CCIW

[Gregory Sager]

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst was dumped by Dubuque this evening over in the Hawkeye State, 3-1.

Illinois Wesleyan trounced inept Monmouth, 4-0, at Neis Field, for the first Titans win of the season.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 4
Carthage 0

Playing Carthage always puts my stomach in knots. No other team in the CCIW over the past half-dozen seasons has had NPU's number nearly as much as Carthage has. And although I've seen this year's edition of the Firebirds play pretty unevenly a few times, I also saw them take it to Calvin. Steve Domin has a very talented team this year, albeit one that's a bit too young at this point to be consistent night in and night out.

I shouldn't have worried so much. North Park absolutely bossed the Firebirds from one endline to the other for all ninety minutes. NPU controlled the ball at at least a 70/30 rate, and Carthage didn't even get off a single shot during the first half. They ended the game with only three of them, despite the fact that Kris Grahn had his second team on the pitch for the game's final 20 minutes; NPU outshot CC by a 26 (14) to 3 (1) count. Peder Olsen became the first Viking ever to record three hat tricks in his career -- his second and third goals were off well-deserved PKs -- and Erik Lundeen finally shrugged off his tough-luck start and potted his first goal of the season.

If the Vikings can maintain tonight's level of play -- which is a very big "if" -- they'll run the table in the CCIW.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton posted similarly lopsided numbers against punchless Augustana -- a 14-1 bulge in corners is pretty ridiculous -- and came away with a 2-0 win at the Beanpatch. North Park (2-0) and Wheaton (1-0) are the only unblemished teams in league play, and we're only two CCIW game dates into the schedule. To be fair, Carroll has yet to play a conference game.

Speaking of the Pios, they easily handled Lawrence this evening, 2-0, up in Appleton. Carroll is now 7-1 this season, but the OWP of the Pios is an abysmal .415, so don't take their W-L record very seriously just yet.

And in the other CCIW contest, North Central had an easy time of it with Millikin at Benedetti-Wehrli, winning 2-0.

[blue_jays]

North Park 4
Carthage 0

Playing Carthage always puts my stomach in knots. No other team in the CCIW over the past half-dozen seasons has had NPU's number nearly as much as Carthage has. And although I've seen this year's edition of the Firebirds play pretty unevenly a few times, I also saw them take it to Calvin. Steve Domin has a very talented team this year, albeit one that's a bit too young at this point to be consistent night in and night out.

I shouldn't have worried so much. North Park absolutely bossed the Firebirds from one endline to the other for all ninety minutes. NPU controlled the ball at at least a 70/30 rate, and Carthage didn't even get off a single shot during the first half. They ended the game with only three of them, despite the fact that Kris Grahn had his second team on the pitch for the game's final 20 minutes; NPU outshot CC by a 26 (14) to 3 (1) count. Peder Olsen became the first Viking ever to record three hat tricks in his career -- his second and third goals were off well-deserved PKs -- and Erik Lundeen finally shrugged off his tough-luck start and potted his first goal of the season.

If the Vikings can maintain tonight's level of play -- which is a very big "if" -- they'll run the table in the CCIW.

Greg, what do you make of Domin's quote in the Carthage writeup (the wild game, traveling uphill part)? Looks like Carthage (and the bench) got a fair share of cards tonight as well.
https://athletics.carthage.edu/news/2021/9/29/mens-soccer-carthage-falls-at-north-park.aspx

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage (and, eventually, Steve Domin) came unglued tonight, it's as simple as that. The very brief gamer to which you linked makes a point of talking about the Carthage goal in the eighth minute that got called back, but it was called back because of a patently obvious penalty -- Carthage's Collin Moran ran right into NPU keeper Alfred Sward and knocked him down as Sward was reaching for the ball. If that's to what Domin referred when he said that his team was "traveling uphill out of the gate," then that's pretty weak sauce. The only reason why his team was traveling uphill out of the gate was because they couldn't get their feet on the ball all night.

