers closed the 2020-21 regular season with a 3-6-0 record. DSU's three wins in the 2020-21 season came against Incarnate Word, Houston Baptist and UTRGV, all except the win over Houston Baptist were on the road.
TEAM NOTES:
Dixie State is coming off two home games where the team earned its first win and loss of the season. Heading into a long road trip the team is going to look to keep with the trend of earning road wins like it did in the spring season.
DSU's lone goal this season came from junior forward
Daniel Brubaker. Brubaker has three goals and eight assists in his time with DSU.
Dixie State's 2021 spring season leading goalscorer
Idris Alabi has yet to see any minutes this season and his return to the field is sure to bolster the Trailblazers attack on the team's road trip.
UP NEXT: After a double header in California, the team will return back for three more games against California schools next week. The Trailblazers have UC Irvine, UC Riverside and Santa Clara on the docket for next week. The Trailblazers will face UC Irvine on Sept. 12 at 1 PM (PT). The battle with the UC Riverside Highlanders is slated for Sept. 17 at 7 PM (PT). And the last match of the Trailblazers road series will be with Santa Clara on Sept. 19 at 1 PM (PT).
