15 minutes in:  Trinity 1 - Colorado College 0

CC concedes its first goal against in SCAC play.  Trinity scores on a PK that was well earned by a striker who collected and spun the CC defender to get it to a teammate on the left side who passed it to the right and the shot was apparently deflected by a defender's hand or forearm.  Interestingly, the last goal CC conceded in SCAC regular season play was against Trinity last season in a 3-2 CC win.  This is only the 5th time this season in all games that CC has conceded a goal.

One notable absence today for CC is Alexander Ward, who was apparently held out because of an injury.  Ward is CC's leading scorer, although CC has a lot of goal contributors and Ward's total is 6 goals and 3 assists.  Still, they are down one of their weapons and one with senior experience.

UPDATE:  Trinity 1 - Colorado College 1 in the 43rd minute

CC had a free kick from outside the box that the GK deflected right back to the run of play and Curtis Hale heads it in off the rebound

Also, Trinity's Luke Chandler ejected with a second yellow card during the goal celebration.  Not clear why.

HALF:  Trinity 1 - Colorado College 1

Collision at almost the end of the half between CC's Owen Lewis and Trinity defender JonConnor Rule, with Rule having to depart because he was bleeding.  He's a pretty important part of the Trinity defense, especially if they are going to have to sit back to try to preserve the tie down a man at altitude, so that's something to keep an eye on.

Although coming back to win this game down a man seems like a big mountain to climb, I looked it up while they were up 1-0 (and looking dangerous) and the last time CC lost at home was to Pacific Lutheran in September of 2023. Before that, the last time they lost at home was in 2021 to Trinity.  That's it.  Two losses at home in the last 4 years.  The AP Stylebook should be changed to only use the word "fortress" in connection with a school's home field advantage when referring to Colorado College's Stewart Field.

UPDATE  Still Trinity 1 - Colorado College 1 in the 71st minute

Colorado College put one in the net, but the ref called an infraction (hand ball?) and disallowed the goal

FINAL: Trinity 1 - Colorado College 1

Despite the man advantage for all of the second half, CC can't capitalize and the teams split the points.  CC outshot Trinity 15-8 and had some good chances, including in the dying moments where the CC shooter put the ball over the cross bar, but they couldn't find the net.  My guess is these two teams will play again in the SCAC championship game in Houston.

That defender seemed pretty adamant that it shouldn't have been a PK, and I believe he earned a yellow for arguing his case. Tough to tell from the video angle we get.

Non Colorado College-Trinity SCAC games in Region X today (see up thread for my real time updates on that game):

Texas Lutheran 1 - Centenary 0

TLU reverts to its normal form of doing just enough to win a game, but no more.  Jack Manke scores in the 69th minute and TLU survives in Shreveport.  TLU's GK, Noel Pena records his 27th shutout in his career to set the school record.  Tough luck for Centenary, which has been an improved team this season, but can't seem to breakthrough against the upper echelon of the SCAC.  They lost to Southwestern Friday by the same 1-0 score.  TLU is in a tie with Southwestern for the fourth and final SCAC playoff spot, with both teams hosting McMurry and Concordia next weekend in the final regular season games.

Austin 5 - McMurry 3

Austin defeats McMurry in a match that featured a wild first half, with the teams combining for 7 goals.  McMurry opened the scoring in the 2nd minute, but Austin countered with goals in the 3rd and 6th minutes.  McMurry answered right back with a goal in the 7th minute.  I'm not sure I've seen 4 goals in the first 7 minutes since U8 soccer.  Austin then broke the 2-2 tie with goals in the 19th and 20th minutes and looked like it was going to runaway with it.  Not so fast, said McMurry, which scored its third goal in the 38th minute to make it 4-3 at half.  Even crazier fact was that the goals were scored on very few shots.  At the half, Austin had 5 and McMurry had 4.  Every shot on goal was scored.  Needless to say, neither GK made a save in the first half.  The second half was far more sedate.  It seems that McMurry had shot its wad, so-to-speak, registering 0 shots in the second half to 5 for Austin, which added an insurance goal in the 89th minute.  At 4-4-1, Austin is just two points behind 4th place in the SCAC, but with its last two games at Colorado College and at St. Thomas, that's a tall order.  Putting aside the quality of the opponents, it's a hell of a road trip traveling from Sherman, TX to Colorado Springs for a game on Friday and then down to Houston for a game on Sunday, including going from 686' elevation, to 6,000 feet elevation, and back to 79' of elevation.  My ears are popping just thinking about it.