It did get a little wild, to be sure. Carthage's Omar Cordova got a yellow with only 21 seconds left in the first half when Angel Barriga motored past him and Cordova tripped him from behind. That became a problem in the 53rd minute when Jesse Anamoo was tripped in the box, setting up Peder Olsen's second PK attempt. Cordova got in the face of referee Cesar Ibarra and protested too vehemently, getting sent off for his trouble with a second-yellow red, which left Carthage down a man for the rest of the contest. Carthage keeper Christian Lekki blocked Olsen's initial try, but then the near-side assistant ref said that Lekki had left his line prior to Olsen striking the ball. I've watched it a couple of times on my copy of the game film, and it did appear that Lekki jumped over the line a fraction of a second too early. I can't remember the last time I've seen that called, so I'm not convinced that assistant refs monitor that particular aspect of a PK all that carefully -- but this time it was called, which necessitated a replay. Olsen found the back of the net on the replay, making the score 3-0, and Domin was apoplectic. His assistant had to step in front of Domin and hold him back as he was screaming at Ibarra. (Naturally, Domin got a yellow himself for his pains.)

Bottom line: Carthage was badly outplayed, and, being a young team, the Firebirds compounded that problem by shooting themselves in the foot with costly penalties and cards and a loss of composure. Instead of complaining about calls and "traveling uphill out of the gate," you'd think that the Carthage coach, whom I do respect quite a bit, would be more focused upon the fact that his team couldn't even get off a shot in the first half.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 8
Elmhurst 0

No trap game here for NPU, as the Vikings registered both the program's most lopsided CCIW road win ever and the highest score and biggest winning margin North Park has ever registered in a road game (tied with wins at MacMurray in 2007 and Albion in 2019 that were also 8-0 romps). The Vikings put on a set-piece clinic tonight, scoring two goals off of corner headers, a penalty kick, and two goals catalyzed by midrange direct freebies (the second one was a sneaky play by William DeCarro in which everybody was walking into position and he was bending over to re-place the ball -- he suddenly pushed the ball to his left, right to where Angel Barriga was standing, and one quick touch and a 29-yard blast later, Barriga had Noah Reed fishing the ball out of the back of the EU net). The first goal was about as pretty as you'll ever see; North Park right back Jostein Blindheim sent a 35-yard diagonal line drive of a pass down the pitch right onto Peder Olsen, who took it in full stride and didn't even bother settling the ball. He simply one-touched a parabola from 20 yards out or so that arced down behind the hapless Reed, even though he was barely off his line.

Can't say that I feel terribly bad about this massacre, because there's certainly no love lost between these two soccer programs. And there's no cause for accusing the Vikings of running up the score; Kris Grahn pulled his starters with 20 minutes remaining. The eighth goal was scored by the Vikings second-teamers.

[Gregory Sager]

Two big games played this evening, with interesting results. North Central and Carthage had a showdown up at Keller Field, and the Cardinals managed to keep the Firebirds mired in their scoring drought, as NCC got back on the bus with a 1-0 win in their back pockets. Carthage just doesn't seem to have much punch lately, as the hosts only managed one shot on frame the entire night. They fall to 6-3-2, 0-2-1, and need to do some soul-searching. Meanwhile, North Central finally has a legit win on its ledger, and the Cards remain unbeaten in CCIW play. They're now 12-0-1, 2-0-1.

The other big game was also played north of the Cheddar Curtain, as Wheaton traveled to Schneider Stadium in Waukesha to take on Carroll. Wheaton got a goal in the 55th minute from Michael Martens, and, given the lack of respect I have for the Pioneers, I figured that WC would make that lead hold up. I may need to rethink my opinion of Carroll soccer, because the Pioneers didn't fold, and they eventually got the equalizer on a strike from Josh Gonzaga in the 83rd minute. Two overtimes later, the CCIW's two orange-and-blue schools walked off the Schneider pitch with a 1-1 draw to show for their pains. Wheaton is now 6-1-1, 1-0-1 heading into the big rivalry showdown with NPU Wednesday evening in the western suburbs, while the Pios are now 7-1-1, 0-0-1 and are apparently better than their tissue-thin résumé would seem to indicate.

Elsewhere, Millikin traveled to Augustana and came away with its first win of the season, topping Augie by a 2-1 score. And Illinois Wesleyan went to the other side of the lake and was handled by Calvin to the tune of 3-0.

