CCIW

[Gotberg]

I called the women's soccer game at NPU, so I only got to see the last ten minutes of this massacre. It would've been fun to see the whole thing. Nevertheless, I echo the congrats to Kris Grahn on his first head-coaching win. Incidentally, Shatil Khoury must still not be fully healthy yet, as he was a scratch. Starting right back William Bostrom-Rydfjall, who was limping after the Lewis scrimmage, was a scratch as well.

Everybody else was at home tonight. The only winner was Illinois Wesleyan, which knocked off Aurora, 3-1. Elmhurst and Dominican drew 1-1 at Langhorst, Millikin dropped a shutout loss to Knox at Lindsey, 2-0, and Concordia (WI) toppled Carroll at Schneider, 3-1.

I was wondering about William B-R - thanks for the info.  Prankus was really, really good so it's hard to imagine a potential upgrade at that position. 

Based on early results, I'm a little concerned about NP's SoS.  It seems like Aurora, Dominican and maybe even Chicago may not be their typical top tier teams this year?

Wheaton looks like they may be a very strong team and can push NP for the top spot in the conference.

[GoThunder1]

Gotberg,

You will not find a more pessimistic fan after a weekend where their team won 5-0 and 4-1 than me. The Wittenberg game was dominated by the Thunder, but the SNU game was the opposite. SNU is going to have a great season and should be a tournament team. They outplayed the Thunder, but couldn't find the back of the net (thankfully). The freshman have been really good for us this year and it appears they have re-energized our upperclassmen.

Should find out a lot this weekend as we go over to OH for clashes with OWU and Kenyon.

Based on the early results so far, it appears like Wheaton may be in better shape than I thought a week ago!!!!

[Gregory Sager]

I called the women's soccer game at NPU, so I only got to see the last ten minutes of this massacre. It would've been fun to see the whole thing. Nevertheless, I echo the congrats to Kris Grahn on his first head-coaching win. Incidentally, Shatil Khoury must still not be fully healthy yet, as he was a scratch. Starting right back William Bostrom-Rydfjall, who was limping after the Lewis scrimmage, was a scratch as well.

Everybody else was at home tonight. The only winner was Illinois Wesleyan, which knocked off Aurora, 3-1. Elmhurst and Dominican drew 1-1 at Langhorst, Millikin dropped a shutout loss to Knox at Lindsey, 2-0, and Concordia (WI) toppled Carroll at Schneider, 3-1.

I was wondering about William B-R - thanks for the info.  Prankus was really, really good so it's hard to imagine a potential upgrade at that position.

The interesting thing is that Pranckus was playing up in the midfield against Lewis in NPU's second scrimmage. I suspect that the coaching staff just wanted to get him into the game for a good share of minutes, regardless of position. Pranckus did play midfield in high school at Joliet West; in fact, he's fourth on the all-time goals scored list for JWHS. But Bostrom-Rydfjall looks like he could be a really special defender. He's a solid 6'2, 175 (which makes him five inches and 25 pounds bigger than Pranckus), moves really well, plays in the air like you'd expect a kid of that size to play, and reads angles like a pro. I think that Bostrom-Rydfjall could be All-CCIW somewhere down the line. That's not to shortchange Pranckus, though, who is going to end up playing somewhere on the pitch for the Vikings.

NPU seems to be loaded with really good backline newbies this year. Arian Cindahl's a junior, and since he's a Swede I'm not sure if he'll be back next season or if he'll graduate early. But Abu Secka's a sophomore, and Pranckus, Bostrom-Rydfjall, and Runar Berg-Domass are only freshmen. Add in reliable sophomore returnee Phillip Danielsson, and that's a pretty nice crew -- albeit a relatively inexperienced one at this level.

Based on early results, I'm a little concerned about NP's SoS.  It seems like Aurora, Dominican and maybe even Chicago may not be their typical top tier teams this year?

That's completely out of Kris Grahn's control. The Spartans, Stars, and (especially) Maroons have been reliably solid programs for years. But most programs not named Messiah have down years. (The Falcons could go 14-3-1 in the regular season in 2019 and the people in Grantham would be pulling out their hair and saying that it's the end of the world.) Down years happen, and there's nothing that you can do about it as an opposing coach when an opponent you regularly schedule suffers a blip in a long chain of success, unless that opponent stays down and thus makes it plain that it is no longer a viable annual boost to your SOS.

It works in reverse, too. Take Kalamazoo, f'rinstance. The Hornets have been nothing special over the past few seasons, and last year they were only 5-11-1. But this season they opened with an upset win over perennial national power Ohio Wesleyan before losing by a goal to Illinois Wesleyan in a match that the Hornets statistically dominated by an overwhelming margin -- and then yesterday the Hornets ventured south of the Michiana border and blew out Manchester on the Spartans' home turf to the tune of 7-0. All of a sudden, it looks like what had been an upcoming walkover for NPU against another marginal opponent might actually turn out to be a genuine battle against a Kalamazoo side that will be an SOS asset for NPU rather than a liability.