Southwestern 4 - Ozarks 0

Southwestern finally gets a game where they pour on goals like they were earlier in the season.  They scored two goals in the first 15 minutes of each half to put this one away and to keep pace with Texas Lutheran in the race for the last SCAC playoff spot.

St. Thomas 2 - Schreiner 0

UST Freshman Hani Amhadi (from Glendale, CA I might add) scored a goal in the 20th minute and assisted on a second goal in the 86th minute to pace UST to victory.  This was a physical game, with 8 yellow cards, plus UST's Fernando Lazo got a red card in the 87th minute.  St. Thomas now has 43 yellow cards and 6 red cards in 2024 with two games to go, compared with 45 yellow cards and 7 red cards all of last season.  I'm not going to say that the new regime has done nothing to clean up behavior, because it's possible the UST reputation leads the refs to hand out cards to them more frequently, but I'm not sure they are doing anything to improve their reputation either.  They remain a point behind Southwestern and Texas Lutheran for the last SCAC tournament spot, so they are going to have to win against University of Dallas and Austin College next weekend and hope both of those teams lose or tie at least one of their games next weekend and/or Concordia loses both of their games next weekend or loses won and does no more than tie the other.

Concordia TX 6 - University of Dallas 0

After a somewhat frustrating first half when Concordia was only up 1-0 on a PK in the 7th minute despite outshooting UD 15-1, Concordia picked it up in the second half, reeling off five straight goals while outshooting UD 18-2.  Concordia is in third in the SCAC, but it could drop out of a playoff position altogether if it loses both its games next weekend.  This is a real possibility because it has to play Southwestern and Texas Lutheran away.  UD remains winless in the SCAC. 

Quote from: Ejay on October 27, 2024, 01:49:14 PMThat defender seemed pretty adamant that it shouldn't have been a PK, and I believe he earned a yellow for arguing his case. Tough to tell from the video angle we get.

The FloFC feed froze basically right at the moment of the foul and the goal, but here's what happened:  CC free kick, Trinity GK unable to control, CC#6 header on goal batted away by TU#30 (with his hand), and CC#4 scores off the rebound. This was YC #2 for #30, thus the ejection.  If you FF and rewind a bit, you'll be able to see the full play.

Quote from: wihsuafs24 on October 27, 2024, 09:06:55 PM

Quote from: Ejay on October 27, 2024, 01:49:14 PMThat defender seemed pretty adamant that it shouldn't have been a PK, and I believe he earned a yellow for arguing his case. Tough to tell from the video angle we get.

The FloFC feed froze basically right at the moment of the foul and the goal, but here's what happened:  CC free kick, Trinity GK unable to control, CC#6 header on goal batted away by TU#30 (with his hand), and CC#4 scores off the rebound. This was YC #2 for #30, thus the ejection.  If you FF and rewind a bit, you'll be able to see the full play.

Thanks!  I was definitely wondering about his ejection.  That wasn't the play Ejay was talking about though that you quoted.  He was talking about the CC hand ball that led to a PK for Trinity (I know because he posted this right after my original post about the Trinity penalty kick that scored the opening goal).

A few games in the Northwest Conference today

George Fox 1 - Pacific 0

The most competitive game of the day between two teams desperate for a victory.  Pacific had followed up a 5 game winless streak with a 4 game winning streak, including a sweep of the Whits, to give them some hope that they might climb back into the NWC championship race.  Beating a team that was ahead of them like GF would be critical to moving up.  George Fox, however, had followed up a 5 game winning streak had put them a couple of points behind 1st place Pacific Lutheran, by losing to Willamette. Another loss would have really hurt their chances.  In this game, though, Pacific bunkered in and played for the counter, frustrating GF.  It wasn't until the 78th minute that GF broke through with a goal and that was all they could muster despite outshooting Pacific 10-2 and limiting Pacific to one shot on goal.