[Gotberg]

North Park 8
Elmhurst 0

No trap game here for NPU, as the Vikings registered both the program's most lopsided CCIW road win ever and the highest score and biggest winning margin North Park has ever registered in a road game (tied with wins at MacMurray in 2007 and Albion in 2019 that were also 8-0 romps). The Vikings put on a set-piece clinic tonight, scoring two goals off of corner headers, a penalty kick, and two goals catalyzed by midrange direct freebies (the second one was a sneaky play by William DeCarro in which everybody was walking into position and he was bending over to re-place the ball -- he suddenly pushed the ball to his left, right to where Angel Barriga was standing, and one quick touch and a 29-yard blast later, Barriga had Noah Reed fishing the ball out of the back of the EU net). The first goal was about as pretty as you'll ever see; North Park right back Jostein Blindheim sent a 35-yard diagonal line drive of a pass down the pitch right onto Peder Olsen, who took it in full stride and didn't even bother settling the ball. He simply one-touched a parabola from 20 yards out or so that arced down behind the hapless Reed, even though he was barely off his line.

Can't say that I feel terribly bad about this massacre, because there's certainly no love lost between these two soccer programs. And there's no cause for accusing the Vikings of running up the score; Kris Grahn pulled his starters with 20 minutes remaining. The eighth goal was scored by the Vikings second-teamers.

Olson's  goal

https://twitter.com/VikingsNPU/status/1444478422848245760?s=19

[PaulNewman]

North Park 8
Elmhurst 0

No trap game here for NPU, as the Vikings registered both the program's most lopsided CCIW road win ever and the highest score and biggest winning margin North Park has ever registered in a road game (tied with wins at MacMurray in 2007 and Albion in 2019 that were also 8-0 romps). The Vikings put on a set-piece clinic tonight, scoring two goals off of corner headers, a penalty kick, and two goals catalyzed by midrange direct freebies (the second one was a sneaky play by William DeCarro in which everybody was walking into position and he was bending over to re-place the ball -- he suddenly pushed the ball to his left, right to where Angel Barriga was standing, and one quick touch and a 29-yard blast later, Barriga had Noah Reed fishing the ball out of the back of the EU net). The first goal was about as pretty as you'll ever see; North Park right back Jostein Blindheim sent a 35-yard diagonal line drive of a pass down the pitch right onto Peder Olsen, who took it in full stride and didn't even bother settling the ball. He simply one-touched a parabola from 20 yards out or so that arced down behind the hapless Reed, even though he was barely off his line.

Can't say that I feel terribly bad about this massacre, because there's certainly no love lost between these two soccer programs. And there's no cause for accusing the Vikings of running up the score; Kris Grahn pulled his starters with 20 minutes remaining. The eighth goal was scored by the Vikings second-teamers.

Wow.  What a historical achievement.  Wouldn't bother me if NP won 15-0, but pretty quick on the trigger to foreclose any talk of "running up the score."  Especially after drooling over the trick play for goal #7 in the 70th minute (which lol you also wanted to credit to Olsen).  But yeah, at least the subs got the 8th one.  20 minutes for the subs I'm sure was appreciated even though 35 of them didn't get in.  Also looks like the NP GK went the distance.  No other GKs among the 35 players who didn't see action? 

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 8
Elmhurst 0

No trap game here for NPU, as the Vikings registered both the program's most lopsided CCIW road win ever and the highest score and biggest winning margin North Park has ever registered in a road game (tied with wins at MacMurray in 2007 and Albion in 2019 that were also 8-0 romps). The Vikings put on a set-piece clinic tonight, scoring two goals off of corner headers, a penalty kick, and two goals catalyzed by midrange direct freebies (the second one was a sneaky play by William DeCarro in which everybody was walking into position and he was bending over to re-place the ball -- he suddenly pushed the ball to his left, right to where Angel Barriga was standing, and one quick touch and a 29-yard blast later, Barriga had Noah Reed fishing the ball out of the back of the EU net). The first goal was about as pretty as you'll ever see; North Park right back Jostein Blindheim sent a 35-yard diagonal line drive of a pass down the pitch right onto Peder Olsen, who took it in full stride and didn't even bother settling the ball. He simply one-touched a parabola from 20 yards out or so that arced down behind the hapless Reed, even though he was barely off his line.

Can't say that I feel terribly bad about this massacre, because there's certainly no love lost between these two soccer programs. And there's no cause for accusing the Vikings of running up the score; Kris Grahn pulled his starters with 20 minutes remaining. The eighth goal was scored by the Vikings second-teamers.

Wow.  What a historical achievement.  Wouldn't bother me if NP won 15-0, but pretty quick on the trigger to foreclose any talk of "running up the score."

