NESCAC

[College Soccer Observer]

Always a pleasure to catch up with Enmore Cat.  I agree with his analysis of the match.  Both teams had periods of dominance, and a draw was a fair result.  Amherst dangerous as usual on second balls off of throw ins, corners, and free kicks.  Their goal came off such a play, with a well struck shot from outside the 18 that took a deflection off a defender and in.  Mohammed Nuhu is a very quick and skilled first year forward for the Mammoths, and he plays against the steretype, as he looks to be only 5'6".  Midd has some impressive first years as well:  Will Sawin started, and Harper Nicholl (whose parents are Kiwis--sorry Enmore Cat), Colin Dugan, and Jay Hoke contributed to Midd's second half revival.  Midd's 3-5-2 seems to be solid defensively while offering more in attack, so we shall see.  This was the third consecutive game between the rivals where the soccer was much more dominant than the extracurriculars, so let's hope a page has been turned in that regard.  Would not be surprised for these teams to run into each other again.   

[Newenglander]

Typical NESCAC Saturday...

Midd 1 Amh 1 FINAL

Tufts 0 Conn 0 HALF

Colby 0 Wes 0 65th min

This Conn team, at least in this half, looks like the National Championship team.  They are good.

SC.

great game and cracker of an equalizer.....definitely a contrast in styles

[camosfan]

Fair result, Conn had the better first half, Tufts the second half. Tufts keeper had two amazing saves so the one that wen in was sort of deflating.

[TrueGrit]

Williams may be 2-0 but the program has major issues. Reports coach cut a few young men going into senior season (- in D3 ).  A 3 year starter "retired' because of this and the culture that has been created; the best freshman attempted to transfer and is sitting out the year to preserve a year of eligibility. Multiple other freshman looked to transfer. Will be interesting if this trend continues, or he just gets the players he wants and continues his success. Sort of like the Dion Sanders of D3 soccer.

[blooter442]

Bowdoin 6 up on Husson. Was a 1-0 game until the 50th minute, but a pair of penalties and questionable defending in general has made it easy for the hosts.

[PaulNewman]

Bowdoin 6 up on Husson. Was a 1-0 game until the 50th minute, but a pair of penalties and questionable defending in general has made it easy for the hosts.

And he's BACK!!!

[LibbyMoore]

Greetings, here with likely a silly question:

I can't always watch the weekday games live, and I thought I would be able to catch a replay similar to high school games, but if so, I don't see it listed anywhere.

Do any of the schools in the conference do highlights of their own games or make a copy of the stream available on their youtube channel? Or do they try and keep the footage close to the vest so as not to make opposition scouting easier? If that's the case, I wonder if any of you have discovered a way to record if at for your own personal viewing later. Thank you!

[northman]

LibbyMoore, I don't know if any schools show a full replay, but I do know that most if not all of the NESCAC schools show highlights of all the goals scored.  There are likely other D3 leagues that provide the same.

[Newenglander]

Greetings, here with likely a silly question:

I can't always watch the weekday games live, and I thought I would be able to catch a replay similar to high school games, but if so, I don't see it listed anywhere.

Do any of the schools in the conference do highlights of their own games or make a copy of the stream available on their youtube channel? Or do they try and keep the footage close to the vest so as not to make opposition scouting easier? If that's the case, I wonder if any of you have discovered a way to record if at for your own personal viewing later. Thank you!

Nescac uses the same service to stream games and usually from their athletics page - some leave them up longer on demand before charging than others

For example Conn vs Tufts is still up to watch

[pittsfieldpete]

Williams may be 2-0 but the program has major issues. Reports coach cut a few young men going into senior season (- in D3 ).  A 3 year starter "retired' because of this and the culture that has been created; the best freshman attempted to transfer and is sitting out the year to preserve a year of eligibility. Multiple other freshman looked to transfer. Will be interesting if this trend continues, or he just gets the players he wants and continues his success. Sort of like the Dion Sanders of D3 soccer.

The Williams team is a bit of a mystery to me. I haven't seen them play this year because the games haven't been streamed so I can't comment on the new class.  However, one of the things that struck me about last year's team was that while their swarming defense (and Boardman's heroics) got them to the title game there were glimpses of players with a great deal of offensive technical skill. And it's precisely those players (Morriello and Rayhill, are the most obvious) who aren't around this year.  Is the plan again to make every game a slog? I heard grumblings last year about Siebert's micromanagement of everything and his players' frustration with his coaching style and game management and, (who knows?), maybe he's made adjustments this season. Obviously, 2 wins over weaker non-conference opponents doesn't tell us much. First NESCAC games are this week so maybe we'll learn something from them. Still, I just can't put my finger on what the deal is up at Cole. 

[Ephraim_Williams1]

Williams may be 2-0 but the program has major issues. Reports coach cut a few young men going into senior season (- in D3 ).  A 3 year starter "retired' because of this and the culture that has been created; the best freshman attempted to transfer and is sitting out the year to preserve a year of eligibility. Multiple other freshman looked to transfer. Will be interesting if this trend continues, or he just gets the players he wants and continues his success. Sort of like the Dion Sanders of D3 soccer.

The Williams team is a bit of a mystery to me. I haven't seen them play this year because the games haven't been streamed so I can't comment on the new class.  However, one of the things that struck me about last year's team was that while their swarming defense (and Boardman's heroics) got them to the title game there were glimpses of players with a great deal of offensive technical skill. And it's precisely those players (Morriello and Rayhill, are the most obvious) who aren't around this year.  Is the plan again to make every game a slog? I heard grumblings last year about Siebert's micromanagement of everything and his players' frustration with his coaching style and game management and, (who knows?), maybe he's made adjustments this season. Obviously, 2 wins over weaker non-conference opponents doesn't tell us much. First NESCAC games are this week so maybe we'll learn something from them. Still, I just can't put my finger on what the deal is up at Cole.

