Dewing Hat Trick Pushes Air Force Past Utah Valley, 3-1

USAF ACADEMY – Air Force outscored Utah Valley, 3-1, in Western Athletic Conference action, Sunday afternoon at Cadet Soccer Stadium. The Falcons (5-4-2, 4-0 WAC) are now a five-match win streak and the only team in the conference with more than one league win. Utah Valley dropped to 2-5-1 overall with an 0-2 mark in the WAC.

Thaddaeus Dewing was the play maker of the day notching his first career hat trick via two goals and a penalty kick. He's the first Falcon to score a hat trick since Tristan Trager in 2019. Senior assists leader Jacob Angeletti has the golden foot from the set piece, assisting Dewing with the header in the 14^th minute. Angeletti has four assists this season, all from the set piece.

Utah Valley responded with Samuel Krommenhoek's header from via set piece service from Mark Andros in the 52^nd minute to equalize at one. Drama ensued in the 58^th minute as senior defender Tyler Johnson was charged with his second yellow card and was ejected from the match. The Falcons, now a man down, refused to back down.

With frustrations setting in on both sides, the match became chippy and standoffish but was broken loose after a UVU goalkeeper error gave Dewing the walk-in shot for a goal to retake the lead in the 74^th minute.

Three minutes later, Dewing and Angeletti were pushing into the box to set up a strike when a Wolverine made hard contact with Angeletti leading to a PK opportunity. Senior team captain London Aghedo, who would typically take the PK, gracefully yielded the shot to Dewing who got the Wolverine goalie to pursuit the feint left and finishing to a wide-open right side. Dewing concluded the game with his 10^th goal of the season.

The Wolverines were unable to recover in the ensuing 15 minutes, finalizing their second loss of the weekend.

Senior keeper John Byszewski tallied his fifth-straight win in goal with four saves on the match. His counterpart Jason Smith made three saves for the Wolverines. UVU created a lot more opportunity on the offensive side the Falcons, outshooting AF 21-6. Despite the shooting disparity, Air Force put four of their six shots on target while UVU had five on goal.

"It was a great result today, especially after going down a man," head coach Doug Hill said. "The team showed a lot of character and found a way to score twice in the last 20 minutes—it was a great team effort. They were tremendous goals from Dewing and a great service from Angeletti, hats off to both. London Aghedo showed tremendous leadership when he gave Dewing the penalty kick for the chance at the hat trick, it was great to see that kind of leadership. It's also nice to see a hat trick but ultimately what matters most to us is we scored more than our opponent and got the win at home."

Next up, the Falcons hit the road for a pair of WAC matches against UTRGV and Houston Christian, October 21 and 23, respectively.

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