Look at the PBP on the box score. Kris Grahn took Peder Olsen out of the game for good in the 55th minute, when NPU was up 5-0. After Gustav Ericsson's PK goal in the 64th minute, Grahn immediately subbed out Ericsson and Erik Lundeen, and less than three minutes later he subbed out his entire back line as well as striker Jesse Anamoo. Then, as I said in the earlier post, he finished the job by removing the rest of the NPU field starters (Tobias Lunde, William DeCarro, and Angel Barriga) in the 70th minute, although the Elmhurst live stats operator didn't punch in the latter two substitutions for a couple of minutes. I watched the entire game once it was archived by EU last night, and I can vouch for the fact that the only NPU starter left in the contest after 69:09 was goalkeeper Alfie Sward.

Especially after drooling over the trick play for goal #7 in the 70th minute (which lol you also wanted to credit to Olsen).

How does my "drooling" have anything to do with the Vikings supposedly running up the score? I consider what DeCarro did on that seventh goal to be anything but running up the score. Quick-start free kicks are SOP in soccer. One of the first things you're taught as a novice is to stay sharp on defense in a free-kick situation because of quick starts. Why do you think that defenders frequently hover over the ball until they're chased away by the ref before a free kick? They're giving their teammates time to get into position and prepare. What DeCarro did was sneaky in the sense that he figured that the Bluejays were in a mental fog and decided to test his suspicion ... but you can't really call something that happens dozens of times in every game a "trick play."

It's no different than the quarterback changing his cadence in football when the offensive team is ahead by seven touchdowns in the fourth quarter and you, the other team, and everybody including the cheerleaders and the popcorn vendors, are all well aware that the play is going to be a handoff up the middle. The winning team is both running down the play clock and calling the easiest play in football to defend as a sportsmanlike courtesy to get the game over with while not actually insulting the losing team by ceasing to play football by taking a knee after every snap. But that doesn't mean that you, as a QB, have to stop changing cadence when calling signals before the snap, even though everyone's aware that you'll be running down the play clock to the bare minimum before you call for the snap. In other words, if the other team falls asleep while the game is still going on, even in prevent-running-up-the-score mode, they deserve whatever misfortune they draw upon themselves -- in the case of football, by jumping offside, and in the case of soccer, by failing to anticipate a quick start off of a freebie.

When DeCarro quick-started, Elmhurst midfielder Brady Lucas was two yards directly in front of him ... with his back turned. In the three seconds it took between DeCarro's quick-start tap and Barriga's shot going in, some of the EU players moved in response but several of them didn't even move at all. And, while Barriga struck the ball with pace, from that distance it was still easily defensible. All Elmhurst GK Noah Reed had to do was slide one more step to his right. He didn't do so. Instead, he reached out his arms to his right to grab the ball -- and it went right through his hands. Seriously, right through his hands.

Nobody ought to have any sympathy for EU, because that wasn't a case of the Vikings being superior. That was a case of Elmhurst mentally checking out and allowing a goal that they shouldn't have. Heck, even after the goal the Bluejays looked like they were sleepwalking. They didn't get mad either at the Vikings or at each other for getting caught with their pants down. They just shuffled back to the centerline like they were prisoners on a chain gang.

And, OK, so sue me for first posting that it was Olsen rather than DeCarro who did the quick start. I plead force of habit. I was well aware that it was DeCarro.

But yeah, at least the subs got the 8th one.  20 minutes for the subs I'm sure was appreciated even though 35 of them didn't get in.

Are you agitating for teams with large rosters to be allowed to continue games past ninety minutes so that everybody gets to play? Sheesh, and I thought that the everybody-gets-a-participation-trophy mentality was blessedly absent from college athletics.

NPU's traveling squad is considerably smaller than the full roster. The program has a JV team that has its own schedule and thus travels independently; the JV team usually sits as a group in the stands within Foster's Finest (the NPU student section) during varsity home games. I can assure you that there were 22 NPU field players (one of the players entered in the box score was an error, as that player is injured) on the bus to and from Elmhurst yesterday, and all 22 of them got into the game.

Also looks like the NP GK went the distance.  No other GKs among the 35 players who didn't see action?