John and Kris saw that the low SOS of the Vikings was what kept them out of the dance last fall, and took steps to correct that by upgrading the 2019 docket with the addition of Rowan and Hope. That's really all that they can do. Whatever opponents do when those opponents aren't playing NPU is out of Kris's hands.

(Incidentally, I wouldn't write off Chicago just yet. It's no easy thing to go up to the Twin Cities and tie St. Thomas on the home pitch of the Tommies -- although the new coaching staff at 55th and Ellis has to be worried about the fact that the Maroons only got off a grand total of two shots against the Tommies, neither of which was on frame, which made Chicago scoreless after 220 minutes of soccer thus far in 2019. Here's hoping it's up to 310 minutes by late Saturday afternoon. )

Wheaton looks like they may be a very strong team and can push NP for the top spot in the conference.

Not to shortchange Wheaton, but Carthage is still the CCIW rival that scares me. A bad opening weekend in Joisey is not going to make the Red Men go away. I suspect that, while NPU fans will always circle the game against traditional rival Wheaton on the calendar, this particular set of Vikings is most pumped about locking horns with the Red Men again and getting the bad taste of the final dozen minutes of last season's CCIW tourney title match out of their mouths.

Wheaton is the last match of the regular season in 2019, which is as it should be. (What will it take to get the new CCIW commish to put in a word with the schedulemaker to make NPU vs. WC the last match of the regular season every year? Somebody should alert her to the fact that it's annually one of the most heavily-attended games in all of D3 soccer.) By that point, we'll all know exactly where both North Park and Wheaton stand. The NPU vs. CC match, on the other hand, takes place midway thru the conference slate, so some of the do-or-die aspect might be taken out of it a bit if Carthage gets hot and goes on a winning streak between now and October 9.

[Gotberg]

Just to clarify - I'm not placing any blame on scheduling NPU's opponents - just an observation and concern that some traditional powers might be having a down year.

[Gregory Sager]

Understood.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage's inexplicably dismal start to the season worsened tonight, as the Red Men were blanked at Keller Field by Knox to the tune of 2-0. The Red Men only put one shot on frame the entire night, as Knox beat a CCIW team on the CCIW team's home turf by a 2-0 score for the second time in three days. The Prairie Fire have been a power in the weak Midwest Conference since shortly after Matt Edwards took over the program early in this decade, annually posting gaudy records both within the circuit and overall, but they've never demonstrated the ability to beat a good team outside of the MWC. Time will tell if that remains the case, or if Steve Domin can somehow get his Red Men (0-3) up off of the mat and back to form.

Wheaton (2-1) suffered its first blemish of the season, losing to Ohio Wesleyan, 2-0, in central Ohio. The Bishops statistically dominated, outshooting WC by 20 (6) to 8 (2) and outcornering the visitors by 5-2.

North Central (3-1) came up with a nice win at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium this evening, knocking off previously undefeated Carleton by a score of 2-1 on an Elijah Larson goal in the fourth minute of overtime. Extra session or not, the Cardinals appear to have been the dominant team in this one, outshooting the Carlies, 15 (5) to 4 (1) and outcornering them, 7-1.

North Park (1-0) is now the only undefeated team left in the league, and the Vikings will put that on the line tomorrow afternoon when NPU travels to the South Side to take on Chicago.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park spit out the bit today, falling at Chicago, 3-1 and in the process losing an important contest for regional ranking purposes. The shutouts of Macalester and St. Thomas were no illusion; the Chicago defense is for real, as NPU got nothing going after Niclas Holgersson's goal six minutes into the contest. NPU only had two shots on goal the entire match.

No time to sulk, as the Vikings have to come right back and play their home opener against 2-0-1 Dominican tomorrow. But they came back down to earth in a big way today on the South Side.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin (1-1) picked up its first win of the season by dispatching Aurora at Lindsay Field, 3-1. Elmhurst (1-1) likewise got onto the left-hand side of the line score tonight for the first time, a 1-0 victory at Dubuque. Carroll evened up its record at 2-2 with a 2-0 win over Beloit in Waukesha.

Wheaton (2-2) suffered a particularly painful loss, giving up the equalizer to Kenyon with only a minute and a half remaining in regulation and then surrendering a golden goal to the Lords in second overtime to come away with a 3-2 loss in Gambier, OH. Illinois Wesleyan likewise dropped to 2-2 on the season with a 2-0 loss at the hands of Lake Forest up on the North Shore. And Augustana took one on the chin at St. Nobert by a 3-0 score, as Augie dropped to 0-2-1 for the year.

[blue_jays]

North Park spit out the bit today, falling at Chicago, 3-1 and in the process losing an important contest for regional ranking purposes. The shutouts of Macalester and St. Thomas were no illusion; the Chicago defense is for real, as NPU got nothing going after Niclas Holgersson's goal six minutes into the contest. NPU only had two shots on goal the entire match.