Whitman 4 - Linfield 1

Whitman needed this one to keep its hope alive of being close enough by the last game of the season against Pacific Lutheran to be playing for de facto championship.  They played like it.  On the backs of a hat trick by Kevin Serrano, Whitman dominated, outshooting 2 win Linfield 31-11.

Pacific Lutheran 8 - Lewis & Clark 0

After tying Willamette and Puget Sound 1-1 each last weekend, the Lutes were in no mood to show any mercy to winless L&C.  Trevor Thompson and Craig Johnson each scored a hat trick in this one in limited minutes (58 and 50, respectively) and Pacific Lutheran gave minutes to 36 players, including 3 GKs in the win.  The Lutes are three points clear of second place George Fox with a challenging remaining schedule that's basically a mini-Northwest Conference tournament.  Pacific Lutheran has to play the next four highest teams in the standings - George Fox, Pacific, Whitworth, and Whitman - and it might need to sweep them to ensure it of the auto bid.

While neither team was happy with the result, if you're Trinity and you go into Colorado and get a point despite being a man down for over half the game, you have to feel decent about it. 

I somehow missed that the SCIAC expanded its postseason tournaments for this season and men's soccer is increasing from 4 to 5 teams, with the 4 and 5 teams competing in a mid-week "play-in" game to decide who is the #4 seed in the semifinals. (hat tip to @GrayFox).

https://thesciac.org/news/2024/10/22/baseball-sciac-expands-tournaments-beginning-in-2024-25-fall-seasons.aspx

That probably means Cal Lutheran and Chapman (currently #4 and #5 in the standings) would both make the post-season.  Whittier still has a long shot chance to enter the conversation, but they would have to beat both La Verne and Redlands and hope only one of Chapman and Cal Lutheran picks up any points in their remaining game(s).

Quote from: Kuiper on October 21, 2024, 03:40:05 PMTop Region X teams in NPI Rankings as of 10/20/24.  I'm guessing two of the top 4 will win the SCAC/SCIAC AQs, plus the ASC and NWC winners, and then maybe 1-2 more are in the running for Pool C bids.  Not that different from a normal year.  All of the top 4 will get SoS bumps from playing each other one more time in the regular season, plus possibly the conference tournament.

10.  Colorado College 57.502
15.  Trinity (TX) 56.583
23.  Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 56.017
37.  Redlands 55.231
67.  Hardin-Simmons 53.868
73.  Texas Lutheran 53.715
86.  UC Santa Cruz 53.314
88.  Occidental 53.301
94.  Southwestern 53.148
106.  St. Thomas 52.824

Here's the Region X NPI rankings as of 10/27

10.  Colorado College 58.028
13.  Trinity TX 57.632
24.  Redlands 56.161
33.  CMS 55.709
63.  Texas Lutheran 54.293
69.  Southwestern 54.149
79.  Occidental 53.730
87.  Mary Hardin-Baylor 53.514
88.  Hardin-Simmons 53.497

The top four teams seem solidly in contention for Pool C bids if they don't get the AQ from their respective two conference, and one of Mary Hardin-Baylor or Hardin-Simmons will get the ASC AQ, while Pacific Lutheran or maybe George Fox will probably get the NWC AQ (but with 4 games to go in their regular season, it's a little early to make predictions).  TLU, Southwestern, and Oxy probably will need to bump off one of the higher NPI teams in their conference tournaments to improve their odds if they don't win the AQs.

