Lady Rangers Defeat Georgetown 3-2

In the 1st varsity matchup of these two programs, the Lady Rangers left VRHS with a 3-2 win, and a good reminder of just how tough this new 5A district is going to be.  Both teams were evenly matched in both skill, and speed. But it was the Rangers balanced attack and solid defense that proved to be the difference in the game.

The Lady Rangers went up 1-0 in the 1st half when Ashlynn Davis (playing wing) hit the afterburners and streaked by the Georgetown defense for a great right-footed goal.  The defense then took over against a relentless Georgetown attack and managed to keep Georgetown without a solid shot as the half expired.  During the half, Coach Cook talked to the team about the need for the midfield and wings to get back and help defensively.  He also stressed for the girls to use their speed and pass to open spaces so the forwards and wings could run onto the ball.

The 2nd half began with Georgetown’s offense in high gear and the Rangers on their heels.  Georgetown got on the board with 10 minutes elapsed when goalie Shelby Sova was a bit short on a shot at the top of the goal.  Just when it looked liked momentum was changing, Ashley Lee showed both speed and skill as she dribbled through the Georgetown defense to put the Rangers up 2-1.  The Rangers appeared to go up 3-1 on a header by Megan Dunnigan that was called offsides.  Georgetown then struck back to tie the game 2-2 as Roxy Farrell slipped (some say she was pushed) to setup an easy shot on goal.  The Lady Rangers then turned up the pressure both offensively and defensively and never let Georgetown take another shot.  The Lady Rangers went up 3-2 when Megan Dunnigan connected to put the game away for good.

The Rangers return to action next week with tough matchups against McNeil and Cedar Park.  They’ll need their A-game for both of these matches.

Rangers open district play w/2-0 win

The VRHS Lady Rangers opened district play with a convincing 2-0 victory over the Leander Lions at Cedar Park high school Wednesday night.  The game was postponed from Tuesday due to the inclement weather.  While VR had played Leander in scrimmages in past years, this one counted.  And it was also clear that Leander was fielding one of their better squads of recent years.

The story of the game were the defenses on both sides.  The Lady Lions never got a good shot on goal while the Rangers dominated offensively but couldn’t score until late.  The Lady Lions did a nice job of packing the box near their goal.  The Leander goalie also had a number of nice saves to keep the score 0-0 at half.  At half, Coach Cook talked to the squad about keeping their heads in the game and talking.  There wasn’t alot of chatter during the 1st half w/open players calling for the ball.  He and I also discussed the size of the field which was slightly wider than a standard football field.  He felt this was helping Leander defensively by packing the defense in, and that the key to the game was going to be our passing attack spreading things out.

The Lady Rangers got the message during the 2nd half as their passing and attacks increased.  The Lions failed to score on their only shot during the 2nd half, but the Rangers managed 2 goals behind great out & in ball movement.  The first goal was setup by a great outlet pass from Emily Glenn to Ashlynn Owen who then crossed it to Megan Dunnigan for the score.  Emily Glenn put the game away with under 10 minutes remaining on a beautiful right-footer from the top of the box.

The Lady Rangers will be in action Friday night at VRHS where they face Georgetown.

Rangers take 2 of 3 over weekend

The Lady Rangers were back in action Friday and Saturday against Copperas Cove and Abilene Cooper.  Friday nights game (sorry, no pictures of that one) was a completely dominating performance by the Lady Rangers as they racked up an easy 8-1 win over Copperas Cove.  It looked like it would be a close contest as the game began as the Lady Bulldogs clearly had speed at their forwards and overall had good ball skills.  The Rangers went up 2-0 with 20 minutes to go in the half before the bulldogs got on the board.  The Lady Rangers scored 2 more to take a comfortable 4-1 lead into the half.  The 2nd half was all Rangers as they scored 4 more in the 1st 15 minutes and cruised to an easy win.

Saturday’s game -vs- Abilene Cooper gave the appearance of an overmatched Cooper team -vs- the high-scoring Rangers.  But that’s why they play the game.  The weather went from a comfortable 70 at gametime Friday night to a cold and blustery day on Saturday.  At gametime, the temperature was 45 with 15 mile per hour winds.  Maybe it was the cold or good defensive play by Cooper, but the Lady Ranger passing attack that had been so prolific during Thursday night’s loss and Friday night’s win was no where to be found Saturday.  The Lady Rangers pressed Cooper all game long and limited Cooper’s shots to 3, but the Lady Rangers also struggled to get clear shots on goal or breakaways.  The game looked like it was going to finish a 0-0 tie when Junior Rebecca Campbell connected off a corner to score the Rangers only and game winning goal wth 10 minutes to go.

The Lady Rangers begin district play Tuesday night against Leander.

Photos of the game have been uploaded and can be seen by clicking the picture above.  Also remember, that if you want to see a player’s pictures, you can select photo galleries from the menu, then search my online galleries and enter the player’s number.  Here’s a link to the search page.

Vista Ridge Soccer Update - 1/23/09

Sorry folks for not having written more.  I don’t have pictures since the Brenham tournament.  I didn’t travel to the Houston tournament and the lighting was too bad at the others to mess with.

The Rangers continued play the Monday immediately after the Brenham tournament with a scrimmage against Pflugerville at the high school.  They won easily 4-2 in a game that featured a 4-goal performance by Alex Ancira.  The team played well with great passing and touches from everyone.

