New England Soccer Discussion

[blooter442]

The CCC might not be as strong or get as much attention as the NESCAC or NEWMAC, but there are five solid contenders for the title. Endicott lost at home to JWU on Wednesday night, but I would still think there's a slight favorites. That said, Gordon, Wentworth, WNE, and Roger Williams (current leader) are all making strong cases.

The NEWMAC looks similarly open, and I still think it's possible that Wheaton comes on strong if they get their defensive issues sorted out. MIT has also looked decent the last few games in addition to WPI — whose new addition Beatty bagged a brace in the Engineers' road win Saturday — and usual suspects Babson and Springfield.

Surprised that UMB lost on Saturday, although as I've said before I don't think that they're at the same level they were last year. We shall see.

[ECSUalum]

ECSU cannot maintain ball possession today, ie poor and intercepted passes, Gordon clearly the superior side, therefore Gordon looks to win this one 2-0 @7 min mark 2nd half.

[OldNed]

Bowdoin and Saint Joe's of Maine 0-0 with 21 left in first half. Pretty even so far, not a lot of chances for either side.

[OldNed]

Saint Joe's goes up 1-0 on Bowdoin at the 27 minute mark.  Nice rush down the left side by Noah Robinson and a goal from an odd angle - nice finish.

[blooter442]

Saint Joe's goes up 1-0 on Bowdoin at the 27 minute mark.  Nice rush down the left side by Noah Robinson and a goal from an odd angle - nice finish.

OldNed, how is that new turf? Looks pretty nice!

Interested to see how Bowdoin approaches the second half – usually they are content to get a goal and shut up shop, but being down they won't want to give any more away, so I'm curious at what point they start throwing bodies forward

[blooter442]

Looks like SJC has dominated the stats.  They are pretty defensively sound and don't give up a lot of goals — they held Babson in NCAAs to a 0-0 last year and won the shootout — and while this Bowdoin side has some offensive talent I imagine it'll take quite a bit to break them down.

[OldNed]

Saint Joe's goes up 1-0 on Bowdoin at the 27 minute mark.  Nice rush down the left side by Noah Robinson and a goal from an odd angle - nice finish.

OldNed, how is that new turf? Looks pretty nice!

Interested to see how Bowdoin approaches the second half – usually they are content to get a goal and shut up shop, but being down they won't want to give any more away, so I'm curious at what point they start throwing bodies forward

Blooter,
the new turf field is beautiful - I was there on Saturday and I was impressed.  I, too, am interested to see how Bowdoin comes out in the 2nd half - they are physically a bigger team and I think if they move bodies forward it may pay off for them.  If they do that, they need to be careful on the counter, especially with Noah Robinson or the freshman Noah Elmore, as both are capable of taking it the length of the pitch and finishing.

[OldNed]

Bowdoin really pressuring St. Joe's now. 10 minutes left in regular time.

[OldNed]

Bowdoin pressured hard at the end, but St. Joe's of Maine held on for the 1-0 win. BIG win for the Monks.

[blooter442]

Bowdoin pressured hard at the end, but St. Joe's of Maine held on for the 1-0 win. BIG win for the Monks.

Big win for St. Joseph's, and it seemed like a deserved one, too. This is probably the toughest test of their regular season, or at least is up there with Keene State and Norwich, and they passed. Certainly a good pick-me-up after drawing with the latter.

[OldNed]

Bowdoin pressured hard at the end, but St. Joe's of Maine held on for the 1-0 win. BIG win for the Monks.

Big win for St. Joseph's, and it seemed like a deserved one, too. This is probably the toughest test of their regular season, or at least is up there with Keene State and Norwich, and they passed. Certainly a good pick-me-up after drawing with the latter.

You're right about it being probably the toughest of the regular season matches, Blooter.  I'm not sure there's another team on their schedule (and yes, they need to beef up their out-of-conference schedule in the future) that can beat St. Joe's until the Keene State game.  Last regular season game, so I might just have to make the trek to Keene for that one.

I'm hoping that if St. Joe's meets Norwich in the GNAC tournament, they can at least score a goal or two.  Last 3 games vs. Norwich have been 0-0 ties. Norwich doesn't get a lot of love, but they're a tough team and they know how to defend - they have my respect.

[Off Pitch]

Excluding their 3-0 loss to Brandeis in last year's NCAA tournament, St Josephs has only given up one (1) goal in their last 17 games.  They are pitching a shut-out for 2017 having outscored this season's opponents 12-0 through 6 games.

Maybe there are more, but Tufts is the only other team that I am aware of that has not permitted a single goal on the season thus far.  They hold an 8-0 scoring advantage through 5 games, and have only surrendered one goal in their last 11 games.

[OldNed]

Excluding their 3-0 loss to Brandeis in last year's NCAA tournament, St Josephs has only given up one (1) goal in their last 17 games.  They are pitching a shut-out for 2017 having outscored this season's opponents 12-0 through 6 games.

Maybe there are more, but Tufts is the only other team that I am aware of that has not permitted a single goal on the season thus far.  They hold an 8-0 scoring advantage through 5 games, and have only surrendered one goal in their last 11 games.

According to the NCAA stats, the only other team that has not permitted a single goal on the season is Heidelberg and they get tested tonight at Kenyon.

St. Joe's defense is tough led by CB Dalton Gaumer, and it's really difficult to deal with a keeper as big as Mullen at 6 foot 7.  I'm sure they'll give up some goals sooner or later, but their schedule is almost all weaker GNAC teams until they play Keene State for the last game of the regular season.

[blooter442]

MIT leads Wentworth 2-0 at Wentworth. Freshman Carayannopolous, who leads the team with five goals, scored two first half goals which are the difference. Both teams are fast down the wings but lack a high level of skill and composure in the final third. MIT has probably shaded it but I'm not sure 2-0 is an indication of the balance of play.

Regarding the aforementioned player, whose shot conversion rate is pretty impressive (slightly below .500), I am curious as to whether he will continue to score at the same rate as teams figure him out. It is easy to sneak on the scene as a frosh and have people not know who you are/how to mark you/etc., but once teams are aware and you become a marked man things can get more difficult. That said, 5 goals at this point in the season is impressive.

[blooter442]

One thing about Wentworth is that they don't seem to have great team cohesion or mutual understanding. When Martins gets the ball he can make things happen, but he is very much a marked man and I think his effectiveness is diminished by being out wide. When the ball is with the other players, they tend to go on good runs, but there is not a whole lot of interplay or good ball movement particularly in the final third. They have a lot of raw ingredients like speed and physicality, but they do lack some cohesion.