Yes, Sward went the distance. My surmise is that he's been tested so little since CCIW play started that Kris Grahn wanted to give him the chance to be sharpened a little, on the possibility that the EU regulars might be able to challenge Sward more without the Vikings starters in the game. Turns out that that didn't happen, as the NPU reserves also controlled the run of play. In the last game against Carthage, however, Grahn subbed out Sward when he emptied the bench with 20 minutes to go, putting freshman backup Oskar Rydberg in at GK. But thanks for taking such an active interest in the feelings of all of the Vikings on the roster who didn't see the pitch last night.

[PaulNewman]

LOL....a lot of words, Greg.

I'll just say that the issues raised never would have been raised if you hadn't raised them.  The abuse of the concept of a historical achievement also was a little over the top.  Like historical would be NP beating Tufts 5-0 in the national final.  Your reasoning in paragraphs two thru four is tortured.  Standard quick-play just to initiate play, but see an opening so make it a more intentional quick-play, but that wasn't advantageous, but it was taking advantage after all...a little circular.  And you're now saying the 7th goal slipped thru the GK's hands whereas before we heard with gleeful amazement about a 29 yards blast that the "hapless" guy was "fishing out of the back of the net." 

And keeping 60 kids on your roster IS a participation trophy mentality (and what a lazy cultural meme to inject).  Or, maybe some schools/coaches have a certain value system or "faith" or commitment to developing young men or whatever that they rely on in having a philosophy about not cutting kids.   

[Gregory Sager]

LOL....a lot of words, Greg.

I'll just say that the issues raised never would have been raised if you hadn't raised them.

As my niece likes to say, "Whatevs."

The abuse of the concept of a historical achievement also was a little over the top.

"Abuse"? It was an historic achievement, by definition. It altered the school's record book. Can't see why you consider that to be abusive.

Like historical would be NP beating Tufts 5-0 in the national final.

That would be historic for the exact same reason -- because it would be altering the record book, in this case tying the D3 tournament record for largest winning margin in a national championship game set in 1985 and equaled two years later. And while I would much rather see NPU be on the fat side of tying that particular record, against Tufts or anybody else -- hey, a guy can dream, can't he? -- than tying the much more pedestrian record of largest-ever road win, it's merely a difference in degree (i.e., national record book as opposed to NPU's record book), not in kind.

Your reasoning in paragraphs two thru four is tortured.  Standard quick-play just to initiate play, but see an opening so make it a more intentional quick-play, but that wasn't advantageous, but it was taking advantage after all...a little circular.

Neither tortured nor circular. It wasn't about seeing an opening (i.e., a gap in the defense), it was about noticing that the other team was sonambulistic. If anybody was insulting the sport of soccer in those three seconds and the moments preceding them, it was Elmhurst rather than North Park. If you're on the field and the clock is running, you're supposed to be playing the game. When you mentally check out while you're still on the field and the game is live, you deserve to get whatever's coming to you, regardless of the score.

If you want to accuse NPU of taking advantage of the Bluejays for being lackadaisical and, frankly, disrespectful for not even paying attention to what was going on in plain sight, then I'll agree to that. Guilty as charged.

And you're now saying the 7th goal slipped thru the GK's hands whereas before we heard with gleeful amazement about a 29 yards blast that the "hapless" guy was "fishing out of the back of the net." 

How are those two things not in accord? They don't negate each other. Reed let a well-struck but very catchable shot go right through his hands, without his body to back up his hands, and, yeah, he was most definitely hapless, in the sense that he would've certainly been more aware of what he was doing if the game was competitive. Despite last night's performance, Reed's actually not that bad of a goalkeeper.

And keeping 60 kids on your roster IS a participation trophy mentality (and what a lazy cultural meme to inject).

Vehemently disagree on both counts.

First of all, it's not about "keeping" anything. It's standard policy at NPU not to force tryouts or cut people. If you want to play soccer at North Park, you'll get a uniform and you'll be listed on the roster. None of NPU's athletics programs cut people just for the sake of trimming rosters, because, as is true of a lot of D3 institutions, NPU is tuition-driven and relies upon athletics to draw students. A fairly high percentage of the undergraduate body at NPU consists of student-athletes, and, again, that's true of a lot of tuition-driven D3 schools. It's why the likes of North Central and Carthage carry 150 players on their football teams, and it's why Adrian sponsors more sports than I can count offhand, including some with which I'm barely familiar.

