Terriers laugh last: Vandy beats old foe, moves to Finals

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The Vandebilt Catholic boys’ soccer team lost 3-1 to Beau Chene in mid-December – one of the Terriers’ five losses this season.

But with a second crack at the Gators, Vandebilt first-year coach Kevin Champagne decided to make a few tactical tweaks in an effort to keep the Gators’ powerful offense in check. The changes worked – they helped to move the Terriers within one game of the Division II State Championship.

Thanks to a second-half goal from Austin Guidry, Vandebilt struck first to take momentum in the road match. From there, the Terriers rode a combination of stout defense and red-hot goalie Patrick Watson to the 1-0 shutout win over Beau Chene in the Division II State Semifinals game.


With the win, Vandebilt will now battle Ben Franklin for the state title. That match will take place Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans.

“There’s one thing about this group of boys – we’ve been really focused all year long,” Terriers’ first-year coach Kevin Champagne said. “All year long, everything we’ve asked them to do, they’ve done it and they’ve done it without complaint. It was a bit of a relief for us after the Beau Chene match, but we knew that we had lost to them and we knew when we looked at the bracket that playing them again was something that we’d have to do, so we made the improvements, took care of business and have one more win to go.”

To get to the state finals, the Terriers got arguably their best defensive effort of the season. In the first meeting between the two teams, the Gators controlled possession, which led to countless shots fired into the Vandebilt defense, and ultimately, three goals scored.


But in the second meeting, the Terriers made tweaks in an effort to keep the ball on their side for most of the match. More importantly, that meant that Vandebilt was able to keep the ball away from Beau Chene senior striker Brock Hollier, who has recorded 134 goals in his career.

“We knew their style of play, and we knew how they were going to attack us,” Champagne said. “So we’ve really been working really hard all year since then to address how they beat us. They have two really, really good offensive players. We moved players to a defensive position because we knew that we really needed to be stronger there if we wanted to get a different result this time.”

In the first half, the teams traded possession, but neither could break the ice, which sent the game to halftime in a scoreless tie.


Close to 20 minutes into the second half, the match tilted in Vandebilt’s favor when Guidry freed himself from the defense and plastered a goal past Beau Chene keeper Briley Dronet – a goal assisted by Vandebilt’s Chris Wood.

The score was the lone goal in the match.

Beau Chene tried frantically to score an equalizer in the final minutes, but each effort was thwarted by Watson, who had a heroic day, according to his coach.


“They had a lot of very nice chances, but Patrick did a great job stopped them all and keeping them out of the net,” Champagne said. “Our defense helped him a lot, but he made some very nice plays on some hard-hit balls.”

With the win, the Terriers will play No. 8 Ben Franklin in the finals. They earned their spot in the big game after beating No. 5 St. Thomas More in a 3-2 battle.

Ben Franklin is also the team responsible for the No. 1 seed’s ouster, owning a 3-1 win over No. 1 Bolton in the Quarterfinals.


Champagne said the Terriers must play well if they hope to win the state championship. But with arguably their best game of the season at their disposal, that goal appears to be well within reach.

“We honestly don’t know a lot about them to tell you the truth,” Champagne said. “But we do know that they’ve beaten some really good teams to get here – some teams that on paper were probably supposed to beat them. We know that they’ve been ranked around the middle of the pack all season, but have gotten hot lately and haven’t lost in quite some time. We need to play a good match if we want to get the win. They are a very, very good team.”

Terriers’ girls fall flat in semifinals


While the Vandebilt boys’ dream of the state title, the Lady Terriers fell two wins short of the big trophy.

The Vandebilt girls rolled to the Division II State Semifinals last week after beating Lakeshore 1-0 in Houma.

But they couldn’t carry their momentum forward, falling to No. 1 Ben Franklin 1-0.


The Lady Terriers had a few scoring opportunities in the match, but they were thwarted by Ben Franklin’s powerful defense.

The loss ends the Lady Terriers’ season with an 18-8-3 record. But the season was undoubtedly a success for a Vandebilt side that played primarily underclassmen throughout the year.

Lady Terriers’ coach Philip Amedee said he expects the team to build on its successes this year and rally to be a powerhouse again in 2014-15.


All that stands in the way of the Vandebilt Catholic boys’ soccer team and the Division II State Championship is 80 minutes of action with Ben Franklin on Thursday night. After beating Beau Chene 1-0 this past weekend, the Terriers need just one more victory to take home the coveted title. Against the Gators, Vandebilt won with stout defense and elite goalie play. 

JOSE DELGADO | TRI-PARISH TIMES