Girls’ Soccer: Rodman wins it
It was Trinity Rodman’s sick goal that helped the Corona del Mar High girls’ soccer team advance in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs Thursday afternoon.
For much of the week, though, Rodman has just felt sick in a bad way.
It’s been going around the squad, CdM Coach Bryan Middleton said.
“We were missing six players on Monday and Tuesday,” Middleton said. “We got Megan [Chelf], Alex [Ianni] and Emily [Mickelsen] back on Wednesday. But then, [senior captain] Leah [Givant] got sick and she was out.”
Rodman didn’t even go to school the first three days of the week, but she returned Thursday. All of the aforementioned players sucked it up and played, as the Sea Kings hosted Palos Verdes Peninsula in a Division 2 first-round match.
Tension mounted as neither team scored into overtime, but No. 1-seeded CdM didn’t need to worry. Not with the Trinity on its side.
Rodman’s golden goal with four minutes left in the second overtime lifted the Sea Kings to a 1-0 victory. Teammates and CdM boys’ lacrosse players, who had been watching the game in support, stormed the field after her great finish.
Minutes before the game would go to penalty kicks, Rodman made sure it didn’t. She took a pass from junior Ava McKenzie at about midfield, and found a seam on the right to run toward the goal. Rodman then blasted her team-best 14th goal into the upper part of the net, helping CdM (21-0-3) advance to the second round.
The Sea Kings will play at Riverside Poly on Tuesday.
“I wasn’t expecting her to pass it, because there were a couple of times she didn’t,” Rodman said. “She just did, and I was like, OK, I’ll just dribble. I was going to play it through somewhere, but there was an opening ... it worked out. It was in the exact same spot where I hit my free kick against Northwood [to win the Pacific Coast League title on Feb. 7]. It had a little zig-zag, a curve to it.”
It was the second straight day a Rodman excelled for CdM in a postseason opener. Trinity’s older brother DJ had 30 points for the Sea Kings boys’ basketball team Wednesday in a first-round win against El Toro.
“It’s good to know that we’re both succeeding,” Trinity Rodman said. “It’s not just one person taking the spotlight.”
Trinity also had a chance to win it for CdM at the end of regulation, her free kick from 25 yards out whistling over the goal. The Sea Kings had more good looks as the game went on, after feeling frustrated following the scoreless first half.
“The frustration built through the half amongst the players and the coaching staff, but we sorted it out,” Middleton said. “We played better in the second half ... This is the playoffs. You’ve got to weather the storm.”
Peninsula (7-8-6), an at-large team from the Bay League, tried to create chances for freshman forward Katie Roditis up top. Senior midfielder Erin Kawakami also had a couple of decent chances on free kicks, but couldn’t put the shots on goal.
The CdM defense, which featured Alyssa McKenzie, Katharine Caston, Emma Scott, Julie Bartz, Ianni, and Mickelsen, was stout. Senior keeper Ally Lozano made three saves.
But McKenzie, the center back, picked up her second yellow card of the game when she fouled Roditis in the second overtime just outside the box. McKenzie will have to miss the Riverside Poly game.
“We’ll have to make adjustments in the defense,” Middleton said, adding that Caston, Mickelsen and Scott could all rotate at center back.
He also wants his team to get healthy. There was plenty of coughing the post-game huddle.
Twitter: @mjszabo
