Royals upset Lions

Vanguard University women’s soccer coach Randy Dodge said his team, ranked No. 12 in the NAIA, has overachieved this season. Now, the Lions have something from which to overcome.

Visiting Hope International broke a scoreless deadlock by producing the game’s only goal in the 82nd minute to earn a Golden State Athletic Conference upset Saturday.

The loss, the first in three conference games for the Lions (8-2), halted a seven-match winning streak and dropped them into a three-way tie for second place in the GSAC standings.

Unranked Hope International (7-1-2, 2-1 in conference) joins the second-place logjam that also includes The Master’s. Defending conference champion Westmont sits in first at 3-0-1.

“That’s how hard our league is,” Dodge said after his team controlled play in the second half and produced a 16-9 overall advantage in shots. “We were very, very good in the second half and we did have one [scoring] chance. But that happens in the game of soccer. [The Royals] were better at times, but we were by far the better team.”

Hope, under first-year coach and former Royals men’s player Matt Sanger, is clearly an emerging team that gained valuable confidence on Saturday.

“We are a very new team with a new coaching staff and so we are constantly trying to figure out how good we are,” Sanger said. “We’ve won a lot of games this year, but none of those have been against the caliber of this opponent. Vanguard is an extremely good opponent and any time you can get a result against Vanguard, it’s a good day”

It’s also a rare day for the Royals, who had not beaten Vanguard since 2007 and had lost seven straight to the Lions during the hosts’ 10-game series unbeaten streak that included a 19-2 scoring advantage.

The loss, however, may have cast light upon some issues generating increasing concern from Dodge.

Dodge said senior defender Ashley McCutcheon, a two-time All-GSAC performer expected to anchor the back and finish on set pieces, is sidelined by a knee ailment that could cost her the season.

And senior forward Madison Cody Farrell, who amassed 15 goals and 11 assists and earned all-conference laurels last season, has been diminished, Dodge said, by a torn meniscus that has limited her to just four starts in 2015. Cody Farrell came off the bench Saturday, but was not among the eight Lions who produced at least one shot.

“Injuries have killed us,” Dodge said. “I didn’t think we had to replace a whole lot [from last year’s squad that went 16-3-2], but we have. We don’t really have a big-time player on set pieces. And we only have one freshman contributing [starting defensive midfielder Haley Bruce], when we usually have four or five.”

Junior Alex Bachman nearly came off the bench to put Vanguard in the scoring column late in the first half. Her shot from the right wing bounced off the hands of Hope goalkeeper Kayla Jensen, who then fielded the ensuing rebound off the right goal post to get a second-chance save.

Junior forward Danyelle Allen, who shares the team goal lead with six, led the Lions with four shots on Saturday.

Sophomore forward Madison Lopp, who also has six goals and leads the team with 15 points (two for a goal and one for an assist), added three shots, all on goal,

Jensen, a freshman, made nine saves to preserve the Royals’ seventh shutout of the season. Hope’s only loss this year was a 3-0 setback at No. 9-ranked Westmont on Sept. 26.

The Royals’ goal was a three-player parlay that began with a free kick near midfield from freshman Kaylee Mazzone. Senior forward Brandi Neilan executed a nifty one-touch back-heel flick from around the six-hard line toward the front of the goal, where senior midfielder Xochitl Sandoval pushed it over the goal line.

“We capitalized on maybe a lucky opportunity,” Sanger said of the goal, the team-leading seventh by Sandoval. “I think it was going to come down to which team got that one moment and that was us today.”

Bachman, sophomore forward Rayven Hernandez and senior defender Megan Hook each had two shots for the Lions.