NESCAC

[Corazon]

I caught the Keene State - Brandeis game earlier in the year. They have a freshman striker named Promise Kpee (I think he is from the Congo) who really caught my eye and is a clear D1 talent. They played Brandeis close, and I expected them to do well, so this result is not that surprising. They haven't won as much as expected but they have a huge and pretty talented freshman class.

[blooter442]

I caught the Keene State - Brandeis game earlier in the year. They have a freshman striker named Promise Kpee (I think he is from the Congo) who really caught my eye and is a clear D1 talent. They played Brandeis close, and I expected them to do well, so this result is not that surprising. They haven't won as much as expected but they have a huge and pretty talented freshman class.

Keene is definitely a solid team with a good upside. Aside from the Wheaton result at home (which was surprising to me,) they have been "in" every game they've played this year.

[MENESCACFAN]

Great discussion fellas, and about to start the recap.  To Give Arkman's idea some meat how about predictions for following categories.  My picks below based on purely on games I have watched this year (hence no Santos who I do love as a player, but just has not done it for me this fall).

MVP:  Zach Grady (Williams)
Rookie of the Year:  Nate Merchant (Bates)
Best GK:  Scott Greenwood (Tufts)
Best Defender:  Buck Reynolds (Hamilton)
Best Midfielder:  Colin Patch (Connecticut College)
Best Forward:  Adam Glaser (Middlebury)
Most goals:  Zach Grady (Williams)
Most points:  Peabo Knoth (Bates)
Most assists:  Andrew Jones (Bowdoin)
Coach of the Year:  Justin Serpone (Amherst)

[MENESCACFAN]

MIDWEEK REVIEW

Well the NESCAC did indeed go through tough games and a loss, though not in the game I expected.  Excitement all over the place as usual though, with a technical glitch revealing to all of us how we will feel when Amherst finally lose a game!

WHEATON 3 TRINITY 4

This surely has to be one of the best games of the season in D3 so far?  Wheaton rolled into town ranked in the national top 20 on the back of a 10-1-1 record.  It is east see why, with a striker force including monstrous athletes like Travis Blair and Amara Sesay.  Trinity limped into the game off the back of a combined 5-0 beating from Maine teams Bates and Bowdoin.

In what classified as an upset in my eyes, the Bantams pulled out a gritty win in a see saw battle that will have galvanized their locker room.

Blair put Wheaton ahead, before sophomore pit Cody Savonen and Tobias Gimand gave Trinity a 2-1 halftime lead.  In a wild 12 minute second half period, a Tim Shea goal was sandwiched between strikes by Blair and Sesay to take the game into the latter stages locked at 3-3.

Savonen popped up with an 84th minute winner, for a win that will have broken a slump for Trinity.

ITHACA 0 HAMILTON 1

A more routine affair as Hamilton snapped their two game slide with a 1-0 win over Ithaca in Clinton.  Andrew Martin's first goal of the season was the decisive strike as Hamilton will hope to carry this good feeling into conference play this weekend.

CONN COLLEGE 1 EASTERN CONN 2

Coach DeVIto does a fantastic job with Eastern Conn, and they seem to give NESCAC teams trouble, similar to Thomas in Maine. 

Adam Traxler gave Eastern Conn the lead, before Christian Schmidt leveled matters early in the second half.  Tyler Jones then found the net to drop the Camels to .500 and hand them their second straight loss.

AMHERST 3 ELMS 0

An internet glitch had us all believing Amherst lost 5-0.  It says a lot for Amherst that I am sure we all double checked that was true?  That said, if I sat and watched Amherst lose 5-0 with my own eyes I would still doubt it happened!

Former New Zealand youth international Kieran Bellew opened the scoring for the Jeffs, before sophomore Cameron Bean found the net twice to round out the scoring.  Interesting note is that Bean played in the US Youth Soccer U19 National Championship game over the summer, a game that also featured Bates sophomore Matt DiVite.  NESCAC is everywhere!

SALVE REGINA 0 WESLEYAN 4

This counts as somewhat of an offensive explosion for a Cardinal that had so far not scored more than twice in a single game.  The shutout however was much more predictable.

Omar Bravo, Matt Lynch, Brandon Sousa and Chris Kafina all found the net as Wesleyan raised their record to an impressive 6-2-2.