No time to sulk, as the Vikings have to come right back and play their home opener against 2-0-1 Dominican tomorrow. But they came back down to earth in a big way today on the South Side.

NPU looked gassed in the second half which killed any real chance at a comeback. The opening goal in the first 6 minutes was a case of ball watching by UC and a nice through pass to a wide open player on the back side (no one within 8 yards). The Maroons looked tentative for the first 15 minutes and allowed NPU to dictate. But once the home team adjusted its defensive shape and closed up the open areas on the wings, NPU didn't have any real answers to counter. As the game progressed, UChicago grew into it and confidently possessed. Wada and Gillespie are physical specimens who stopped plenty of runs, while Holquist in particularly was stripping attackers regularly and heading the other way on the counter.
NPU should be a bit concerned about its defense in the immediate aftermath. The first goal off a free kick saw Millington completely unmarked with two defenders stranded in no man's land after the initial directional header. The go-ahead goal was straight up bizarre, as the GK basically nutmegged himself instead of clearing and Bloye scored on an empty net. On third goal, Mateus saw a defender run literally right over the ball without touching it and he scored point blank.

[Gotberg]

The go-ahead goal was straight up bizarre, as the GK basically nutmegged himself instead of clearing and Bloye scored on an empty net.

Based on the field marking, Chicago's Stagg field seems to accommodate 3 sports - Football, Soccer and maybe Lacrosse?  It seemed like Stulen went down to pick up the ball, then got confused with the field markings and thought he may have been outside the box and didn't react well.

Regardless, Chicago was the better team and deserved the victory yesterday.

[Gotberg]

The go-ahead goal was straight up bizarre, as the GK basically nutmegged himself instead of clearing and Bloye scored on an empty net.

Based on the field marking, Chicago's Stagg field seems to accommodate 3 sports - Football, Soccer and maybe Lacrosse?  It seemed like Stulen went down to pick up the ball, then got confused with the field markings and thought he may have been outside the box and didn't react well.

Regardless, Chicago was the better team and deserved the victory yesterday.

I also want to add that I thought the Chicago announcers were really good - quality analysis and very balanced.

[Gregory Sager]

The go-ahead goal was straight up bizarre, as the GK basically nutmegged himself instead of clearing and Bloye scored on an empty net.

Based on the field marking, Chicago's Stagg field seems to accommodate 3 sports - Football, Soccer and maybe Lacrosse?  It seemed like Stulen went down to pick up the ball, then got confused with the field markings and thought he may have been outside the box and didn't react well.

That was the story that I heard from his teammates today.

[Gregory Sager]

It wasn't pretty, but North Park walked off of Hedstrand Field today with a 3-2 home-opener win over a Dominican side that didn't look the least bit intimidated. The Vikings completely dominated possession, but the Stars did a nice job of disguising pressure and of funneling NPU's offense to the sidelines. The Stars capitalized upon a freshman defender's mistake and a lucky bounce in the box off of a free kick for two goal opportunities, but opportunities like that are only recorded on the scoreboard when you execute, and the Stars did. NPU got the winning goal with ten minutes to go when Alfredo Pichardo got free enough from the Dominican player pinning him to the right sideline to diagonal the ball into the middle to Peder Olsen in the box arc, where he was knocked down just a yard outside of the box itself. That made it a free kick rather than a penalty kick, but that didn't matter. You can stick as many defenders in the wall as you'd like -- Dominican put five there -- and Olsen is still going to loft the ball over them to wherever he wants on the top shelf. He chose the left upper corner, and Dominican GK Daniel Dominguez was helpless to stop him.

The Vikings continue to be banged-up; Niklas Holgersson went down in the Chicago match, although Erlend Kemkers is now well enough to play limited minutes for the Vikings, and Shatil Khoury is still not dressing. The real problem, though, remains a young back line that's still figuring things out. NPU definitely remains a work in progress. I suspect that at season's end, though, this will turn out to be a nice win, because I think that the Stars are going to make their #1 ranking in the NACC preseason poll stand up by winning the league.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst (2-2-!) got handled by Loras at the Rock Bowl over in Iowa today, 4-1. Rhodes edged North Central (3-2) in the sixth minute of double overtime in Naperville, 2-1. But Carthage (1-3) evened out the day for the league by claiming its first win of the season, a 1-0 triumph over Alma at Keller Field.

[Gregory Sager]

First USC poll is out. North Park moves up from preseason #21 to #10, while NPU nemesis Chicago is at #7. Nobody else from the CCIW received attention in the poll.

Three matches involving CCIW teams are scheduled for tonight, all at 7 pm, with the league's representatives each playing host. NPU takes on Aurora at Hedstrand Field, while Wheaton entertains Iowa Wesleyan and Wash U travels to Illinois Wesleyan.