Here's what you won't get if you want to be a North Park soccer player: Promises. Nobody promises you varsity playing time, or even that you'll ever earn a spot on the varsity. The reason why the roster is so large is because so many players self-recruit. Kris Grahn and his staff didn't expend much energy, if any, into getting a lot of those guys onto the North Park roster. NPU's success has drawn a lot of attention, especially locally, and a lot of kids want to be a part of that success whether they're actively pursued in the recruiting process or not. That's no different than what you see at a lot of different D3 schools with successful programs in this sport or that. A great many of these players will fall by the wayside once they realize that they'll never be good enough to ever play varsity, or once the hard work that they're putting in doesn't seem justified by the amount of time that they're getting in JV games. And so they leave the program. That's how it works throughout D3, not just at North Park. I just hope that those who leave the program stay in school and find something else to focus upon, or at least transfer to a school with a less successful program where they'll get playing time. The bottom line is always graduation. NPU isn't going to keep all sixty of its players all the way from freshman year thru senior year any more than Mount Union will carry the 181 (?!) players on its football team from freshman year thru senior year.

But it's all about the choices that students make with their eyes wide open, knowing their own abilities and their own chances to play, and the price that they pay in tuition to do so. The point is to not deceive them with false promises.

And the whole participation-trophy thing is very real with Millennials and Gen Zers. I have lots of friends who've coached youth leagues in various sports, and they complain about this entitlement mentality all the time. Thing is, it has nothing to do with NPU men's soccer. If you consider having your name and picture on the online roster and possession of a uniform to be an entitlement, then my reply is that that's pretty thin gruel when you consider how much money you're paying for the privilege.

Or, maybe some schools/coaches have a certain value system or "faith" or commitment to developing young men or whatever that they rely on in having a philosophy about not cutting kids.

That's entirely possible, although I've never heard any coach cite mentoring as the driver behind roster retention. The best coaches do want to mentor their players, but, realistically, the ability to do so is contingent upon the sport in question. It's much easier to play a large part in the lives of your players if you're a basketball coach than a soccer coach, simply because of the numbers involved.

[PaulNewman]

Wow.  It seems that it's not even conceivable to you that you could be wrong (about anything).  You're telling me the facts and truth, so you're right, I'm wrong, end of story.

Kenyon beat Muskingum this year 10-0.  That was a lot but didn't bother me.  For one thing, because that's my team and I'm biased and another reason because some of the players don't always get to play and I would lament those players getting in but not getting a chance to actually do stuff and score if in a position to score.  But I wouldn't like Kenyon or any fan making a big deal about it even if there was some record (I have no idea and don't care).  If the recap mentioned that in passing then fine, but trying to assign some designation as actually meaningful in some way that deserves making a big deal of it would be embarrassing to me and trivial.  Again, I wouldn't have minded if NP beat Elmhurst 12-0.  Just own it.

Again, your thing about "if anything Elmhurst was guilty of disrespecting the game in which case NP can do whatever it wants" didn't make any more sense this time around.  If Brady is up 45-7 with a minute left (the other very odd kind of example you used) and is planning to kneel but sees defenders out of place or "somnolent" I don't think he fakes the kneel and then throws a touchdown.  I get it.  NP is phenomenal in every possible way and no word can say anything with even a whiff of a possibly negative word.

And in your response about participation trophies, you said that NP (and other schools) have a "everyone can participate" rule (kind of the definition of the participation medal culture thing you carelessly bemoaned).  Now you suggested the reason for that policy is economic, but are you also stating that it's ONLY economic?  Not related to any human or spiritual values that are supposedly part of the school's mission?  See how that works?

[Gregory Sager]

Wow.  It seems that it's not even conceivable to you that you could be wrong (about anything).  You're telling me the facts and truth, so you're right, I'm wrong, end of story.

Really? An ad hominem? I expect more from you than that, PN. I'm serious. You're better than that.

Kenyon beat Muskingum this year 10-0.  That was a lot but didn't bother me.  For one thing, because that's my team and I'm biased and another reason because some of the players don't always get to play and I would lament those players getting in but not getting a chance to actually do stuff and score if in a position to score.  But I wouldn't like Kenyon or any fan making a big deal about it even if there was some record (I have no idea and don't care).  If the recap mentioned that in passing then fine, but trying to assign some designation as actually meaningful in some way that deserves making a big deal of it would be embarrassing to me and trivial.