[D3soccerwatcher]

Seems like NESCAC is weakening...with no teams in the NSCAA Top 10 and only one team in the Top 25 (and they have two ties already in only nine games played).

[Corazon]

Tremendous recap as usual, MENESCACFAN. I of course, empathized at your Amherst recap, and am impressed with your weaving of Cameron Bean winning the U19 USYSA Nationals for Concorde Fire (GA)... And here I figured I was the only nerd who cared about this type of stuff. Ha! Fire knocked off a loaded PDA Harkes (NJ) which also featured fellow Lord Jeff Soph Rohan Sood. The NJ club's roster was filled with players who started or got significant minutes for D1 programs as freshmen.  Encouraging that Bates' Soph Matt DiVite played significant minutes for Harkes. I felt that PDA perhaps unfairly stacked their roster as several key players, while they grew up playing for Harkes club team as youngsters, were actually Development Academy players during their U16 and U18 years. Fire, while not as formidable on paper based on colleges represented, played the more cohesive style and deservedly pulled out the upset in the final. Yeah, I actually watched the stream.

In case anyone hasn't heard of famed national powerhouse club PDA, they also won the U18 Development Academy National Championship last summer. They are the club which produced dominant Amherst goalkeeper Tom Bull (though he played for NY Red Bulls Academy his final year), who Justin Serpone recruited away from Georgetown (anyone care to debate me on Justin Serpone's recruiting ability?). Final fun NESCAC themed fact about PDA... their U18 Academy team from 2 years ago placed literally all but one player into major D1 programs. The one exception?  CONN's All-NESCAC Soph Pat Devlin. Tremendous recruiting coup for the hard working Kenny Murphy.

[Corazon]

Seems like NESCAC is weakening...with no teams in the NSCAA Top 10 and only one team in the Top 25 (and they have two ties already in only nine games played).

I think you may be right, D3soccerwatcher. More parity this year, which I actually prefer.

[MENESCACFAN]

Watched the stream too Corazon ;-)  Don't remember the name but Fire had a tremendous African-American striker.  I liked the Neumann kid from PDA.

You are also correct about Murphy and his Devlin coup.  Here are the commitments from PDA's USSDA team and Premier team that year, what a fantastic club for getting players to the college level;
http://www.pdasoccer.org/home/694102.html

Devlin's USSDA teammates went to Princeton, Rutgers, Indiana, Yale, Georgetown and other schools.

The Premier team below sent a number D1, along with Sood to Amherst and DiVite to Bates.  On a side note, I saw DiVite play at Trinity.  Produced a wonderful assist before limping off and I do not believe has played since.  Sood I watched play against Bates the next day, not one of Amherst's stars, but a big strong presence who gets it done in NESCAC.

[MENESCACFAN]

As for Serpone's recruiting ability, one guy would have debated, and he is gone ;-)

D3 Soccer Watcher I think you may be right as of now.  But tournament progress is really the only true yardstick in my eyes.  Teams ebb and flow so much in the fall, and rankings have limited value (see Trinity v Wheaton).

I do not have the time to research, but I would love to see a table of conference win/loss records in NCAA tournament play over the last decade.  That would be interesting and valuable,

[Nutmeg]

Hard to leave the tufts midfielders out of discussion of best midfielders....imho they move and pass the ball around very well...

[All NESCAC]

CONNECTICUT COLLEGE @ EASTERN CONNECTICUT STATE

Conn College are an underrated team talent wise, and will be reeling off the back of an OT loss to Bates over the weekend.  They will be looking to give a backlash to Eastern Conn in this fixture, though it will be a tough one.

Coach Greg DeVito has built a tremendous program in Willimantic with an emphasis on quality defense.  Eastern Conn have conceded one or less goals in nine of their last 10 games, and played Wesleyan to a close 1-0 loss this fall, as well as drawing with MIT.

Conn College have a lot more attacking talent that Eastern Conn's typical opponent, and I see the Camels getting over the hump (sorry) by the odd goal here.

PREDICTION:  Conn College 1 Eastern Conn 0

ECSU pulls out a 2-1 win at home over an excellent Conn College team.  Ibrham Mutala, who was causing all kinds of problems for the Warrior defense was injured in first half and this injury may have made the difference in the outcome, as CC showed, IMHO, superior technical capabilities and won the possession war. Sophomore Tyler Jones made an outstanding run and a perfect finish for the lead 10 min into the second half, but frankly after that Eastern looked terrible, again with lapses in defensive play on a LOT of CC pressure.  I think Conn College was the better team, and ECSU dodged multiple bullets, (literally), to luckily pull it out. Just one of those games where the lesser team wins.

