NESCAC

[hiyasoccer]

Hamilton with 5 minutes of pressure after half but can't break free, and bowdoin responds with 5-10 minutes of pressure if their own. Charlie Ward can't quite finish a breakaway when the ball gets a little away from him but after a couple more minutes of balls into the box and pressure, a second ball turns into a low cross that somehow squeaks into the corner (I suspect an own goal or scuffed shot).

3-0 Bowdoin, looking like a statement game.

[upthepanthers]

Four goals in 7 minutes for Middlebury, quite the offensive showing from #17 Andrew Juarez

[hiyasoccer]

Bowdoin apparently saved all their offense from the Trinity game for this one, scored a deserved 4th. Freshman Mateo Pacelli doing the tough work on the setup, he has been bright all game. Bowdoin doesn't have any spectacular attackers but they have at least 4 very good AM/wingers.

Shortly after the goal, Hamilton player with a great strike from outside the box that Webber's fingertips turn onto the crossbar. Great save. Bowdoin has put in its reserves now trying to get its starters a bit of rest given the score line.

[northman]

After yesterday's daylong deluge and heavy winds, today was warmer, gentler, and partly sunny in Brunswick.  hiyasoccer did a nice job of summarizing the play-by-play.  My view from 30,000 feet was that Hamilton did a nice job of possession and buildup during the first 15-20 minutes, but weren't much of a threat once they got near the box.  Bowdoin looked more threatening on the counterattack.  Once Bowdoin scored their first, Hamilton seemed to become more tentative in their play.  They became very open in the back during the second half and a number of Bowdoin balls rolled right through the 6 yard box without being cleared.  Naturally, Bowdoin converted a couple of those to make it 4-0. 

Having not seen Hamilton play previously, my first guess would be that they might be accustomed to having the majority of possession and not having their back line and keeper under much pressure.  Bowdoin increased the pressure during the latter part of the first half and first part of the second half...and Hamilton appeared to crack.  Plus, no matter how young and athletic you are, a 6.5+ hour bus ride on stormy Friday isn't going to help your overall physical preparation.

[SimpleCoach]

Conn drops to Colby.

SC.

[hiyasoccer]

Tufts can't get a goal against Bates and draw. 2 wins in 8 for jumbos, 2 wins in 7 from Conn. That certainly wasn't what I was expecting.

No letup for tufts, who have Midd and Bowdoin remaining. Conn have Amherst Bates and Wesleyan, a bit better. 

[College Soccer Observer]

Middlebury 6 Trinity 0

A very strange game.  Trinity came out with a plan to sit deep, clog the passing lanes, and then break quickly.  Midd was out of sorts for the whole first half, and Trinity had a couple of solid chances.  The second half was insane.  As @SimpleCoach has been preaching, not enough keepers are good at catching the ball.  Just 1:25 into the second half, Kyle Nilsson put a shot on frame that the keeper failed to catch, and the resulting rebound was put away by a hustling Alem Hadzic.  Midd made it 2-0 less than a minute later on an Andrew Juarez blast from 25 yards.  Juarez got a second less than two minutes later.  Luke Madden headed in a corner kick from Eujin Chae for Midd's 4th within 7 minutes.  Hadzic got his brace in the 64th minute before Brendan Barry closed out the scoring with a header in the 79th minute.  Middlebury is starting to find an offensive rythym and the defense is holding up well despite the injuries.  Currently Hank Nelson (out since 9/10 vs Amherst), Will O'Brien (injured 10/1 vs Wesleyan), and Casey Lund (injured during the week), all of whom have started at outside back this year are all out. 

[Mr.Right]

Wesleyan's Senior Day Game against Williams was played in front of a nice crowd on a perfect sunny day. Wes was in a 3-5-2 to start the Game against a Williams side who were in their usual tight and pinched 4-4-2 that at times can morph into a 4-2-2-2 in which the Game could be played in a narrow hallway.

