CCIW

[npbaseball40]

Speaking of the visiting Duhawks faithful, I was not impressed with their behavior. They booed when it was announced over the P.A. that Olsen had tied the NPU school goals record. That was totally uncool.

And it wasn't traveling students/rowdy college kids... it was parents doing this. Silliness and embarassing to the highest degree.

[GoThunder1]

Boy did NP look good tonight. Loras will be a fringe tournament team and that 5-0 victory will look very good at the end of the year. I believe we will learn a lot about the vikings on Saturday - in a true road test at a good Wash U side.

This is the deepest NP time I have seen. William DeCarro wouldnt be a starter if Ulrik Lund was healthy. With that being said, he was arguably the best player on the field last night. I will be interested to see where NP plays Johan Bjork when he becomes healthy. I can't see Coach Grahn taking Vaaland or Risnes off the field - as both have played really well thru 3 games. The midfield will not be touched either. If Bjork is going to start, it would appear that he would need to replace Esfandyari. I dont know if Bostrom Ryfall is coming back from injury and they are bringing him along slowly - or if Esfandyari beat him out for the job, but it's surprising that he isn't starting. He was a very solid defender in 2019. Assuming everyone gets healthy and stays healthy - it will be very interesting to see how Grahn manages this team - as there are close to 20 players who would be starters on any team in the CCIW.

Lastly, I wanted to state how impressed I was with the production of the broadcast. Greg, you always do a great job - but I also really enjoyed the interview of the former NP soccer player. That was very cool. Is that something NP has always done, or was this a one time thing?

[mr_b]

Speaking of the visiting Duhawks faithful, I was not impressed with their behavior. They booed when it was announced over the P.A. that Olsen had tied the NPU school goals record. That was totally uncool.

And it wasn't traveling students/rowdy college kids... it was parents doing this. Silliness and embarassing to the highest degree.

That's very disappointing to hear -- very poor sportsmanship.  I wonder if they do that during senior night at an opponent's field.

[npbaseball40]

Lastly, I wanted to state how impressed I was with the production of the broadcast. Greg, you always do a great job - but I also really enjoyed the interview of the former NP soccer player. That was very cool. Is that something NP has always done, or was this a one time thing?

Thank you for the kind words. I have to credit a couple people here for these ideas and upgrades:

First of all, AD John Born for investing in production equipment so that we could build what you're seeing at home. We'd still be utilizing a one-camera broadcast if it weren't for him prioritizing this upgrade for our home events over the summer.

Secondly, credit men's soccer GA Ryan McNaughton for the idea of having notable alumni on air during the broadcasts. We messed around with it during baseball/softball season with current student-athletes but Ryan has put together a list of alums that will be on throughout the season. He's the man behind the scenes coordinating who's on; I just hand them a headset and make a graphic!

We'll likely only do this for baseball/softball and M/W soccer. There's a chance we try it for basketball, but we have relatively tight quarters in the NPU gym for a three-man broadcast and football is so chaotic in the press box that it'd be nearly impossible with our current setup.

Ollie (who was on with Greg and Scot last night) will almost certainly be back on at least one more time this year.

Thanks for tuning in!

[Gregory Sager]

Boy did NP look good tonight. Loras will be a fringe tournament team and that 5-0 victory will look very good at the end of the year. I believe we will learn a lot about the vikings on Saturday - in a true road test at a good Wash U side.

Agreed. I watched Wash U upend Webster a couple of nights ago at Francis Olympic Field, and I was impressed. The Bears have been very solid defensively over the past few seasons, but they've definitely upgraded at the offensive end to take some of the pressure off of primary scorer Nolan Wolf.

This is the deepest NP time I have seen. William DeCarro wouldnt be a starter if Ulrik Lund was healthy. With that being said, he was arguably the best player on the field last night. I will be interested to see where NP plays Johan Bjork when he becomes healthy.

I can't speak for where Lund is in terms of coming back from his injury, but Björck has to be close. He had a foot injury, and he's been walking around unaided and without a limp for several days now.

I can't see Coach Grahn taking Vaaland or Risnes off the field - as both have played really well thru 3 games. The midfield will not be touched either. If Bjork is going to start, it would appear that he would need to replace Esfandyari. I dont know if Bostrom Ryfall is coming back from injury and they are bringing him along slowly - or if Esfandyari beat him out for the job, but it's surprising that he isn't starting. He was a very solid defender in 2019.

My understanding is that Esfandyari beat him out. The coaching staff is very high on him, obviously, but you could see some of his growing pains early on in last night's match. Subbing in Boström-Rydfjall for him really tamped down the Loras longball threat, because Billy is such a steady presence back there.

Assuming everyone gets healthy and stays healthy - it will be very interesting to see how Grahn manages this team - as there are close to 20 players who would be starters on any team in the CCIW.

Some problems are nicer to have than others.

Lastly, I wanted to state how impressed I was with the production of the broadcast. Greg, you always do a great job - but I also really enjoyed the interview of the former NP soccer player. That was very cool. Is that something NP has always done, or was this a one time thing?

