Liberty League

[stlawus]

Not sure what Clarkson did to appease the soccer gods but they are fully on their side right now.  Another 1-0 win against a very good team for the Golden Knights, this time as a result of an own goal from a whiffed back pass.  Clarkson could have easily packed it in but they played the whole game.  Something's brewing over in Potsdam.

[Saint of Old]

That is indeed correct.
Clarkson has started the season with 4 consecutive 1-0 wins.
Not just that but they have Canton on their schedule next and can very likely enter LL play at 6-0.

Still not convinced until I see them against league competition, but hats off to a perfect start to the season.
4-0 impressive.

[Saint of Old]

The 1977 Undefeated D1 Champions v. The 1999 Undefeated D3 Champions.
A good match up of Upstate NY schools.

SLU was coming off a tough 3-2 defeat against a good Oneonta team and Hartwick just lost 2-0 to Hobart the day before.

Hartwick struck first with a nice play down the left side for a 1-0 lead.

2 Quick goals by SLU #10 and another nice finish from a counter had St. Lawrence up 3-1 at the half.

Hartwick played well 2nd half and pulled one back with a penalty with 25 minutes or so to go in the game.

Game ends 3-2 in favor of Saints.

3-1-1 on the season not too bad a start, but the real test is always the Liberty League.

[stlawus]

Fatigue definitely set in during the 2nd half.  Lot of squad rotation with young players getting action in the 2nd half as well.   Certainly a better result than last year, as the game started to look like it was mirroring the 2021 result.  Tosh has said in the post game recaps that the team has a never give up attitude, and they did well to respond.

Did not predict Skidmore thumping Haverford, great result for them.  Hobart ran into the Oneonta buzz saw, that team is going to make a deep run.   

Ithaca not having a good start, but you can't expect them to play like that in league play, they will be ready.

[stlawus]

Solid win for Vassar today against New Paltz.  New Paltz have been having a good season. 

Clarkson keeps rolling.  Still need to see them in league play but they have the results and confidence. 

Seems like a rebuilding year for Ithaca. 

Bit of a disappointing result for SLU tonight, the injury and crossbar gods continue to be against them.  Thought SLU should have had a penalty at the end, from where I was sitting it looked like a foul (as did the Potsdam center back).    By my count there's still 4 first team players out with injuries.  Going to need all the rest they can get for Cortland next week.

[Saint of Old]

Looks like the Bomber class that came in 2018 was real class.
That year, first year in the conference I think,  they made it to the finals and lost in Canton on heart breaking penalty kick shootout.

The year after that, if memory serves, they missed the league title again, but got an at-large bid to dance.

Covid struck them in 2020.

Last season, made it to the league finals again and fell short against SLU.

Losing classes like that can really affect a team. Unless you reload along the way with a great class or a  couple dominant players you can get hurt.

I am not writing off the Bombers just yet though, last season this time Saints were basically where they are now, but were able to sneak into the tourney and win the whole thing in order to dance.

Clarkson and Bard top the league, Ithaca and RIT bottom.
This is not your Grandfather's Liberty League.

[OldSoccerGuy]

Vassar totally outplayed NP in the first half in all facets of the game. Vassar outworked and held their shape must better than NP in the first half. Vassar ran the same two patterns of play and all half with very good results.
NP had ZERO SOG in the first half

Second half was mostly NP but partially due to Vassar sitting back.

[deutschfan]

Yes NP didn't show up in the first half. Hard to believe they got a result against NYU. Vassar needed a win against a regionally ranked opponent to keep pool c hopes alive. They also need a result this weekend against Montclair who now has their sophomore All American back. It is unfathomable that Ithaca would score 1 goal in 5 games.

[stlawus]

Hobart pretty much dominated UR today, really great win for them.   Given the history of the selection committee this UR loss will be treated like a win for them. 

Vassar and Skidmore both drew first blood, but neither could pull out the win.  Still a decent road result for the Thoroughbreds.

You can say what you want about Bard's strength of schedule, but they are winning which will go a long way for their confidence come league play.   

[deutschfan]

Hobart's win against Rochester is the League's best to date and given the remaining non-conference fixtures, the League's best non-conference win for the year.  Vassar's third loss becomes a pool c backbreaker.  Only once has a 5 loss LL team received a Pool C, Ithaca in 2019, who sported two non-conference wins over ranked teams including Messiah.  Last year Vassar was snubbed with 4 losses, so even that number doesn't necessarily get you intp the dance.  Because of the tournament, all the Pool C candidates will get a post season loss.  So realistically, unless you have a crazy good regular season conference record, you need to try to come out of pre-season with one loss.  That's why the Cortland game is so huge for SLU.   

[Saint of Old]

Ithaca got that Pool C in 2019 after a heart breaking 2018 PK tourney final loss and a team that should have probably danced that year staying home.

I agree with those that say U of R seem to be darlings of the committee, but all you have to do is what Hobart did.

League shaping up quite differently than what most of us envisioned, which is why we love this game so much. It is drama: Plot twists, new interesting characters becoming leading men after having just supporting roles in past seasons.

SLU v. Cortland should be enjoyable. Last season it turned out to be a great game that the Saints dropped in OT. In hindsight, one of their better games last season before a strong finish to the season.

Looks like Bard and especially Clarkson will make some noise this season. The one down side for the Golden Knights is that they go form having no big expectations and having fun, to now, feeling like the season is lost if they fail to make the league tourney, which will still be a difficult thing to do. It only feels more likely now.

[d3d3d3]

As of Sept. 20, Clarkson is the only LL men's soccer team getting any love in the poll:

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-men/

[Saint of Old]

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-men/
[/quote]
SLU v. Cortland was indeed an enjoyable game.
Saints did a good job staying compact throughout.
I think having a player who can be as good attacking as defending gives an advantage in really tight games like this.

[stlawus]

Despite Mogul out with an injury, the Saint attack was pretty on point tonight.  Sam Peacock has been a revelation on defense.  He missed the first 5 games, had a good debut against Potsdam and tonight completely bottled up Cortland's very talented #7.    Really nice knuckling free kick by Cortland to open things up, but SLU didn't let up. 

Pretty solid night for the Liberty League.  Union gets a W. Clarkson gets their 5th 1-0 win and are off to their best start since 1990.   Vassar shuts out regionally ranked Manhattanville (yes I know not official regional rankings) on the road and then you have SLU knocking off nationally ranked Cortland on the road. 

RIT gets the first league win of the year against Hobart.  Statesmen are impossible to figure out right now.

[Saint of Old]

RIT beats Hobart 2-0

This makes the league a bit more interesting.

Looks like that Costa Rican trip is paying dividends