SOCCER: Early goals lift Dixon to win over North Boone

DIXON – After a career of collecting one program record after another, Dixon senior Taylor Harrison is on the verge of losing a record – and she’s fine with it.

Harrison became the Duchesses’ all-time leader in career goals last week at Oregon, and now has 137 goals. She also has a record 76 assists in her career, as well as the single-season records for both goals and assists.

But after six assists on Wednesday in an 11-0 win over North Boone, Abby Goff now has 30 on the season. Harrison had 31 in 2019.

“I’m really excited for her, and if she keeps playing the way she’s playing, she’s going to easily break that record,” Harrison said. “It actually kind of feels good. It feels like I’m setting the bar higher for everyone. We’re just trying to keep climbing and set more goals for everyone else to accomplish.”

In the 15th minute, Goff stood at the edge of the 18-yard box in the center of the field, seeing Paige Stees to her left cutting toward the goal. Goff laced a pass through to her, and Stees fired it home for Dixon’s sixth goal of the game, and Stees’ second.

Goff also had a pair of goals in the game, her first off a corner kick in the sixth minute and her second off a cross from Emma Evans in the 22nd.

The Goff-Evans connection was working well. Goff’s goal off the Evans cross came moments after Evans had failed to finish a cross from Goff. Then in the 24th minute, Goff sent another cross for Evans, which Evans finished with ease to make it 8-0.

“We’ve played with each other for so long now and we just like to play off of each other, so whenever I see her making a run, I’m going to make a run into open space,” Goff said. “I try to be open for her to pass it, and she does the same for me.”

Harrison needed 10 minutes to record another hat trick, with the first goal coming just 20 seconds into the game.

“We were just playing like we normally play, trying to get the give-and-go going,” Harrison said, “getting me and Abby involved in the play. We’ve also been working on trying to incorporate the outside mids and trying to get some crosses in. I think that just showed how we were trying to cross it in, get headers out of it.”

Harrison struck again in the fourth and 10th minutes.

Madison Cumberland added a goal off another Goff assist in the 27th minute.

A pair of Dixon freshmen added two goals later in the half. In the 32nd minute Katlynn Deleon scored off a deflection. Katie Drew then made a solid run through the Vikings defense from just beyond midefield for another goal in the 37th minute.

“[Deleon] has very good speed, very good athlete, but she has to build up skills with the ball,” Dixon coach Mahmoud Etemadi said. “Katie Drew is an all-around athlete, great balance and great ability to play any position in the field. She’s very, very coordinated.”

Dixon (12-1, 10-0 BNC) out-shot North Boone 35-1 and had 22 shots on goal, forcing Vikings keeper Kayla Stamm to make 11 saves. The Duchesses had a 6-1 edge in corner kicks.

“Our plan has always been to start very strong and control the tempo of the game,” Etemadi said. “We try to use the width of the field to create opportunities to score goals. Of course we have a power goal-scorer that can finish any time, anywhere in the field, but it’s a team effort. They really work well together.”

North Boone only ventured into Dixon’s end of the field a handful of times. Abby Provo stepped in front of a corner kick in the 25th minute, and beat Karla Mendoza to a long through-ball in the 30th minute. Mendoza had another chance in the 33rd minute, but Emily Smith was there to deny her.

Dixon had an additional regular-season game scheduled against Mendota on Friday, but with Mendota in COVID-19 mitigation, the Duchesses have now wrapped up their regular season and will open the postseason against Sterling on June 1 at A.C. Bowers Field. The two teams met in the regional semifinal in 2019 as well, the last time there was a girls soccer postseason, with the Duchesses winning 8-0. That was also the score when they met in this year’s season opener on April 15.