Yes it was. To add to that, Conn had the ball at kickoff, after the tap smashed it long towards the corner. Amherst did not deal with it well, Conn wins the ball back and terrific finish. No chance for Bull.

Only 9 minutes for Amherst to equalize from a corner. Conn has looked shaky defending long throws so far, and with shaky goaltending previously mentioned, Amherst could add another goal on a long throw/set play.

Conn College goal after 12 seconds. Conn 1 - 0 Amherst

Agree on Colby point. I think Seabrook will add depth with his first recruiting class and build on it from there.

I watched Bates a few times back then but not enough to comment. Looking at Purgavie's biography online I can see: "Between 2001 and 2011, he led the Bobcats to six postseason appearances in the NESCAC Championship, including a three-year span from 2004 to 2006 that included an appearance in the tournament semifinals and a 27-14-5 record."

Seems like a below-average NESCAC team to me, especially when you consider Hamilton wasn't in the league at that point, so eight out of ten teams made the playoffs each year. In those ten seasons, Bates was either last or second to last in the league four times and only won a playoff game once. I don't know how far ahead they were of this current Bates team, of which the majority of the best players are freshman and sophomores.

I think every coach should be given five years to mark his mark on the program unless really poor on-field results and/or off field problems occur. So much of the job is recruiting and after five years as a head coach, a coach finally has a team built of entirely his own players.

Obviously, success recruits itself as Williams has shown for decades. Good players want to play for good, proven teams.

I think five-ten years from now Colby and Bates will be in the middle third, edging towards the top third of the league, Hamilton will be at the very bottom and Bowdoin and Trinity will be in the bottom third as well. Basing this on the talent the coaches bring in/ I think they will bring in.

Didn't mean to cause any arguments over who this is.. It is not MENSNESCACFAN.

When the moderator does confirm he will confirm it is not.

To address my "hard ons" -

For the ROY talk, agree that Merchant's goal v Newburry looks like a joke now as it was a 9-0 win. That game was 0-0 at half and Newburry was a six-win team (more wins than Bates) that, as mentioned, did tie MIT. He scored the winner against Trinity and tied the game at 1 against Williams with a goal. Plus scored against Curry, a team Mr. Right and maybe others picked Bates to lose to, and a team that finished its regular season 10-8-1. Bates losing to Maine Maritime was the worst NESCAC team loss of the season outside of Midd losing to Castleton but has little to do with this vote, I would imagine. Not a lot of midfielders are scoring four goals, especially freshman.

COY - Again I do think Seabrook deserves it but will not get it. Mr Right, you and everyone else thought Colby were horrible this season and I agree that they were horrible in terms of ability, and were the least talented team in the NESCAC, but he did something special with that group. I don't think anyone here will deny it. Nobody has picked a Colby player on first team, but they allowed 13 goals overall this season (tied for third best in the league) and 9 goals in conference (tied for second best in the league). They were organized and defended well, a mark of a good coach for me. Last year, with a more talented group of players, the allowed 29 goals in conference. So, letting up 20 fewer goals this season, while playing one more game (playoff v Amherst), is a phenomenal turnaround and should be recognized. They scored 7 goals in conference this season compared to 5 last year, so that number was similar, but the organization and defensive discipline this season that was completely lacked last season was the difference. Credit to the new coaching staff for that.

Odulate - Shouldn't have to defend him here really. Excellent athlete, which you agree with Mr. Right, and to me one of the top defenders in the league. I actually think he is the best RB in the league but is being played out of position at Bowdoin because he is more important to them as a CB this season.

All NESCAC thoughts:

POY - Pascual-Leone. Glaser is the best player in the league IMO, but don't think he will get the votes here.

ROY - Merchant. Along with Knoth, he carried a pretty weak Bates team since returning from injury. Very good + dangerous two-way player.

COY - Shapiro. I think Seabrook deserves it for getting the absolute most out of a Colby squad that was horrible last year, graduated its two best players, and didn't have any great incoming players. However, I don't think he wins this award, Shapiro has done a great job to turn the Tufts team around.

First Team

GK – Sydor (Middlebury)
D – Bratt (Wesleyan)
D – Odulate (Bowdoin)
D – Williams (Tufts)
M – Santos (Tufts)
M – Devlin (Conn)
M – Martin (Amherst)
M – Pascual – Leone (Amherst)
F – Conrad (Middlebury)
F – Grady (Williams)
F – Glaser (Middlebury)


Second Team

GK – Bull (Amherst)
D – Wirz (Amherst)
D – Danilack (Williams)
D – Stanton (Colby)
M – Shea (Trinity)
M – Merchant (Bates)
M – Kayne (Tufts)
M – Goss – Woliner (Middlebury)
M – Jones (Bowdoin)
F – Knoth (Bates)
F – Savonen (Trinity)