Pretty much every coach and player in the world believes it's never good to lose a game. But if there is such a thing as a good loss, that's what the Utah soccer team experienced earlier this week at Sacramento State.

The Utes were ranked 19th in the country and playing a sub-.500 Big Sky team on the road. Yet they lost, dropping them out of the rankings and breaking their momentum for the start of Mountain West Conference play this week.

So what did the Utes do Thursday afternoon at Ute Field against Air Force? They simply jumped all over the poor Falcons, with 11 shots on goal in the first half alone, four of which resulted in goals, then coasted to a 4-0 victory.

Utah coach Rich Manning said his team was getting in a comfort zone after seven straight victories and the Sunday loss was a good wake-up call.

"There was a lot of talk, on the field and in the locker room," Manning said. "We lost that game for a lot of reasons, but the players definitely came together today."

Another big reason for the Ute turnaround was the presence of forward Lauren Field, who had missed three straight games after undergoing a minor procedure on her heart.

Field scored two of the Ute goals and assisted on a third.

"Nothing about her surprises me," Manning said. "She's just a great player with great character."

Amber Brower started the Ute scoring barrage at 25:16 with assists from Missy Dennis and Heather Wilhelm-Carter. Five minutes later, Field scored her first goal from 10 yards out off a pass from Brower.

Then with less than three minutes left in the half, Field scored again off a beautiful pass from freshman Mckenzie Joyner. "That's the kind of ball every forward loves to get," Field said.

Only 14 seconds later, the Utes scored again, this time with Field finding Julie Herdic, whose shot from five yards out hit the lower left corner.

"Being out a week kind of re-charged me," Field said. "It's tough to sit out, so I was pumped up."

Next up for Utah is New Mexico at 2 p.m. Saturday. Although the Lobos are just 1-5-3, the Utes will be plenty motivated because the Lobos knocked them out of last year's MWC tourney after tying them during the regular season.

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