Agree with your post ESU Alum.  typical Conn game where they out play the opponent and have multiple very good scoring chances and walk away with only 1 goal or none.  ECSU had 2 very good scoring chances and buried them both.  It was a very entertaining game as both teams played soccer not kickball rugby.  I was impressed with ECSU as they are a very fast team and have a lot of depth. They played a lot of players.  Conn's injury bug  seems to have caught up to them as ECSU's fresh legs were the difference in my opinion.  Conn can't seem to finish in the final third.  In the past 2 games vs Bates and ECSU conn has had (by my count) 10 "walk in on the goalie or a clean shot from 10 yards in" and only have 1 goal to show for it (Bates goal came on a 25 yard free kick by Patch).  Some have been tremendous saves by the opposing keeper (Bates keeper made 4 HUGE saves) and others have been shot directly at the keeper or not on frame. ECSU looked like a well coached team and I was impressed with their skill level.  Yes Conn outplayed them just as they outplayed Bates (I was impressed by a few of Bates players), but you can't win if you cant score and right now Conn can't score.  Its certainly not for lack of effort or opportunity. 
Conn has a very difficult doubleheader weekend coming up vs Tufts and Colby.  They have to win 1 of those games.  I must laud the play of Conn's center mid Devlin.  He is the engine that makes Conn go and even though he is playing "banged up" he is IMHO the best midfielder in the NESCAC.  he is a very good player. 

[Corazon]

Hard to leave the tufts midfielders out of discussion of best midfielders....imho they move and pass the ball around very well...

I've had that same thought, Nutmeg, but wanted to finish my research before posting.  Interesting point is that I believe Tufts plays a 4-2-3-1 and their two pivot starting center mids, Rui Pinheiro and Zachary Halliday, are both from Princeton, NJ, although different schools.  Pinheiro in particular, has impressed me - very technical with some flair and a good passer and has taken some strong free kicks and come up with a few key game winning plays. I don't recall anyone mentioning him before.  He will probably be considered a top midfileder for me.  Intrigued with the Tufts midfield indeed.

[MENESCACFAN]

Nutmeg, I believe Tufts has the best midfield unit.  Always a different story picking an individual though IMO.  Tufts may even be the best team if it is not Amherst this fall.  I just don't think that automatically makes their individual player better than Patch or another guy.  If Colin Patch was at Tufts, I believe he starts and is their best midfielder.

Another example, Hamilton back line is half as good as Amherst's, but I like Reynolds more than any Amherst individual.

[ECSUalum]

All Nescac,
Thanks for the compliments on ECSU.  Coach DeVito has done a great job over the past 7-8 yrs... and I think he is now in the process of crafting a team that in 2 years may be able to compete with the Amhersts and Wheatons in New England, ie playing a lot of freshmen/sophomores these days. I continue to be impressed with So. Greg Walton, who had some outstanding saves on point blank shots yesterday. However, they are still young and I should be more patient with them, but I was pulling my hair out at the end of yesterdays game .  Conn College has some very impressive young players in Mutala, Devlin, Schmidt, and Hlinomaz, all will just get better next year, especially in combination with the veterans currently on the squad.

[All NESCAC]

Nutmeg, I believe Tufts has the best midfield unit.  Always a different story picking an individual though IMO.  Tufts may even be the best team if it is not Amherst this fall.  I just don't think that automatically makes their individual player better than Patch or another guy.  If Colin Patch was at Tufts, I believe he starts and is their best midfielder.

Another example, Hamilton back line is half as good as Amherst's, but I like Reynolds more than any Amherst individual.

I like Patch, but it is hard to argue he is the best midfielder in the conference when he isn't the best mid on his team.  He's a good player at holding mid and he is a warrior, but Devlin is better.  When Devlin is not on the field Conn's play takes a serious dip.  Can't say that about Patch, although I don't know because I don't believe he's been off the field yet this year.  But when Devlin's not in the game it is very noticeable. Patch does a very good job at holding mid, but Devlin is the choice.  Can't comment about Tufts middies yet because haven't seen them.