Region 9 soccer: Top three teams all roll to Tuesday victories

Written by Andy Griffin
April 1, 2015
Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Soccer, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — The rich got richer Tuesday night, with Dixie, Pine View and Snow Canyon all picking up region wins, further separating themselves from the rest of Region 9. All three front-runners won by at least two goals. Here’s a recap of the Tuesday action:

Dixie 6, Desert Hills 2

A flurry of three goals in the first 13 minutes of the second half helped the defending state champs break open a close game and cruise to the victory.

dixie-smDesert-Hills-smDesert Hills actually led in the first half, with Christian Cottle taking a free kick and placing it inside the far post in the first half. Just moments later, Av’ry Green tied the game at 1-1 with a goal and it would stay that way into intermission.

But the Flyers came out on a mission in the second half. Tyler Bennett broke the tie, followed by two more quick goals by Pepe Garcia and Alex Green to make it 4-1 with less than seven minutes used up in the second half. The flurry continued with McLane Keenan upping the lead to 5-1.

Jose "Pepe" Garcia (21) and Alec Perez battle for a ball, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Soccer, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Jose “Pepe” Garcia (21) and Alec Perez battle for a ball, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Soccer, St. George, Utah, Mar. 31, 2015 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Walker Heaton pulled the Thunder to within 5-2, but Dixie iced the win with a 35-yard rocket from Francisco “Chapo” Guzman that just cleared the DH goalie’s reach.

Bridger Wright tended goal for the Flyers in place of injured Ethan Poulton, who will also miss Thursday’s showdown with Snow Canyon at Walt Brooks Stadium.

Dixie is 6-2-3 overall and 5-0-1 in region action, good enough for 16 points and first place.

Desert Hills, 4-7-0 and 1-5-0, is at Hurricane Wednesday night.

Pine View 2, Canyon View 0

The road was kind to the Panthers, who pitched a shutout at CVHS.

Pine-view-smcanyon-view-smPine View, 6-4-1 overall and 5-1-0 in region play, played sharp defense in keeping the dangerous Falcons off the scoreboard. CV was averaging nearly three goals a game coming into the contest.

The win helps PVHS keep pace with Dixie, just a point behind the region leader. Pine View is at Cedar Wednesday afternoon.

The Falcons, 6-4-1 and 3-4-0, have nine points and are solidly in playoff position in fourth place. Canyon View is off until a visit to Hurricane next Tuesday.

Snow Canyon 4, Cedar 2

The Warriors started fast, building a 4-0 lead in the first half en route to the easy win.

snow-canyon-smcedar-smKaden Wittwer opened the scoring on a nice cross from Casey Monson. Angel Muniz, the top scorer in 3A, then checked in with a goal to make it 2-0. It was his 11th tally of the season.

Not to be outdone, Wittwer scored twice more in the first half, matching his season total in the first 40 minutes of the game and picking up his first career hat trick.

Cedar pulled to within 4-1 just before halftime on a goal by JD Little and the Redmen made the score respectable with a late goal by Ethan Fletcher.

The Warriors, 10-1-0 overall and 5-1-0 in region, have 15 points, just one behind league-leader Dixie and tied with Pine View. Snow Canyon plays at Dixie Thursday night.

Cedar, after making it to the state title game a year ago, is struggling in 2015. The Redmen fall to 1-8-1 overall and 0-6-0 in region play. Cedar hosts Pine View Wednesday afternoon.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.

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