Liberty League

[stlawus]

Personally, I don't really think they should make the tournament. That loss to Clarkson at home was pretty brutal.  It's not like SEC football teams where losses don't count. 

However, looking back at RPI last year, I would agree with you in saying SLU is more deserving to get in this year.  RPI made the tournament off of a single win which came against Oneonta.  SLU knocked off Cortland who are #1 in the regional rankings, and Vassar who should move up in the ER and are competing for the LL title.  If Rochester didn't stumble has hard as they have recently, I would have put them ahead, but if SLU doesn't bounce down further in the ER I think Pool C is a decent shot. 

I'm not sure if I can agree by saying they're poised to potentially make the sweet 16.  They are an extremely fit team, but the offense just completely died half way through the season.  No true strikers on the squad.  If they didn't finish then, I don't see a reason why they would now.  But you never know in D3 soccer, anything can happen. 

[deutschfan]

I thought RPI's selection last year was an abomination even though they played well in the tournament.  Teams shouldn't be rewarded for not making the top 4 of the LL, in RPI's case the top six.  As for Mr. Right throwing down the gauntlet about today's game--I have been wrong about individual results all year however two words for Skidmore's vaunted defense--Elmira and Union.  But for dropping a game to Hobart after going a man down Vassar has been nails at home.  They have by far the best offense in the league and Skidmore has beaten them about once in the last decade.  To me Vassar is an easy call.  On the LL awards, I agree with Baughen as POY.  Mrlik as a freshman won't get as much consideration and until the tournament did not have a game winning goal.  Defensive POY is Tyler Gilmore whose offensive presence is unmatched by any other defender in the LL.  Mrlik is the next Charlie Kelly, but unlike Kelly will be back next year given his family's legacy at Vassar.  Coaching staff goes to Coach Jennings and his crew.  Hobart returned a ton o players including vaunted underclassmen.  Vassar graduated 10 and returned no first or second teamers.  Arguably Vassar should have four first teamers this year with Mrlik, Gilmore, Gonzalez and Van Brewer.  Last year SLU had 10 LL payers which seems a tad overdone given their results this year.     

[Mr.Right]

Skidmore up 2-1 over Vassar with about 10 minutes left in the 1st half. I am sorry but Skidmore's spine is just much more athletic than Vassar's. Okoye just beat 3 defenders by himself and finish to give Skidmore the lead. That type of skill and athleticism Vassar cannot match IMO.

[Ommadawn]

Skidmore up 2-1 over Vassar with about 10 minutes left in the 1st half. I am sorry but Skidmore's spine is just much more athletic than Vassar's. Okoye just beat 3 defenders by himself and finish to give Skidmore the lead. That type of skill and athleticism Vassar cannot match IMO.

And the other half of Skidmore's dynamic duo, Oyeniyi, is dominating on the defensive end.

[Mr.Right]

That is a VERY questionable PK call by the ref in the Skidmore v Vassar game which Vassar converts to tie the game 2-2.....In the old days you would call that a "homer" call...

[Mr.Right]

Okoye inches away from giving Skidmore a 3-2 lead but just did not get all of it...Still 2-2...

[Mr.Right]

Both Gk's for Skidmore and Vassar look a bit suspect to me. Vassar's GK looks like he lacks some height which MUST pose problems on set pieces.

[Mr.Right]

UNBELIEVABLE......Vassar gets another PK on a VERY QUESTIONABLE PK call. Vassar wins the game 3-2 off of 2 PK's that were HOMER calls. How a ref can ruin a season like that is ridiculous. Shameful really...He should be black-balled and get back to the high school game

[Part_Bart]

I thought RPI's selection last year was an abomination even though they played well in the tournament.  Teams shouldn't be rewarded for not making the top 4 of the LL, in RPI's case the top six.  As for Mr. Right throwing down the gauntlet about today's game--I have been wrong about individual results all year however two words for Skidmore's vaunted defense--Elmira and Union.  But for dropping a game to Hobart after going a man down Vassar has been nails at home.  They have by far the best offense in the league and Skidmore has beaten them about once in the last decade.  To me Vassar is an easy call.  On the LL awards, I agree with Baughen as POY.  Mrlik as a freshman won't get as much consideration and until the tournament did not have a game winning goal.  Defensive POY is Tyler Gilmore whose offensive presence is unmatched by any other defender in the LL.  Mrlik is the next Charlie Kelly, but unlike Kelly will be back next year given his family's legacy at Vassar.  Coaching staff goes to Coach Jennings and his crew.  Hobart returned a ton o players including vaunted underclassmen.  Vassar graduated 10 and returned no first or second teamers.  Arguably Vassar should have four first teamers this year with Mrlik, Gilmore, Gonzalez and Van Brewer.  Last year SLU had 10 LL payers which seems a tad overdone given their results this year.     

Hmm: Hobart graduated eight of the top 16 players (by minutes) in 2016, lost their assistant coach (to become head coach at Stevens) five days before pre-season, brought in 13 new players, lost four starters to season-ending injuries and turned out to have an OK season.  Congrats to them and to Shawn Griffin.  Binjo Emmanual had to sit out first four games and made a big impact when he got on field (and would be a top three pick for DPOY, though for me the clear top choice is Skidmore's Adebare Oyeniyi).

Congrats to Vassar for finding a way to win, and to the impressive parity of the LL this year.  If this group of teams, and LL newcomer Ithaca, can do a bit better against the out-of-league opponents in 2017, they will start seeing more teams in NCAA.  This year it will be Vassar (who is not defensively stout enough to advance from the first weekend).