For some reason, USC left off the records in this week's Region X rankings, but the schools and order seem about right after Redlands beat CMS

Region X - Poll 8 - October 29, 2024

Rank    School    Prev    W-L-T
1    Colorado College    1    0-0-0
2    Trinity University (Texas)    2    0-0-0
3    University of Redlands    6    0-0-0
4    Pacific Lutheran University    4    0-0-0
5    Claremont-McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges    3    0-0-0
6    Occidental College    5    0-0-0
7    Southwestern University    7    0-0-0
8    Texas Lutheran University    8    0-0-0

Fireworks during the late SCIAC games tonight (some on the field, but mostly of the real variety from happy Dodgers fans)

CMS 1 - Cal Lutheran 0

CMS seems to have trouble with Cal Lu this season.  After losing to them 4-2 earlier, this game was tight at 0-0 for a long time before John Laidlaw put in a ball off a rebound in the 86th minute to give them the victory.  CMS dominated possession for most of the game and outshot Cal Lu 19-8, but the referee was pretty lax with the whistle (he only called 3 fouls the entire game), which gave Cal Lu the freedom to play physically and disrupt CMS' attacks.  With the win, CMS clinches 2nd place and home field advantage in the first round (after the 4/5 game) of the SCIAC playoffs because it has the tiebreaker in head-to-head over Oxy.

Occidental 4 - Chapman 0

Oxy gets revenge for the tie against Chapman at home earlier this month.  It was aggressive from the start, earning a PK in the 13th minute and then scoring two more before halftime.  Unfortunately for Chapman, this was Senior Night, which meant a few players started who aren't regulars, including a backup GK who let in the first two goals before being substituted off after only 25 minutes.  Chapman could have leaped ahead of Cal Lu for 4th place in the 4/5 game, but it was always going to be somewhat of a long shot because Cal Lu still has a game against Caltech left.

La Verne 4 - Whittier 1

After losing badly to Caltech over the weekend, they come back and crush Whittier, which is ostensibly the stronger team.   Typical La Verne, which seems to give certain teams a good game, but gets beat easily by others and it never seems to be function of where the team ranks.  In this game, they took a 2-0 lead into halftime and then Whittier cut the lead in half in the 66th minute, which served to wake ULV up as they scored goals in the 75th and 86th minutes to put the game out of reach.  For Whittier, it was one of those games where they were the stronger team for parts of it, but it was only because ULV scored so early that they let Whittier kind of chase the game.  Even with the win, La Verne might still finish last in the SCIAC if either Cal Tech or Pomona-Pitzer can win this weekend or if Caltech can tie.

One game in the NWC tonight.

Linfield 3 - Lewis & Clark 0

Probably L&C's last chance for a win this year, but it was not to be, despite playing a man up for the last 10 minutes of the game as a Linfield defender was sent off for a second yellow.  Linfield outshot L&C 20-4 and scored all three goals in the first half to sweep L&C and likely assure themselves of not finishing last this season.

I only have time to go over one game tonight from the ASC, but it was a humdinger of a game.

Mary Hardin-Baylor 5 - East Texas Baptist 4

To give some context, it was raining and the field was quite wet (although playable).  Plus, the announcers, who I assume were ETBU students, had really thick Texas accents and some colorful sayings.  It was kind of hilarious watching some fast-paced action with some slow-paced talking.

 Now, you would assume from the high score that this was a humdinger because of all the goals and the action must have been end-to-end with the teams trading goals.  Yes to the first part, but no to the second.  Mary Hardin-Baylor scored 5 straight goals in the first half, all between the 12th and 39th minutes, scored by five different players.  In the first half, UMHB outshot ETBU 19-7.  Going into halftime up 5-0 on a rainy night, you can excuse UMHB's coach and players if they felt pretty comfortable in their lead and were looking forward to a hot shower and a cold beverage after the game. 

Turns out, this was a tale of two halves.  I don't know what the ETBU coach said to his boys at halftime, but I'm guessing it wasn't PG because they came out flying.  East Texas Baptist scored in the 53rd on a PK, 55th, and 62nd minutes and suddenly it was 5-3.  They were pressing constantly, almost scoring on a far post header from a cross that was saved off the line by a UMHB defender before finally scoring a 4th in the 85th on a fantastic shot from outside the box.  Now it was 5-4, and to use a phrase that would probably get you side-eyed looks at best in Marshall, Texas, and maybe worse, it was squeaky bum time.  ETBU had a couple more good scoring opportunities and got off a strong shot that went to the goalkeeper, but that's how it ended.  This game was going to have no effect on the standings or qualification for the ASC tournament (since everyone makes it this year), so ETBU was just playing hard for pride, which was kind of impressive.

