If at first you don't succeed ...
Most of us learned the familiar adage as children. But after two decades of trying to win a game in Gainesville, Florida, Auburn could have been forgiven for questioning its usefulness.
But during a week in which Tigers junior forward Kristen Dodson showed off both precision and persistence, it was precisely that spirit of try, try again that helped propel her team to a historic win and helped her earn espnW's national soccer player of the week honors.
Dodson's performance in her team's 3-0 win at No. 12 Florida on Sept. 22 was its own masterpiece of persistence, with two crucial goals scored on a night that could have been about missed chances. Given the stakes, that effort was its own candidacy. But there was Dodson on Sunday, no less resplendent with two goals and two assists in a 4-2 comeback win at Georgia.
Auburn traveled to Florida without a road win over the SEC's bellwether program during the two-decade history of the series. The Tigers' eight previous trips to Gainesville produced a total of three goals. The Tigers, in other words, would have taken a goal any way they could get it.
When Florida offered just that, Dodson didn't let aesthetics stand in the way of progress.
A goalkeeper's errant judgment in playing the ball out and subsequent loose first touch on a back pass turned into Auburn's opening goal because Dodson never switched off. At full sprint, she got to that loose first touch before the keeper and slid the ball into the suddenly wide-open goal for Auburn's first lead of any kind in Gainesville since 2011.
With Auburn ahead by two goals late but fending off Florida pressure, Dodson was still running down chances. A teammate played the ball out of danger toward Dodson, then near midfield but still in Auburn's half. The ball barreled past her with enough pace that it seemed an easy claim for the Florida goalkeeper racing out of her goal. After a game spent pressuring high up the field, it would have been easy for Dodson to catch her breath and worry about defending what was behind her. Instead, she took off at full speed, blocked the goalkeeper's kick and got just enough on her own shot to send the ball rolling slowly more than 30 yards into an open net.
That she couldn't enjoy it in the moment, leveled by the desperate keeper as the goal-bound shot was released, presumably didn't keep her from enjoying it later while applying ice.
On a different night, she might have kicked herself for opportunities missed -- on two occasions in the second half, she found herself with clean looks at goal when played in by Casie Ramsier, only to pull the shots just wide of the post. Instead, Dodson created more chances.
Not that she can't produce a finish worthy of a skills video. Her first goal against Georgia, which tied the game 2-2 early in the second half, was a beautiful individual effort that saw her nutmeg a defender with her first touch, then use her next two touches to deke her way past a second defender and set up an angle for a shot she stuck in the top corner.
The winner came 12 minutes later, when Dodson again crossed up a defender and calmly put herself in position for a point-blank finish.
