NESCAC

[Mr.Right]

big day today. We basically have 4 teams(Bowdoin, Hamilton, Wesleyan, and Colby) fighting for 7th/8th place (Bowdoin has a mathematical chance at 6th). Bowdoin and Wesleyan have 2 games remaining to find points while Colby and Hamilton have 1. On paper, I would have to give Wesleyan the advantage as they will play Trinity and Conn but both of those teams are desperate to find wins for different reasons. IDK...

I will want to see today how Bates responds to its loss at Williams last weekend against Amherst today. Can they slowdown this Amherst side that is playing well right now. GG another POW in Nescac and now starting to set records at Amherst with single season goals and points records being shattered in October? Bates attacks with 4 and they can be dynamic but Iwowo is as raw as Okorogheye and Bates will ned to rely on its veterans coming down the stretch. Is Bakken finished for the year? Can Opoku net needed goals? Hohmann looks to be a poor mans Cam Clouse(without the long throw). his size is valuable but at what cost? Skilled midfielders should be able to slice and dice him as he is slow. The difference with Colby and Clouse last year was he was attacking not sitting like Hohmann.


Bowdoin has 1 Win(Trinity) in Nescac this season. They have Williams at Home today and they really must come out pumped and READY to score early and put Williams on its heels. Bowdoin needs a Win today with a date at Tufts looming midweek, in a game where Tufts would love no more  to effectively END Bowdoin's season that same day eliminating them from the Nescac Tournament...anyhow so yea Bowdoin needs a Win and Williams has been playing well the past week with 2 Home victories over Hamilton and Bates. Williams played decent in both games showing they are just as dangerous as anyone going forward. Boardman and Fleisher attacking and Oberg sitting has been the difference IMO. Also, Fabricant is starting to find something and Gass has been scoring all year so will be interesting to see which team grabs the game and when...

[Mr.Right]

We have our first answer on Wesleyan as they take a 2-0 lead over Trinity late in the 1st half with 2 goals in 4 minutes off 2 Sam Serxner long throws. He has a solid long throw that hits the middle of the box at a legit angle. The first long throw found a wide open Matt Rubenstein about 8 yards out who buried a one timer with his left. The second long throw was a disaster as Trinity's GK goes up for the ball and fumbles it right onto the ground for a Wesleyan player to bury...2-0 Wesleyan 15 left in 1st Half

[Mr.Right]

Williams and Bowdoin are battling hard and Williams strikes first as Chris Fleischer hits a 35 yarder into the net. stream did not follow the shot so I have no idea where Bowdoin GK was or wasn't? Williams has come out the first 10 minutes and are playing strictly on the grass which I like. This game has a couple more goals in it

[Mr.Right]

gotta run but hope to get back in time to see Amherst at Bates. Last point on this Bowdoin/Williams game it looks like it has slowed down considerably from the start of the game. Williams CANNOT get complacent and try to nurse this lead until the end. Both of these teams get in trouble when they do this...

[soccerfanatic]

big day today for Bowdoin, Colby and Wesleyan.
Wesleyan could jump to 7 if they defeat Conn.
With a  Bowdoin or Colby loss or tie, Wesleyan is 8th even with a loss, or 7th with a win, and Hamilton falls to 8.
A Colby win knocks out Wesleyan unless they win.
A Colby loss and a Bowdoin win and a Wesleyan tie would leave Bowdoin and Wesleyan tied on points. The tied during the regular season, does anyone know the tiebreaker on that?
Lastly a Colby win and a Wesleyan tie would leave then tied on points and that tiebreaker would go to Wesleyan because they defeated Colby earlier in the year.
My head hurts 

[maineman]

A Midd win and a Bates loss or tie today could move Middlebury to 4th and a home game for the playoffs.  Otherwise they will hit road for the playoffs.

[Middlebury Dad]

While Midd can pass Bates in the standings, they cannot catch Williams, so the best Midd can hope for is 5th place.  They are on the road regardless.

[blooter442]

Bowdoin up 1-0 at Tufts, start of the second half. Goal came after Aroh gave away a foul in midfield — never even close to winning the ball, although the commentator said "arguably clean" — the free kick was launched, controlled, and scored. Had way too much time in the box.

[blooter442]

Now it's Bowdoin's turn to have complacency lead to a goal. Goalie kicked it to midfield, Bowdoin player couldn't control it, Tufts gets it, couple of great flicks/passes, before the Jumbos almost turned it over when Tasker lost control of it. However, the Bowdoin RB didn't get a decisive touch, Tasker took it back, and fed Lane in front. The latter has had kind of a quiet year (he scored in the opener against Framingham but didn't score again until the Conn. win) and I feel like he kind of drifts in and out of games sometimes, but that's a big goal.

[blooter442]

Handball in the box off a Tufts corner, guy's arm appeared to be up, looked a penalty to me. Welsh buries it sending the keeper the wrong way. 2-1 Tufts.