Thanks! I'd like to put in a good word for my broadcasting partner, Scot Gladstone. He's a former soccer player himself, and he has a good feel for what to look for out on the field as a commentator.

As for the interviews, Ollie Chell was actually the second former NPU player we've interviewed. We had former All-American center back Ricky Pimentel on the third headset for part of the Greenville match a few days ago.

Thank you for the kind words. I have to credit a couple people here for these ideas and upgrades:

Tyler's being modest. As the SID and director of game management he's the one who has orchestrated these upgrades. Our intention is to put on a broadcast that is as high-quality as the program it covers, and Tyler's really at the heart of all that.

First of all, AD John Born for investing in production equipment so that we could build what you're seeing at home. We'd still be utilizing a one-camera broadcast if it weren't for him prioritizing this upgrade for our home events over the summer.

Kudos to John, and it should be noted that he's not just doing this for the NPU men's soccer team in order to spotlight the program he used to coach. We're also using the three-camera setup for football and women's soccer, and it'll really come in useful in the spring with baseball and softball, two sports that suffer greatly if you're only covering them with one camera.

Secondly, credit men's soccer GA Ryan McNaughton for the idea of having notable alumni on air during the broadcasts. We messed around with it during baseball/softball season with current student-athletes but Ryan has put together a list of alums that will be on throughout the season. He's the man behind the scenes coordinating who's on; I just hand them a headset and make a graphic!

An assist in this department goes to Ryan's dad, Tim McNaughton (who captained the Vikings in the early '80s under Joe Hakes when North Park men's soccer had just been upgraded from a club sport to varsity status). Tim's managed to get the two gentlemen who originally started the club team as North Park students way back in 1970-71, Rick Voorhies and David Dwight, to agree to come on a broadcast next month. I'm looking forward to interviewing them on the air! There's gotta be an interesting story when two students take it upon themselves to create a club team out of thin air. Also, club teams tended to play a fascinating array of opponents back in that era. For example, I do know that the first team that North Park played as a club team back in 1970 was Maryknoll Seminary, a now-defunct seminary in Glen Ellyn for young men training for the Catholic priesthood. And I'm wondering if those two guys were the ones who started the notorious North Park club soccer tradition of traveling to Stateville Prison every fall to play the inmate team.

We'll likely only do this for baseball/softball and M/W soccer. There's a chance we try it for basketball, but we have relatively tight quarters in the NPU gym for a three-man broadcast and football is so chaotic in the press box that it'd be nearly impossible with our current setup.

Ollie (who was on with Greg and Scot last night) will almost certainly be back on at least one more time this year.

Thanks for tuning in!

Hopefully by then Ollie will have binged Ted Lasso. I honestly can't think of anybody who would enjoy that show more than an Englishman who played this sport in the U.S. amongst a sea of Americans in dire need of a remedial soccer education.

[Dubuquer]

Speaking of the visiting Duhawks faithful, I was not impressed with their behavior. They booed when it was announced over the P.A. that Olsen had tied the NPU school goals record. That was totally uncool.

And it wasn't traveling students/rowdy college kids... it was parents doing this. Silliness and embarassing to the highest degree.

Yikes. That is embarrassing.  What would possess parents to do that?  I haven't been to a Loras game for a while or paid much attention (due to lots of reasons) but I'll add this to my list of reasons to not go to a game next time I'm debating whether or not to go watch. 

[npbaseball40]

Speaking of the visiting Duhawks faithful, I was not impressed with their behavior. They booed when it was announced over the P.A. that Olsen had tied the NPU school goals record. That was totally uncool.

And it wasn't traveling students/rowdy college kids... it was parents doing this. Silliness and embarassing to the highest degree.

Yikes. That is embarrassing.  What would possess parents to do that?

Desperation. The realization that they were being handled in every facet of the game so it was a last-ditch effort to have some sort of a negative impact on our guys. Of course, the NPU student sections' cheers drowned out the boos as Peder was walking towards the bench, being congratulated by his teammates.

I'm sure the two-time All-American was really shaken by the 40-something year-olds thinking it was cute to boo him

[npbaseball40]

Tyler's being modest. As the SID and director of game management he's the one who has orchestrated these upgrades. Our intention is to put on a broadcast that is as high-quality as the program it covers, and Tyler's really at the heart of all that.

Thanks, Greg. That's very nice of you.

From a production standpoint, I'm glad I'm able to match the level of passion and detail you (and now Scot) are providing with the improvements to our broadcast. Let's keep this ball rollin'!

