Dixie State University men’s soccer continued its sheer dominance of the Pacific West Conference over fall break.
Prior to the season, DSU was tabbed to finish near the bottom of the conference and with a brand new head coach, some wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Head Coach Josh Pittman, though, has the Storm exceeding expectations in a huge way.
DSU traveled to the Bay Area this week to take on two conference foes in Notre Dame de Namur University and the Academy of Art.
The Storm kicked off the road swing Thursday against the Argonauts of NDNU and in doing so, extended their school record shoutout-streak to six games.
DSU defended well, as they have all season, but could not find the back of the net against one of the top defenses in the PacWest and the game ended in a 0-0 draw.
Junior goalkeeper Bradley Trella continued his stellar play in the 1-0 win against A of A on Saturday night as he extended his school record and Division II best shutout-streak to seven games and over 700 minutes.
Sophomore forward Frankie Mallek added the go-ahead goal on a header in the 30th minute. It was Mallek’s third goal of the season and the assist, from senior Santiago Alejandro, was executed to perfection according to Pittman.
“[Alejandro] hit a perfect cross and Frankie finished it beautifully,” Pittman said. “We got the win, but it was bittersweet as we lost Jorge [Echavarria] for the season.”
Echavarria, a senior defender, was taken down late in the game and suffered a dislocated knee and MCL tear. Pittman says it’s a huge blow for the team, but the next guy just has to step up.
Alejandro’s assist was the fourth of the season and is, along with his 12 points, a team-high which he attributes to the teams chemistry.
“We’ve been playing a lot better,” Alejandro, a business accounting major from Oakley, California said. “We started to move the ball really well and defensively we forced a lot of turnovers.”
DSU will head back to The Golden State in an attempt to keep the Storm willing next week in conference play against California Baptist University on Oct. 22 and Concordia University on Oct. 24.