Wes Starters:   

GK #0 Liam Devanny, LCB #26 Chris Porte, CB #5 Evan O'Brien and RCB #3 Max Hofstetter. Centrally Wes had #6 Soren Tollis holding with #8 Matthew Rubinstein and #10 Lucas Ruehlemann. Wide Right #21 Chris Textor and Wide Left #12 Zach Wheeler had the flanks to themselves up and down with #20 Kyle Burbage and #9 Dane Harmaty up top. 

Williams Starters:

GK #30 Ben Diffley, Back 4 was LB #29 Daniel Zhang, LCB #11 Eamon Gara Grady, RCB #6 Nick Boardman and RB #17 Sam Gibson. #8 Felipe Gutierrez and #12 Cole Morriello were Central with #23 Dan Rayhill on the right and #19 Henry Osborn left. Up top #7 Nathan Song and #3 Brady Foehl.


1st Half:
Wesleyan controlled most of the play 1st Half. They were possessing nicely all Half and were at least trying to move the ball forward with pace and purpose running and passing in attack. Trying as much as you can to constantly put the opponent on their back foot a perfect system for Wesleyan's midfield with smaller quicker players. Also, they were switching the field nicely using the width of the field with #12 Wheeler, #21 Texter and especially #35 Phillip Cubeddu running freely up and down the flanks. The wingers worked hard as they had to defend as well. Centrally, #26 Porte looks to be getting back in the lineup from injury with #5 O'Brien in the back. Wes got some crosses in and had a few good looks, but Williams was organized defensively and jammed up the box to snuff out the Wes final pass or shot. Williams sat a little more compact and deeper than they usually do at Home which meant they also backed off the press a bit. Williams GK Diffley made a couple nice saves on the day and his defense forced Wes into rushing that final pass and shot. Williams back 4 has been playing well of late with all four showing hustle and battle. #6 Boardman wins everything in the air and The Frosh #17 Gibson at RB continues his good play.

2nd Half:
Williams picked up the pace after halftime and showed much better energy and purpose in attack. They threatened some but nothing really dangerous until the goal. I mean 1 SOG all Game is not going to cut it. Without #13 Will Felitto up top they are missing a huge target. However, I still say they need more crosses from the wing and not in the air but get it to the goal line and then pull back with a worm burner or some nice low "stingers" that players just need to get a foot to or volley. For Wes they were not as clean with the ball this half, but they still had some looks with both Porte and Tollis missing a couple sitters on the 6. Porte was funny as Williams #24 Mohamed Keussom schooled him a bit 1v1 on a random counter that died before any SOG. After the play, Porte seemed to get a quick glance at who burned him because about a minute later Keussom had the ball at his feet in a tight spot near "the touch" and Porte came in with a clean but hard slide tackle welcoming the Frosh to his field.



Goals:
Both Goals were legit:

Williams Goal --An old school Williams counter off of a Wes chance on Goal. Wes misplayed the ball and Williams #24 Keussom broke out with the ball and released #22 Jake Saudek who was breaking downfield. Saudek takes one looooong touch but does well with a faked shot and then a great ball (worm burner) across the box to the Frosh #32 Henry Kirkman who was wide open. Now in this situation, with any Frosh who has not played many minutes, you have absolutely no idea what could happen next. It could be calmly buried, slowly rushed and miss hit, hit right at the goalie or absolutely blasted 40 yards over the goal. Kirkman calmly buried. It was not as easy as I made it sound because Wes GK #0 Devanny and another defender were closing hard.

Wes Goal--As the official Wes box score said #35 dribbles through several players and centers to #10. Umm Cubeddu he BLEW by several players then played another worm burner hard across the box with a teammate's dummy not affecting Ruehlemann who calmly buried it. Great goal as both players are so dangerous for Wes in attack. Ruehlemann understands how to put smiles on people's faces...Look at all those teeth. https://images.sidearmdev.com/resize?url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/athletics.wesleyan.edu/images/2022/10/15/Lucas_Ruehlemann_1RtbK.jpg&width=942&height=&type=jpeg&gravity=&quality=80

[Mr.Right]

