The Lady Thunder celebrate Brook Lott's (12) second goal of the first half, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
ST. GEORGE — Desert Hills coach Benji Nelson has preaching to his team for two straight days about finishing plays, taking advantage of opportunities and keeping the pressure on after his team barely edged Hurricane 1-0 Tuesday.
On Thursday, the Lady Thunder finally put his preaching into practice, exploding for five goals in a runaway at Thunder Stadium, 5-1 over Dixie.
“We passed the ball so much better tonight and that helped us finish better,” said Brooklyn Lott, who had three goals in the rout. “We’ve been working really hard on getting the ball where we need them to finish. My teammates made some amazing passes.”
Lott scored early, in the first 10 minutes, then added her second goal on a beautiful lead pass that set her up one on one with the Dixie goalkeeper. From the left side, she pounded the netfinder to the upper left to make it 2-0 with 13:48 left in the first half.
“Getting those early goals takes a lot of pressure off of me and the rest of the defense,” said Thunder goalkeeper Brittany Moore, who got her fourth shutout of the season in the win. “Once the goals started coming, it was easy, especially with the awesome way our defense and the back line played.”
Dixie came out strong in the second half and had a couple of shots on goal in the first five minutes. But Desert Hills used crisp passing and speed to begin taking the game over after that. Makayla Lewis broke free for a duel with the keeper and won that at the 26:35 mark to put DH ahead 3-0.
Ten minutes later, Brecken Dalley made it 4-0 with a rebound goal and Lott completed her hat trick night at the 13:34 mark that made it 5-0.
The only suspense left was whether or not DH could preserve the shutout and Moore made a beautiful diving save with 1:25 to play to thwart Dixie’s last, best scoring opportunity.
“As a coach, this is the first time I’ve ever beaten Dixie, said DH’s Benji Nelson, who coached at Hurricane for six years before moving to Desert Hills. “They’ve been good for a long time and Burt (Myers) is a good coach. But we’ve been working on finishing every single practice. The girls have bought in, they’re working hard and doing what I’m asking them to do. It’s coming.”
The victory puts Desert Hills at 4-3-1 overall, but more importantly, 2-0-0 in region play, tied with Cedar for first place.
“It’s early,” Nelson said. “There’s a long way to go in region and all these teams are going to get better. We just need to stick to it and get better ourselves.”
Dixie, last year’s region champ, falls to 2-4-0 overall and 0-2-0 in region play.
Desert Hills hosts Pine View next Tuesday night, while Dixie is at Snow Canyon that same evening.
Cedar 2, Snow Canyon 1
Two playoff teams from a year ago met up Thursday afternoon in Cedar City with the defending state champs pulling out a 2-1 victory.
The game was scoreless at halftime, but the Lady Reds got the upper hand after intermission on goals by Brooklyn Shakespeare and Holly Carpenter.
The Warriors hung tight and got on the board on a Jenny Stewart goal and peppered the net with 20 shots on goal. But Cedar keeper Megan Giddings turned most of those attempts away.
Cedar improves to 6-2-0 overall on the season and is now 2-0-0 in region play. The Lady Reds are at Hurricane Tuesday night.
Snow Canyon, 2-4-2 and 1-1-0, hosts Dixie Tuesday.
Pine View 1, Hurricane 0
Aubrey Day scored the lone goal of the evening as the Lady Panthers squeaked out the close win at home Thursday night.
Pine View got a yeoman-like performance from the defense and goalkeeper Alena Lorentzen to come away with the pressure-packed shutout.
The Panthers, 4-1-2 overall and 1-1-0 in region play, are at Desert Hills Tuesday night.
The Tigers, 4-3-1 and 0-2-0, will host Cedar Tuesday night.
The Lady Thunder celebrate Brook Lott's (12) first goal of the first half, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Desert Hills goalkeeper Brittney Moore makes a tough stop, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Desert Hills midfielder Makayla Lewis launches a ball, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Desert Hills' Hannah Morby (7) chases down a loose ball, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Lady Thunder striker Brook Lott controls the ball and heads for the goal with Dixie's Delaney Story (3) defending, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie goalkeeper Mashaun Estridge kicks the ball deep for the Lady Flyers, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Brecken Dalley (11) pushes the ball for the Lady Thunder, with Dixie's Sabra Sparks (14) on defense, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Vanesa Bonilla (28) controls the ball, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Elizabeth Durrant (26) chases down a loose ball for Dixie, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Desert Hills' Jessica Mathis (13) and Dixie's Jenna McNary (7) Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Desert Hills goalkeeper Brittney Moore (1) makes a stop, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Desert Hills' Kenzie Done (16) and Dixie's Sabra Sparks (14) battle for possession of the ball, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Desert Hills' Makayla Lewis (8) and Dixie's Brittney Christensen (25), Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Dixie's Starlee Woodbury (32) pushes the ball up field, Desert Hills vs. Dixie, Girls Soccer, St. George, Utah, Sept. 10, 2015, | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
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.