SCC Women’s Soccer Making Giant Strides

Last season at this time, Coach Scott Dameron still was scrambling to fill the roster of the Southern California College women’s soccer team. Seven players showed for the first practice; 10 for the first game.

But memories of the Vanguards’ 0-19-1 inaugural season are receding quickly. The Vanguards, who scored two goals in 1993, scored 11 on the first day of the 1994 season, beating Mills College, 11-0.

Quite a turnaround for a team that lost, 15-0, to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“We have already beaten some teams that just killed us last year,” Dameron said. “We played Claremont the other day--I think they beat us, 13-0, or something last year. I think they came out expecting to do the same thing again and they found they were facing a good team. We even had a couple of chances to put it away.”

Claremont and SCC tied, 0-0, and after a 3-2 loss to Redlands and a 5-1 victory over Biola, the Vanguards are 2-3-1 after losing to Azusa Pacific, 6-0, in their Golden State Athletic Conference opener Thursday.

Dameron, who is also the girls’ soccer coach at Newport Harbor High, has turned things around at SCC with an excellent recruiting class. Dameron has brought in 13 new players and now has a roster of 19.

“I thought we’d have a harder time recruiting but I think people saw some good in the program,” he said.

Joy Pelletier, a freshman from Brethren Christian, leads the team with eight goals. Jamie Gardiner, a sophomore from Sunny Hills, has scored five. Katrina Bohn, a junior from San Clemente High who played last season, and Deann Salcido, a redshirt sophomore, anchor the defense.

Freshman midfielders Meggen Fleener, from Newport Harbor, and Dawn Chastain, from Esperanza, are also making their presence known.

“The main goal for us is to stay healthy,” Dameron said. “If we can keep our good players healthy, we are good enough to beat anybody we play.”

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The Concordia men’s soccer team is also making an impressive turnaround. The Eagles, who were 0-19 last season, are 2-0-1 this season, under new Coach Dave Irby.

Irby, who also coaches the Orange County Vanguard semipro club team, coached the Eagles in the 1988 and ’89 seasons, leaving because he didn’t have any help. This time he returns with three assistants--former SCC standout Greg Olson, Villa Park boys’ soccer Coach Pat Noyes and Phil Brance, who has coached goalkeepers at El Toro High--and is enthusiastic about the possibilities.

“This is probably the best team they’ve had here,” Irby said. “When I was here before, I didn’t have 11 legitimate college starters and I would say we do now.”

Irby is working with much the same team as the Eagles fielded last year. Three senior captains--midfielder Brian Beaman, forward Kyle Thomas and defender Dean Agnoletto--are mainstays. Beaman and Thomas played for Irby and the Orange County Vanguard on a Christian missionary trip to England and Holland this summer.

Among the newcomers is Bonner Rinn, a freshman goalkeeper from Santa Margarita. Rinn allowed his first goals in three games Tuesday in a 2-2 overtime tie with La Verne.

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Early showdown: The Concordia and Southern California College women’s volleyball teams will meet Saturday in their second Golden State Athletic Conference match at Concordia. Both teams open the conference season on the road tonight.

Both also are having early success. The Vanguards (9-1) are off to their best start in school history. Concordia is 8-3.

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Early rout: The Chapman football team, which will open its first season in 62 years Saturday at Whittier, had a trial run last Friday, scrimmaging the San Diego junior varsity.

Although the scrimmage wasn’t publicized, about 700 were on hand to watch as the Panthers built a 38-0 halftime lead and won, 41-7. Quarterback Curtis Robinson, a 6-foot-3 transfer from Citrus College, was the offensive standout. He gained 83 yards in five carries. He scored two touchdowns, one on a 61-yard run, and passed for another, a 50-yarder to wide receiver Darnell Rubin.

Former Los Alamitos standout Todd Gragnano, who will share time with Robinson at quarterback, completed four of 12 passes for 63 yards with one interception.

Notes

Chapman softball Coach Lisle Lloyd is recovering from a broken neck he suffered late last month. Lloyd will have to wear a halo neck brace until December, his daughter and assistant coach Janet Lloyd said. Lisle Lloyd fell from a ladder while doing yard work at his North Tustin home. After the fall, he got up and went into his house and attended to a cut on his face and his knee. Hours later, he complained of stiffness, and decided to go to the hospital where doctors discovered a broken vertebra. “The doctor said if 100 people fell like that, 99 would be paralyzed from the neck down,” Janet Lloyd said. . . . Southern California College presented the ball used for Ila Borders’ first pitch in college baseball game to the Orange County Sports Assn. Hall of Fame Tuesday at Anaheim Stadium. Borders also turned over her hat and road uniform. The paraphernalia will be used in a display the Hall of Fame plans to dedicate next month. . . . Chapman has hired Jim Moore as its sports information director. Moore replaces Derek Anderson, who took a similar job at Cal State Dominguez Hills this summer, and will also be an assistant women’s basketball coach.