[blue_jays]

Loras started the game with a lot of high pressure and had multiple guys running up top on every possession to take longballs. This discomfited the young NPU backline a bit, but after William DeCarro floated in what was meant to be a high-arcing send from forty yards out but which the Loras keeper misplayed, allowing it to sail over his head and into the net, the gearshift went up a notch for the Vikings. Suddenly what Loras was doing on offense no longer mattered, because the Duhawks couldn't get a foot on the ball to save their lives. After a little less than seven minutes of near-constant North Park possession following DeCarro's goal he rocketed home another from 27 yards out, and within the space of two and a half minutes after that the Vikings further added a brace of goals, running up the tally to 4-0 in what was supposed to be a tense affair between two undefeated programs with strong histories but which turned into a 5-0 laugher. Loras striker Patrick Clancy, who'd scored five goals in Loras's first three games, didn't even get off a shot tonight.

DeCarro added an assist later, giving him a five-point night. Angel Barriga, who has taken to playing left outside midfielder like a duck to water, had a goal and an assist and drove terror into the hearts of the visiting Duhawks faithful every time that he touched the ball. Peder Olsen recorded the last two goals of the night, giving him 41 for his career and tying him with Jonas Pettersson as North Park's all-time career goals leader. Alfred Sward recorded his second straight clean sheet, but all he had to defend were two routine long-distance balls in the second half.

I don't believe that I'm going out on a limb in saying that the Vikings are an awfully good soccer team.

Speaking of the visiting Duhawks faithful, I was not impressed with their behavior. They booed when it was announced over the P.A. that Olsen had tied the NPU school goals record. That was totally uncool.

All you had to say was Loras soccer fans, and I knew some saltiness was on the menu coming from that contingent.

[Gregory Sager]

Hard loss to swallow for Carthage tonight on the road. I will say this: the Firebirds looked much more disciplined and steady tonight than they did when I saw them on opening day, and it was under tougher circumstances -- Hope is dramatically better than Concordia (TX). Still, after coughing up an early second-half lead, with the game tied at 1 the Firebirds caught a huge break in the 63rd minute when a Hope player was sent off with a crimson ducat for directing some unsavory verbiage towards the referee.

A good team should never lose when a man up, even on the road against a quality opponent, but lose they did when a Dutchman did a great plant-and-turn at the edge of the box and sent a wrong-footed cross to an advancing teammate, who pounded home the shortie in the 72nd minute. The Firebirds were unable to employ sufficient pressure to give themselves a quality attempt at an answer, even though the Dutch declined to park the bus despite being up a goal late and down a man. Carthage loses, 2-1, and will have to suck it up and drag tired legs onto Zuidema Field in nearby Grand Rapids tomorrow to face a Calvin team that must be mad enough to chew the cleats off of their boots after scoreless-drawing a distinctly inferior Aurora side tonight at Zuidema.

Elmhurst got a late PK goal from Noah Backhaus and downed Geneva, 1-0, in western Pennsylvania. Wheaton is winning at the half over MSOE, 1-0, at the Bean Patch.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton takes advantage of a brain-cramp epidemic on the part of the MSOE backline and GK to crush the Raiders in the second half, finishing with a 6-0 win.

The CCIW moves to 18-10-2 going into Saturday.

[Buck O.]

Boy did NP look good tonight. Loras will be a fringe tournament team and that 5-0 victory will look very good at the end of the year. I believe we will learn a lot about the vikings on Saturday - in a true road test at a good Wash U side.

Agreed. I watched Wash U upend Webster a couple of nights ago at Francis Olympic Field, and I was impressed. The Bears have been very solid defensively over the past few seasons, but they've definitely upgraded at the offensive end to take some of the pressure off of primary scorer Nolan Wolf.

I'd imagine that it helps that they're actually playing Wolf.  After getting zero playing time in 2018 (seriously--he appeared in one game), he didn't play at all at the beginning of the 2019 season, either.  When he did manage to wangle a few minutes of playing time, he started scoring goals:  A goal in his first game against Dominican (within a minute or two of coming into the game, IIRC).  Another goal in his second game.  Despite that, he still only played 25-30 minutes per game for the balance of the season, maybe edging up a bit towards the end.  (Unfortunately, WashU doesn't post the minutes played info, but I watched the games, so this is my recollection.)  Having your best scorer on the field does tend to help the offense!

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the Gateway City:

Wash U 3
North Park 2

Disappointing loss for NPU. Wash U was simply more disciplined in the back third today than the Vikings were. Both teams kept nice shape defensively, but a couple too many mistakes in the back by the young Vikings backliners against a Bears team that is far more opportunistic than Wash U has been in recent seasons. Even so, there were plenty of chances to be had, as the Vikings did a nice job in particular at working the left touchline with Lundeen and then pinching in at the midpoint of the box, but they couldn't connect.

Could we see a rematch between NPU and Wash U in November?

[Gregory Sager]

North Central picked up a very nice road win over ARC favorite Dubuque over in the Land of Ham, 1-0.

Tough loss for Illinois Wesleyan, which coughed up a 2-0 lead when Loras potted three goals in nine minutes in the game's final half-hour, resulting in a 3-2 win for the Duhawks.

Millikin and Rose-Hulman played to a 1-1 draw.

[tjcummingsfan]

Carthage just went to Calvin and came away with a 1-0 win.  And honestly, Carthage looked like the better team to me.