A big shout-out to all the seniors, across all the teams, for their commitment and passion to soccer!
Good luck to all in the off-season, there are 286 days until training camps open next Fall.

[Mr.Right]

I am still left stunned at how that ref is reffing college games after gifting Vassar their NCAA berth. I have no ties to the Skidmore program so imagine how Skidmore feels right now. You could see Skidmore Head Coach Kneeland absolutely blasting the ref after the final whistle.

I do agree that the LL is kind of like Nescac in the fact that some teams under perform out of conference as they do not "get up" for those games as much as LL games. Teams like Hobart and RPI are always challenging themselves out of conference they just need to pick up a few more wins. Hobart ends the season 9-5-4 with a .580 SOS which is solid and had they turned 2 of those early season losses into wins they would be in the NCAA's. Still, they are #5 in the region even with the rough start and change 2 losses into wins they would be ahead of SLU in the rankings at #4 with a Pool C. Right now they are on the bubble but a real long shot because of the 9 blemishes it is almost impossible but if you look around the country a ton of teams have 7-8-9 blemishes. Selection Monday should be interesting.

[Ommadawn]

I am still left stunned at how that ref is reffing college games after gifting Vassar their NCAA berth. I have no ties to the Skidmore program so imagine how Skidmore feels right now. You could see Skidmore Head Coach Kneeland absolutely blasting the ref after the final whistle.

It's definitely a tough pill to swallow for the Thoroughbreds, and I think the majority of the Skidmore faithful shares your sentiments.  I spoke with someone who was at the game and in position to see the play that led to the second PK up close.  It was a smart play by the Vassar player to monitor the flight of the cross and get set up to receive the ball, turn, and move toward goal knowing that contact was likely to occur.  The reaction by the Skidmore player suggested an acknowledgement that he had made a mistake.  If the ref hadn't made the call, the Brewer fans would have been in an uproar. 

[Mr.Right]

MAYBE....MAYBE ...Still a tough call to make as it looked like the Vassar kid almost collided with the  Skidmore kid on purpose to initiate the contact bringing both down. The 1ST PK WAS A COMPLETE JOKE,  Vassar was gifted that Championship and NCAA berth.

[diesel]

Skidmore blew the game themselves. They came out in the first half and were all over Vassar- they couldn't keep up and Skidmore had a deserved lead at halftime. But in the second half that changed. Vassar weren't considerably better but they only allowed Skidmore 1-2 clear chances in the second half, which unfortunately they couldn't finish.

Both penalties were clear cut fouls- and the Vassar players certainly embellished the fouls- but when your game plan is to play physically/actively foul Vassar players, you have to expect that plan to backfire. There were late tackles flying in all over- and three Vassar players left the field injured throughout the game. On the last penalty Oyeniyi clearly knew that he hacked down the Vassar player (he didn't question the call at all?) and that it was a foul. The Vassar player was clearly looking for it too- but Oyeniyi took the bait. Very unfortunate for a player of his caliber, after dominating throughout the game, to cost Skidmore the title. First penalty was a bit softer- but the Skidmore player very visibly had two arms around the Vassar player and pulled him down.

Vassar's performance was unconvincing. Had Skidmore exercised more self control with their physicality they would have been champions. Exhaustion from OT/pk shootout with Hobart on Wednesday a cause?

[Mr.Right]

Skidmore blew the game themselves. They came out in the first half and were all over Vassar- they couldn't keep up and Skidmore had a deserved lead at halftime. But in the second half that changed. Vassar weren't considerably better but they only allowed Skidmore 1-2 clear chances in the second half, which unfortunately they couldn't finish.

Both penalties were clear cut fouls- and the Vassar players certainly embellished the fouls- but when your game plan is to play physically/actively foul Vassar players, you have to expect that plan to backfire. There were late tackles flying in all over- and three Vassar players left the field injured throughout the game. On the last penalty Oyeniyi clearly knew that he hacked down the Vassar player (he didn't question the call at all?) and that it was a foul. The Vassar player was clearly looking for it too- but Oyeniyi took the bait. Very unfortunate for a player of his caliber, after dominating throughout the game, to cost Skidmore the title. First penalty was a bit softer- but the Skidmore player very visibly had two arms around the Vassar player and pulled him down.




Vassar's performance was unconvincing. Had Skidmore exercised more self control with their physicality they would have been champions. Exhaustion from OT/pk shootout with Hobart on Wednesday a cause?

I agree with everythin you posted but I thought the PK's were soft calls...You are correct that Skidmore could have had 1 or 2 more goals in the 1st Half that they dominated but again they could not get it done in the end. Okoye's goal 1st Half was brilliant and they had a chance near the end of the game to go up 3-2 but missed by inched. Oh well...Should be interesting to see where Vassar is headed in the NCAA's. Does the committee send them to a New England Region pod or do they stay in a New York pod possibly at Cortland?

[deutschfan]

It will be interesting to see how far Vassar goes.  Assuming they don't host, they have played very few games on the road and  it took some well-timed penalties at home against Union and Skidmore to be where they are.  In fact, if Hobart clinches the deal in penalties against Skidmore, or Skidmore holds on for the last six minutes against Union, Vassar has to clinch on the road and the story likely would have been very much different.  Be that as it may, Skidmore's blown game against Union put them in a position to lose because of some home-influenced calls (someone has to be truly hammered to draw a penalty with 3 seconds left) and overall Vassar is a much better NCAA representative than Skidmore based on its performance throughout the season.  Vassar will return all of their impact players next year barring a transfer or injury so the rest of the league has a year to figure out how to shut down their very productive offense.