Dodge guides Vanguard women past opener
Around this time a year ago, Coach Randy Dodge was in a hotel room in Indiana. On his laptop, he followed his Vanguard University women’s soccer team play in the first round of the NAIA Tournament.
Watching an online feed 2,140 miles away from Costa Mesa was hard enough for Dodge. He was in Marion, Ind., because he’s also the coach of the Vanguard men’s soccer team, which opened the NAIA Tournament that year at Indiana Wesleyan.
Watching the Vanguard women lose in penalty kicks to Cal State San Marcos made things more difficult for Dodge.
“I felt like I let them down,” Dodge said. “You always feel some sort of guilt that you could’ve done something if you were there.”
Dodge was there on Saturday for the women’s opening match in the tournament. The ideal circumstances allowed Dodge to guide the women and men on the same day and on the same field at Vanguard. The women played at 11 a.m., the men three hours afterward.
Dodge’s presence made a difference for the women. The Lions came out with an extra step, and they made sure to score in the first round, unlike last year, when they failed to do so during 110 minutes of action, bowing out of the tournament on PKs.
This one wouldn’t go to a dreaded PK session, as the Lions scored three first-half goals en route to a 4-1 win against Columbia College, which is from Missouri. Vanguard, the No. 14 seed, advances to the second round to play No. 3 William Carey University (17-2-1), from Hattiesburg, Miss., on Dec. 1 in Orange Beach, Ala.
“It’s pretty cool that we get to go to the final site now,” Dodge said. “It’s a great group of girls. They deserve to go. They’ve battled hard.”
The Lions (15-5-1), who earned the seventh at-large entry into the 31-team tournament after reaching the semifinals of the Golden State Athletic Conference, dominated Columbia (18-4), the American Midwest Conference Tournament champion.
The first 11 minutes featured all Vanguard, as it took a 2-0 lead. Goalkeeper Flavia Rosado misplayed two balls, and it wound up costing her.
The first ball center back Lauren Aronson delivered a long ball toward the goal and Smith came out too far, seeing it bounce over her head. Madison Farrel was there to head in the goal in the third minute.
“I was thankful that [the ball] went over her and that she misjudged it,” said Farrel, who has six goals in her last six matches.
Farrel assisted on the Lions’ second goal, which Danyelle Allen produced in the 11th minute. Allen used her head to beat Rosado, who was out of position.
Columbia got on the scoreboard in the 19th minute, on a Tiffany Weaver shot that keeper Kaycee Smith deflected, only to watch it go into the back of the net. Weaver’s 17th goal on the season cut the deficit in half, but the hosts pushed the advantage back to two.
This time, Rosado was in a precarious situation. She almost escaped unscathed.
With Vanguard’s Rayven Hernandez coming from the right side, Rosado blocked Hernandez’s shot, and the rebound went to the left, where a wide-open Farrel appeared to have an easy goal deep in the box. Rosado denied Farrel’s tap-in, but the ball dribbled toward the right and Hernandez put it away to give Vanguard a 3-1 lead in the 27th minute.
Nicole Dunn’s goal, coming off a 25-yard blast in the 87th minute, put the final touches on Vanguard getting past the opening round of the tournament for fifth time in six tries.
“We were motivated for a lot of different reasons,” said Farrel, who was happy to have Dodge on the sideline. “We didn’t want to lose on our home field anymore.”