It's hard for those outside NESCAC to grasp the depth of feeling -- that heady mix of respect, irritation, anger, and, in some cases, humiliation-inflected "little-brotherness" -- that many folks associated with other NESCAC schools have toward the Amherst men's soccer program. The chief source of all that, of course, is Amherst's perennial success. But I'm glad that people brought up the word "bludgeoned," because there are other sources of people's feelings about Amherst men's soccer, and one of primary ones is pretty neatly captured in data. Have you ever looked at the conference's historic data set on fouls per game? In all but one year since NESCAC men's soccer achieved its current 11-team form in 2011, Amherst has finished first in NESCAC in fouls committed per game, sometimes by a breathtakingly wide margin (the exception was 2018, when Amherst finished just behind Middlebury in fouls per game). Let that sink in. The players turned over completely in those 12 years. The officials changed. Even the NCAA's rules and officiating "points of emphasis" changed. Even the average size of Amherst's roster changed, despite stereotypes to the contrary. But that one symptom remained constant. I've never seen any program-specific long-term historical trend like it at any level of the sport. There are generations of opposing players, coaches, parents, fans, and other observers who have witnessed (or felt) that disparity and emerged with permanently altered feelings about the experience and the factors that might have led to it. It's easy to see why former players find themselves using words like "bludgeoned," hyperbolic or not.

This is really well done.  Made me stop what I was doing and think about this.

[Mr.Right]

Conn drops to Colby.

SC.

I did watch this game and was highly entertained. Game got stretched late and it was up and down. I will try to do a recap tonight. Conn actually looked pretty good driving up the field but Colby was well organized in their defensive end. Conn had some really good looks to level and maybe find a winner but nothing. Still Conn played really well for spurts in this game.

[camosfan]

Oct. 19   Colby v Bowdoin   3:00 PM   
   Hamilton v Williams       3:00 PM   
   Connecticut College v Amherst 3:30 PM


My friends, this Wednesday's schedule in NESCAC, please adjust your individual schedules accordingly!

[Yankeesoccerdad]

Oct. 19   Colby v Bowdoin   3:00 PM   
   Hamilton v Williams       3:00 PM   
   Connecticut College v Amherst 3:30 PM


My friends, this Wednesday's schedule in NESCAC, please adjust your individual schedules accordingly!

Any predictions for Conn/Amherst?  Amherst should be extra motivated--if that is even possible--in rematch of 2021 tournament final.  They have had 10 days to prepare and will have bludgeons and cudgels ready.  Conn has been off this year, but also unlucky.  They remain a highly skilled team with a strong roster.  Massey has Conn as a big underdog, but if they are going to right the ship this is a great time and place to start.

[camosfan]

I have lots of respect and admiration for both teams, last two meetings were ties in 90 minutes, I think the same will happen here. Conn has scored only 5 goals in NESCAC this year, however they have given up only 5, think all three games will be tied!

[coach analytics]

I have lots of respect and admiration for both teams, last two meetings were ties in 90 minutes, I think the same will happen here. Conn has scored only 5 goals in NESCAC this year, however they have given up only 5, think all three games will be tied!

If the game were on Conn's turf field I would go with Conn but since the game is at Amherst I do not see how they have the size to compete against the 20+ corner and throws that will come in the box.  I bet Amherst has not cut the grass this week. They will make it a mosh pit.

[Kuiper]

If the game were on Conn's turf field I would go with Conn but since the game is at Amherst I do not see how they have the size to compete against the 20+ corner and throws that will come in the box.  I bet Amherst has not cut the grass this week. They will make it a mosh pit.

Conn College seems to have switched GKs in mid-season from Maidenberg to Silvester.  Not sure if that is injury or performance-related, but I recall Coach Burk implying on an interview before the season with Simple Coach that the GK position was not as settled as one might think based on the starter from the championship team returning.  If it was performance-related, one thing Silvester seems to bring over Maidenberg is a couple inches more in size and, from what I can tell from the few games I have seen him, a general inclination to come off his line and challenge for balls in the air.  Both could be helpful with those balls into the box.