Lady Rangers in Final Round of RR Tourney

With a tie last night against Westwood and a victory this morning against Abilene Cooper, the Vista Ridge Lady Rangers moved on to the final round of the 5A Round Rock tournament. They will face Round Rock at 4Pm Saturday evening.

To reach the tourney championship, the Rangers had to hold off a talented Lady Warrior team friday evening in frigid light rain. On their heels most of the game, the defense for the Rangers again stepped up big when it counted behind the leadership of goalie Christi Mennitt. It’s been confirmed that senior keeper Lauren Frazier is out for the rest of the season and will be undergoing surgery on her ankle in the next 2 weeks. The defense was tested early and often with the speed and attack of the Warriors, but each time, the Lady Rangers were able to block clean shots on goal and what did get through - well Mennitt simply snuffed the threat out. Late in the 2nd half, Coach Cook took a more aggressive posture on offense and the Lady Rangers were able to attack more, but were still held scoreless. The game ended 0-0. After the game, it was good to see the comraderie and sportsmanship of the 2 teams as many of the girls hugged each other having played together on teams during club in previous years. It was also good to “hear” a number of the boys from the Rangers mens soccer team on the sidelines to cheer on the girls.

While the Westwood game may have been a defensive battle, the game against Abilene Cooper was anything but. With only a few minutes elapsed into the 1st half, AC pounced on the Rangers with an early 1-0 lead. Coach Cook later said that the girls slow start had alot to do with the weather which was 32 degrees with a windchill of 23 at gametime. While the Rangers may have trailed early, they struck back quickly with 2 quick goals at the 20 minute marker. Megan Dunnigan started the scoring with her 2nd goal of the tournament. Then less than 2 minutes later, senior Cassie Hutt connected on a bouncing ball in the box to put the Rangers up to a 2-1 lead. It looked as though the Rangers would ice the game early with an apparent 3rd goal, but the officials didn’t call it even though photographs clearly show the ball over the goal line.

In the 2nd half, senior forward Tyra Ponce put the Rangers up 3-1. But Abilene Cooper never gave up and answered the challenge with 2 goals to tie the game. It appeared the game was going to end up a tie when with less than a minute left to go, Ponce again beat the AC defense and went 1×1 with the goalie - needless to say, Ponce won….again. The Rangers won 4-3.

Lady Rangers Lose in RR Finals

After a grueling and cold weekend, the Lady Rangers played in the final round for 3rd and 4th place against Round Rock. The defense which had been so strong throughout the tournament proved again it could shutdown the RR offensive attack, but did give up 3 goals on corners and free kicks. The only goal for the Lady Rangers came in the 2nd half with a beautiful goal by Megan Dunnigan on an assist by Tara Thompson.

Lady Ranger Flash - Defeat Belton 1-0 in RR Tourney Opener

The 4A Vista Ridge Lady Rangers once again proved their metal against the 5A quarter-finalists Belton High Lady Tigers on Friday. At game time, there was light rain with the temperature hovering at 39 degrees. This match up was expected to be physical and fast and the game quickly lived up to expectations.

The Rangers struck first with 20 minutes elapsed into the 1st half with a hard left-footed goal by freshman midfielder Alex Ancira. That was when the game really got physical. With 9 minutes remaining until half, freshman midfielder Megan Dunnigan broke through the Lady Tiger defense and streaked to the goal where she and the Tiger goalie collided in a questionable no-call that had Coach Cook steaming mad. The Tiger offense finally managed to score with 15 seconds remaining in the half on what was setup on another questionable penalty. Clearly Coach Cook was not happy with the officiating to that point in the game.

The 2nd half began with both teams attacking. With 10 minutes gone, Dunnigan broke the logjam with a beautiful goal. The Lady Tigers put up a stout attacking offense that kept Vista Ridge on its heels. As has been it’s signature in the early season, the defense bent but never broke. Under the leadership of junior Roxy Farrell, the defense quickly shut down what looked like great scoring opportunities for the Tigers. With 12 minutes remaining, Vista Ridge came within inches of padding it’s lead when senior Tyra Ponce narrowly missed a header goal on a cross by Dunnigan. With 0:00 on the scoreboard, Vista Ridge had pulled out a 2-1 victory. Click here for the photo galleries.

Men’s View on Things

Guys - let’s face it that we normally say what we think.  And that thought process when a woman is involved is generally not a good thing.  Here’s a funny that my brother sent to me - so do what I’ve learned to do in my many years of marriage - say “yes dear”, nod like you’re listening and for God’s sake - keep your mouth shut.

I thought this was funny - Jill didn’t

Lady Rangers - Brenham Tourney Update

This weekend, the Vista Ridge Lady Rangers varsity soccer team played in their 1st tournament of the new season. The tourney was held in Brenham Texas where the Rangers have traditionally done well. They won the 4A bracket in 2007 and placed 2nd in 2006. Even though the Rangers haven’t started district play, Coach Cook wanted to up the girls competitive level to get ready for a likely playoff run. So this year, they played up a division against 5A schools which are the largest schools in Texas.

The Rangers got off to a strong start on Friday with a 3-0 win over Conroe, and closed out the day with an exciting sudden-death shootout win over North Richland. Saturday proved to be a tougher day where the Rangers first met their larger cross-town rivals, Cedar Park. In a very physical and defensive struggle, the Rangers lost 1-0. Starter Roxy Farrell was hurt with an ankle sprain and was held out the rest of the tournament. Starting mid-fielder Jessica Fuston injured her knee and also didn’t play the rest of the tournament. Early indications are that Roxy will be back for next week, but Jessica’s injury is pending. Clearly disappointed from that game, the Rangers decided to just have fun the last game against A&M Consolidated. Although they lost 1-0, the girls were clearly playing for fun - the seniors decided the starting line-ups, and the girls handled all the in-game coaching and substitution. Pictures of the game will be posted on the GoAubie Photography site by Monday evening. The direct links to the galleries VR Brenham Tournament. The next game will be Tuesday night, January 15th against Hays.

BCS - Oh Yeah….It Really Works!

Back in 2004, Auburn got screwed out of the national championship due to the BCS. The pollsters in their infinte wisdom decided to put Oklahoma into the championship game against USC. Oklahoma got completely blown out. Just like they have every year since in bowl games. In 2006, the BCS selected Florida against the unbeatable Ohio State, and OSU got a major butt kicking. Again in 2007, the BCS pitted LSU against Ohio State, and OSU got embarassed. Congratulations to LSU on a great victory. But clearly, there were a number of good teams that could have better competed against LSU. One of these days, we’re going to see a playoff where things can get decided on the field. But until then, we might just go ahead an pit whoever the SEC champion is against the next best. Clearly, the SEC is the class of college football and has been for years. If you can run the gauntlet there, you can beat anybody, anytime, anywhere. The wuss conferences of the PAC-10 and Big-10 don’t want a playoff as if they really have to play through some tough opponents, they’ll never play for the championship.

Thought this image says it all….War Eagle and Go SEC football!