[blooter442]

Second straight game Tufts has come back from 1-0 down to win 2-1. Character. #OptaEnrique

[PaulNewman]

Will be interesting to see if Amherst and Tufts get split up for the NCAA tourney.  I selfishly would love to see a Tufts-Messiah Elite 8 game....partly because of the drama with a Final Four trip on the line which IMO would be better theater than a national semi or national final....and partly for one of those two to get knocked out before the Final Four.  We need some new blood.  Of course getting new blood might mean seeing JHU, W&L or F&M dismissing one or both of the heavyweights.

[Bobcat1]

I think we need to see how the NESCAC Tournament plays out before we know if Tufts and Amherst get split up (meaning they would not see each other until the Final 4). If they win their respective quarterfinal and semifinal games (which is not very likely given recent history) and meet for the NESCAC title then I think they get split up and Tufts travels south.  Otherwise, I think they keep them in the same quadrant.  Also, I think Amherst will get a bye unless Tufts beats them (on the road at Amherst) in the NESCAC final.  Then an argument could be made for Tufts getting the bye. That would be an interesting debate, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

A quick shout out to Bates for locking up the #5 spot with a 5-4-1 record in the conference. Its been a long time since Bates finished with a better than .500 conference record and in the top half of the NESCAC standings. Tough challenge ahead at Williams, but they will make the trip with the confidence they recently took them to OT in a very competitive game at Williams. FY Bobby Dall (a Maine-ah) seems to have a nose for big goals coming off the bench as he had the game winner against both Midd and Colby...

[Christan Shirk]

NEW ENGLAND REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 30, 2019

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
1.	Amherst	12-0-2	0.608	5-0-2	12-0-2	1
2.	Tufts	10-2-2	0.611	6-2-1	10-2-2	2
3.	Connecticut College	9-3-2	0.606	2-3-2	9-3-2	4
4.	Middlebury	7-2-5	0.609	2-2-2	7-2-5	3
5.	Brandeis	9-3-4	0.585	2-3-1	9-3-4	5
6.	Williams	7-3-4	0.577	4-3-1	7-3-4	9
7.	Babson	10-5-2	0.570	2-3-2	10-5-2	7
8.	WPI	10-2-4	0.577	0-0-4	10-2-4	6
9.	Bates	8-5-1	0.567	2-4-0	8-5-1	10
10.	Keene State	12-5-0	0.564	0-2-0	12-5-0	8
11.	Endicott	9-5-2	0.553	1-2-0	9-5-2	--
12.	Eastern Connecticut	14-2-0	0.494	3-1-0	14-2-0	--

[TheAnonymousCommentator]

Predictions:

Amherst vs. Wesleyan: Not going to be any surprises here. Wesleyan will try to ride off the trend of years past of low seeds going far in the tournament, and they themselves have experienced this (2015 finals run vs. Bowdoin), but I can't see them getting past the best Amherst team we've seen since, well, 2015 (when they had a shock loss in the NESCAC quarterfinals). Giammattei slowed down against Bates- as in he didn't get a goal, and then followed it up with 3 against Trinity. Dane Lind has also broken 10 assists for the second year running and I suspect they will combo again for a goal or two. 3-0 Amherst.

Tufts vs. Hamilton: Haven't followed Hamilton too much this season so I can't say anything about them really. However, my money is on Tufts to win this year's NESCAC as I think the mid-season slump brought them back down to Earth and made them realize they needed to get it together. They followed up 2 losses and a tie with 3 wins against Conn, Midd, and Bowdoin, which was without a doubt the hardest last 3 games of anyone's schedule and they willed out 9 points. Hamilton will put up a fight but will wilt against an all-out push by Tufts who knows they need to make a run in NESCACs to stay high in the regional rankings. 2-0 Tufts

Conn vs Midd: My first prediction for a lower seed to win! Conn and Midd faced off at Conn's field in 2017 and Midd escaped with an OT win. The field will most likely be trash as it tends to be towards the end of the year but Midd is used to playing on trash fields. I remember going up to Midd's turf once a year and the ball bouncing around like a pinball. So I don't think Midd will be affected by Conn's bad field as much as other teams would be. Midd has a size advantage over Conn and have shown to be able to get up for big games this season (tied Amherst, beat Conn, lost in OT to Tufts). Conn will look to avenge 2017 and their most recent defeat to Midd but Midd will come out on top of a scrappy, dirty game. 1-0 Midd

Williams vs Bates: We thought that Bates might show improvement this year, and boy did they do it. 9 overall wins to break their single season record in many years and a few youngsters that can keep the momentum going. Williams has done well this year in OT (3 wins) and that will serve them will in a tournament that often goes to OT but I'm just slightly uninspired by them. Gass with a few goals this season but with one of the worst shot to goals % in the league. Bates will have to get used to playing on a beautiful Williams field but I just think these guys can get it done. 2-1 Bates

Cheers to playoffs!