Don't think I've ever seen a game where one teams scores 5 goals in the first half and the other team scores 4 in the second half.

Quote from: Kuiper on October 31, 2024, 11:04:14 PMI only have time to go over one game tonight from the ASC, but it was a humdinger of a game.

Mary Hardin-Baylor 5 - East Texas Baptist 4

To give some context, it was raining and the field was quite wet (although playable).  Plus, the announcers, who I assume were ETBU students, had really thick Texas accents and some colorful sayings.  It was kind of hilarious watching some fast-paced action with some slow-paced talking.

Now, you would assume from the high score that this was a humdinger because of all the goals and the action must have been end-to-end with the teams trading goals.  Yes to the first part, but no to the second.  Mary Hardin-Baylor scored 5 straight goals in the first half, all between the 12th and 39th minutes, scored by five different players.  In the first half, UMHB outshot ETBU 19-7.  Going into halftime up 5-0, you can excuse UMHB's coach and players if they felt pretty comfortable in their lead and were looking forward to a hot shower and a cold beverage after the game. 

Turns out, this was a tale of two halves.  I don't know what the ETBU coach said to his boys at halftime, but I'm guessing it wasn't PG because they came out flying.  East Texas Baptist scored in the 53rd on a PK, 55th, and 62nd minutes and suddenly it was 5-3.  They were pressing constantly, almost scoring on a far post header from a cross that was saved off the line by a UMHB defender before finally scoring a 4th in the 85th on a fantastic shot from outside the box.  Now it was 5-4, and to use a phrase that would probably get you side-eyed looks at best in Marshall, Texas, and maybe worse, it was squeaky bum time.  ETBU had a couple more good scoring opportunities and got off a strong shot that went to the goalkeeper, but that's how it ended.  This game was going to have no effect on the standings or qualification for the ASC tournament (since everyone makes it this year), so ETBU was just playing hard for pride, which was kind of impressive.

Don't think I've ever seen a game where one teams scores 5 goals in the first half and the other team scores 4 in the second half.

Well, geez... glad that 2nd half is over. Exciting game for certain. The Cru officially clinch the top seed and their 4th straight regular season title.

A bunch of blowouts in the SCAC yesterday

Colorado College 6 - Austin 1

This might be the most surprising because Austin has been improved this year and has had some close games against better teams, but CC, especially at home, was much too much for them.  Louis Catchpole, Austin's leading scorer received a straight red late, but after all of the goals were scored.

Trinity 7 - Ozarks 0

As with Austin, Ozarks has been a bit better this year, but Trinity just steamrolled them.

St. Thomas 4 - University of Dallas 0

UST takes care of business against a winless Dallas team

Texas Lutheran 4 - McMurry 1

Not sure what was more surprising - TLU scoring lots of goals or giving up a goal to McMurry.  The McMurry goal was in the 75th minute after TLU had scored 4, though, so it was probably due to rotation on defense.

Southwestern 3 - Concordia TX 1

Only competitive game of the night that mattered for SCAC standings.  Game was fairly even on stats, but Southwestern was more clinical with its shots.  Southwestern is now tied with Concordia on points, but is in third with the head-to-head tiebreaker while Concordia falls to 5th.  Southwestern has a fairly easy last game at McMurry, but Concordia has to travel to Texas Lutheran to battle it out for 4th place in the SCAC.

Centenary 3 - Schreiner 3

It was a game of swings.  Centenary scored goals right before and after halftime to take a 2-0 lead, but Schreiner reeled off three straight goals between the 54th and 66th minutes to take the lead.  Centenary managed to get an equalizing goal in the 86th minute to walk away with a point that puts them just below Austin for the top of the bottom of the SCAC.