The Lady Rangers traveled last weekend to Houston to play in the I-10 Shootout.  They played in the western backet and took 2nd.  On Thursday night of the tournament, they began with a 3-1 victory over Morton Ranch.   Friday they played Manville and defeated them 5-1.  While the victory was impressive, it was costly with Alex Ancira suffering an injury that will keep her out for a few weeks.  On Saturday, the Lady Rangers lost to Mayde Creek 4-1.

This weekend, the Lady Rangers are playing in Govenor’s Cup tournament in Georgetown.  This will likely be the stiffest competition they’ve faced as a number of the teams are perennially play-off and vie for the regional championships each year.  The Rangers began last night with a tough game against Kingswood from Houston.  Kingswood fell short lost last year in the Regional championship game and is favored this year to be the team to beat for Region-3.  The Lady Rangers lost 1-0 but proved they could indeed hang with the top 5A schools.  The game was tied 0-0 for most of the game with both teams failing to score on some great looks.  For the Rangers, the attack was led by Megan Dunigan who had some nice breakaways and 1×1 scoring opportunities.  The Lady Ranger defense was stout behind excellent play from Roxie Farrell and Leslie Nguyen.  But with 6 minutes to go in the game, the defense committed one of the few mistakes of the game leaving an unmarked Kingswood forward in the box.  A great cross from one of their wings and voila - they broke the logjam.

The Lady Rangers return to action tonight at the Georgetown stadium.

Vista Ridges Takes 1st at Brenham Cup

Playing in their 1st season as a division 5A school, the Vista Ridge Lady Ranger soccer team proved they could hang by easily winning their first tournament of the year.  This was the Rangers 5th time playing in the Brenham tournament since the school started playing soccer in 2004.  This was their 3rd time for winning it.

Day 1 of the tournament was played on Friday with winners from each game determining their seed positions for the Saturday games.  The Rangers opened tournament play with a match against Connally High school who they had not seen since beating them in the playoffs in 2006.  The Lady Rangers cruised easily with a 5-1 win.  The 2nd game featured the Rangers against the Lady Tigers of Conroe High school.  Conroe is part of the Conroe ISD just north of Houston.  This game proved to be a bit more defensive on both sides of the ball where the Lady Rangers pitched a shutout 3-0.

Day 2 of the tournament pitted the Lady Rangers against the Elkins High school Knights (part of the Katy ISD located just southwest of Houston).  This was a back and forth game with the Rangers easily playing their best soccer with crisp passing, great 1st touches, and alot of offensive pressure.  The game was tied until mid-way through the 2nd half when the Rangers scored to take the lead 1-0.  Elkins never let down and continued to press and appeared to have a shot to tie the game on a free kick with about 10 minutes left when goalie Megan Dunnigan deflected a ball right at the top of the net.  The Rangers held on for a 1-0 win and advanced to the championship game to meet Stony Point high school which is one of their district foes this year.  Stony Point is part of the Round Rock ISD and is located in Round Rock.  The Lady Rangers took a 1-0 lead into half but then exploded in the 2nd half for a 4-1 win.  The lone Stony Point goal was scored on a PK with just 5 seconds left in the game.

The Lady Rangers will return to action on Monday night with a scrimmage against Pflugerville as VRHS.

The pictures of Saturday’s games are available online.  Just click any of the pictures in this post or select Galleries, and then Sports from the drop down menu. 

SPECIAL NOTE: The photo site I host with (smugmug) includes a search feature that allows you to search on keyword.  Unfortunately, I’ve encountered a few bugs that you would normally expect when searching keywords so pay attention.  I’ve begun encoding all the 2009 pictures with each player’s jersey number. This will allow you to view just those pictures of the player you want to see.  Unfortunately, you can not use the search box on the right-hand menu.  However, if you go into the “Galleries” menu, then select “Search on my online galleries”, you can enter your players number and all the pictures for your player.  I’ll be working on simplying this so as I get workarounds in place, I’ll let you know.

2009 Vista Ridge Alumni Game

The 2009 Vista Ridge Lady Rangers varsity soccer team had  a homecoming of sorts for all the alumni players.  The varsity hosted all of the alumni to a scrimmage at the high school Tuesday night to kickoff the 2009 season.   Listening to some of the smack leading up to the scrimmage and it was clear that each group was planning on schooling the other.  The alumni’s line was that they had the better athletes.  After all, they had won numerous championships, been to the playoffs every year, and had a number of the returnees named to all-district teams.  The varsity - well, they had the youth, they were the future, they also had players on those championship teams, they also had all-district players, and then of course - the secret advantage.  “GAS”.  They were in shape and playing soccer where many of the alumni were not!

Well……the varsity won 4-2 in what was a fairly even contest. The varsity indeed used their secret advantage as it was heard during the 2nd half that one of the veterans had admitted to bribing the official if he’d start calling offsides just to keep them from running as much.  The good news was that none of the old timers needed oxygen after the game.

While all of the players had alot of fun, the alumni parents enjoyed seeing each other again.  The comraderie between the players and the parents has been one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed every soccer season since Vista Ridge started playing.  It was good to see that nothing had changed last night as everyone had alot of fun to enjoy each other and the game so many of us love.

Pictures of the game are available by clicking on the picture above.