Imagine if Williams didn't sneak into the NCAAs last year (Siebert's record would be 13-9-10 in two years without the NCAA run). 16 players remain in total from the soph through senior classes - most of the others would be gone if they weren't attending Williams as it's hard to leave a Williams degree.

[Yankeesoccerdad]

Bowdoin's Felipe Rueda-Duran named NESCAC player of the week, after scoring 5 goals and notching 4 assists in the first three games (against Bates and two non-conference opponents).  Felipe was a constant threat this week, achieving these results in only 130 minutes of playing time across the three games.  A strong kid who is hard to knock off the ball. 

https://athletics.bowdoin.edu/news/2023/9/11/mens-soccer-rueda-duran-earns-nescac-player-of-the-week-to-begin-season.aspx

[nescac1]

It's a little weird that a bunch of anonymized users who almost never post, and when they do, it's often to bash Williams soccer and/or Siebert (dating all the way back to his hiring), have suddenly coalesced around this unified attack on Siebert.  Just seems ... interesting.  A lot of accusations flying around and you just never know who exactly has a bone to pick with a coach, and why, especially when they are anonymous. 

Look, I have zero inside knowledge of the program.  It's obviously less than ideal when so many players opt not to return.  But I mean, some attrition is normal, you never know what is going on with a particular student-athlete, and I think the guy has to get SOME credit for taking a team to the national title game in his second year, and getting past an absolute murderer's row of opponents in doing so.  If the program continues to bleed players going forward, I'd say that's for sure a real problem.  I mean, look at Gromacki at Amherst's women's hoops -- he's another intense coach with notoriously high player attrition.  But the dude gets results. 

I think, without evidence of some sort of misconduct, a run to the national title game earns a coach the benefit of the doubt for at least more than the first few weeks of the following season (let along a first few weeks in which the team actually won both its games).   

[PaulNewman]

It's a little weird that a bunch of anonymized users who almost never post, and when they do, it's often to bash Williams soccer and/or Siebert (dating all the way back to his hiring), have suddenly coalesced around this unified attack on Siebert.  Just seems ... interesting.  A lot of accusations flying around and you just never know who exactly has a bone to pick with a coach, and why, especially when they are anonymous. 

Look, I have zero inside knowledge of the program.  It's obviously less than ideal when so many players opt not to return.  But I mean, some attrition is normal, you never know what is going on with a particular student-athlete, and I think the guy has to get SOME credit for taking a team to the national title game in his second year, and getting past an absolute murderer's row of opponents in doing so.  If the program continues to bleed players going forward, I'd say that's for sure a real problem.  I mean, look at Gromacki at Amherst's women's hoops -- he's another intense coach with notoriously high player attrition.  But the dude gets results. 

I think, without evidence of some sort of misconduct, a run to the national title game earns a coach the benefit of the doubt for at least more than the first few weeks of the following season (let along a first few weeks in which the team actually won both its games).

From a non-anonymous poster...

You make a good point, but as one person noted, in general one wouldn't think of Williams as a place that student-athletes would leave easily or hardly ever (unless it is to head to an Ivy or similar high end D1), and especially not key players, and to your point, esp at a program that just had an amazing run to the national final.

If the program is imploding, I sure wish they had completed the implosion before the Elite 8.  Still can't believe the tournament Boardman had, a senior, who even someone like me who follows pretty closely had never heard of before the tournament.  He was like a one-man wrecking crew and just looking at him I still don't know how he did it.

[nescac1]

To be clear, as of now none of these players have actually left Williams, the school, so far as I know.  A total of two players who played significant minutes in the Final Four and who had eligibility left did not return.  That's not some sort of mass exodus as is being portrayed.  And it's also not unusual for there to be some attrition as a result of a coaching change.  I'm not in a position to give some full-throated defense as I have no idea what's going on - and for all I know the criticism is fair.  I'm just suspicious of the motives of this group of very sporadic posters (one or more of whom may well be, cough, affiliated with a notorious anti-Williams-coach troll) bashing this guy, and i would take some of the more sensational, unsubstantiated claims made by those posters with a grain of salt.  And I think it's best to wait and see how it all shakes out over the next year.  If the team implodes this season and/or bleeds players this off-season, than by all means, criticize away. 

But I mean, Williams IS 8-1-3 in its last 12 games, with wins over Midd, NYU, Ohio Northern, Kenyon, Mary Washington, and ties (PK wins) vs. Messiah, Conn and Tufts - all absolute monster programs.  So something is going right, players aren't going to exert that level of effort for a coach they all despise. 

Agree that Boardman was absolutely ridiculous in the post-season last year.  He, Gara Grady and Diffley were impenetrable up the middle and also had some opportunistic moments on an offense that didn't have a lot of juice up front.  Even that first UChicago goal game on a near-perfect, blistering long strike.  Williams defense should be strong this year as well though two first-years starting on the back line will definitely have a lot of pressure on them.  I assume both are very talented, they at least bring a lot of size. 

On an actual soccer note, I'm curious to see FY Andrew Coelho play.  His high school reel is insane, lots of absolute bombs from distance curving into the corners of the net, and apparently (would be cool to see a highlight!) he had a 30-yard strike against WNEC.  In fairly limited minutes of the bench he's leading Williams in points, shots, and shots on goal.  I imagine he will be a marked man when he gets the ball within striking range.