This is a pretty picayune and subjective criticism. I don't consider what I posted to be a big deal at all, as it took up a grand total of half a sentence in my game recap. From my vantage point, it's a bigger deal to you than it is to me, or to anybody else for that matter. You're making a mountain out of a molehill by fixating upon this with multiple posts tonight -- and all of it, transparently, because I posted on the other board that I was baffled by why you'd think that Calvin's Christian orientation has anything to do with how Ryan Souders manages his substitution pattern.

And "meaningful" is in the eye of the beholder. I ascribe much more meaning to NPU beating a conference opponent than I do to the amount by which NPU beat them. That's why I always put the score first.

I do a lot of work on behalf of the NPU sports information department in compiling the record books of various Vikings sports. In fact, I'm the one who put together the NPU men's soccer record book posted on the NPU website. Statistics and records are a huge interest of mine. Blame it on a childhood obsession with collecting baseball cards and memorizing batting averages if you like, but that's who I am. It's part of what I bring to the table as NPU's play-by-play announcer, and, yes, I'm fully aware that most people neither care nor appreciate record book minutiae. But I put it out there for the people who do care, however many or few of them there may be. In that vein, I don't see any difference in pointing out that NPU's men's soccer team matched a program high in road winning margin on Saturday night than I did in pointing out that Peder Olsen became the first Viking to record three hat tricks in his career when he tallied three goals against Carthage last Wednesday.

  Again, I wouldn't have minded if NP beat Elmhurst 12-0.  Just own it.

Own what?

Again, your thing about "if anything Elmhurst was guilty of disrespecting the game in which case NP can do whatever it wants" didn't make any more sense this time around.

I can't answer to your obtuseness regarding this specific point. That's your issue, not mine. To me, respecting the sport you play is a big deal. If you're just out there on the field wandering around in a daze rather than actually being alert and playing to the best of whatever you're capable of playing at that point, then I don't think that you deserve either sympathy or a free pass. As I said earlier in my football analogy, it's not merciful to take a knee on every play when you're up 56-0 midway through the fourth quarter. On the contrary, it's insulting. You're basically accusing the other team of being unworthy of honest competition, so you're denying them the chance to actually play the game anymore.

NPU didn't run the soccer equivalent of a flea flicker or a double steal of home or a backdoor alley-oop dunk. The Vikings did something that occurs over and over again in every soccer game ever played. They quick-started a free kick. If you're giving off the vibe that you can't be bothered to pay attention to the game anymore, and you don't respond with any alacrity whatsoever to the ball once it's moving again, then I simply don't see how it's the other team's fault if you get scored upon, regardless of the score. And if that still doesn't make sense to you ... well, no use in rehashing it over and over again, so let's move on.

If Brady is up 45-7 with a minute left (the other very odd kind of example you used) and is planning to kneel but sees defenders out of place or "somnolent" I don't think he fakes the kneel and then throws a touchdown.

That's not the example I used. I used the example of changing the cadence. If that works, than an overeager defensive lineman jumps offside and you get five extra yards. There's a world of difference between that and Tom Brady faking a kneeldown and then throwing a TD. The first is a routine aspect of any old play from scrimmage, the second is a trick play.

  I get it.  NP is phenomenal in every possible way and no word can say anything with even a whiff of a possibly negative word.

And in your response about participation trophies, you said that NP (and other schools) have a "everyone can participate" rule

I said no such thing, because "participate" may imply actual playing time. Let's be clear about what I said: I said that you get a kit and your name and pic on the online roster. If that's participation, then so be it. Let's be clear about the term, though.

(kind of the definition of the participation medal culture thing you carelessly bemoaned).

Hardly. Nobody pays well over $30k a year for a participation trophy.

Now you suggested the reason for that policy is economic,

There's no "now" about this. I won't take the time right now to go back and look for it, but I've gone over this ground regarding tuition-driven D3 schools lots of times on d3boards.com, and I'm pretty sure that one of the places that I did so was here on the soccer boards in an NPU-specific discussion in which you were involved. If a look back in the archives can't find that, chapter and verse, then I apologize -- but I'm almost certain that it's come up.

but are you also stating that it's ONLY economic?  Not related to any human or spiritual values that are supposedly part of the school's mission?  See how that works?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying -- because the model is not specific to Christian institutions, but is rather general to smaller schools that are tuition-reliant.