Liberty League

kevdog · September 14, 2023, 12:40:49 PM

Yes Doug May was one of the greats if not the greatest. Had the chance to play against his teams who were dominate nationally. Usually ranked in the top 5 in country. He told some officials that SLU was one of the best shapes teams that he has ever seen. Said their outside backs kept on overlapping throughout the games they played which frustrated their forwards cause they had to chase them. His teams skill level and organization were top level. He was truely a classy coach and individual.

Crossit4fun · September 14, 2023, 02:42:17 PM

Observations from the Vassar - NP match you would not get from the stats. NP scored with 5 min left header off a free kick that just dropped luckily under cross bar.

Vassar dominated the play in the first 20 minutes. They had several close in chances just roll wide. Vassar had many more quality chances to score in fist half and ad the edge in quality chances in second half but much closer than first half. Biggest difference was the NP GK was the star of the show made three BIG time saves in the first half that normally all three you would expect find the back of the net. He had two more in the second half as well. Vassar GK made a couple of very nice stops as well one off a free kick just outside the box.

Vassar MF #10 and Forward #2 had their way with NP Starters most of the fist half. After both teams subbed a couple of players in the fist half NP played better and generated some pressure. Have to give NP some credit for not folding and not giving up but luck just not on Vassar's side.

deutschfan · September 16, 2023, 01:48:39 PM

Hope College shows there is hope for any team in any game. Their goalie stood on his head as it sounds like the New Paltz goalie did. It reminds me of when in 2011 Vassar was playing No. 1 and unbeaten SLU in the semis of the LL tourney. Grimme stood on his head and stopped 15 shots leading to a penalty kick win for Vassar. Interesting game today in Montclair pitting the leading scorer in the nation against the leading scorer in the LL. It will be intriguing how Vassar marks Montclair's former freshman All-American.

stlawus · September 16, 2023, 10:58:53 PM

New Paltz might be the real deal, Skidmore struggling out of the gate.

Union a bit unlucky, but they are a lot more competitive this year and Plattsburgh seems to be getting back to their winning ways.

RIT probably disappointed to draw with SJF but all bets are off in rivalry games.

UR avenges their loss to Hobart last year by running them off the field.

More props to Bard for a perfect record so far.

Ultimately a draw with Brockport isn't the worst thing, but like deutsch has said Ithaca has some questions about goal scoring.

Good result for Vassar on the road at MSU. Scored a pretty good goal to open things, but MSU is too good to not equalize.

Lots of injuries/players resting for SLU but they take care of business against their route 11 rivals. Very impressed with Henry Hart who got his first collegiate start filling in for some injured players. Mogul continues to prove to be SLU's best player.

Saint_Dad · September 16, 2023, 11:50:30 PM

SLU finally ends their streak of bad luck. No injuries and they score a goal and get the clean sheet. Sure, they could have and maybe should have had one or two more, but they looked good back on their home field and some players filling in really stepped up. Owen Lillis moved to left back and played an excellent game. Jeremy Ogango was terrific playing center mid sending some beautiful diagonal long balls to the wings (Graber and Mogul). Mike McDougald played a lot more aggressively, taking more risks in the opponents half. Henry Hart and Dennis Arguetta are looking a lot more comfortable out there. With one non-conference game remaining against Canton, I hope they can get out to a big lead in the first half in order to see some more players come off the bench so they can get some experience before conference games begin in a week. Would love to see how first year Griffin MacGillivray looks on the field. Max "Magic" Mogul continues to create on the field, sometimes when there seems to be no room at all. He seemed to slow in the second half before he came out. Hopefully Max can keep his energy up as they need him. Hoping to see Jackson Mallary, Sam Peacock, Sam Pijpers, and Ryan Campbell returning from their injuries soon.

kevdog · September 17, 2023, 12:16:51 AM

SLU played nice today. Should have had some more goals if it wasn't for some great saves from Potsdam players saving the ball off the line. Ogangbo and Diaz seems to be a nice combination back there. They are both steady, solid players. I would love for some of the other players to take on some of the defenders especially when they are on the offensive third on the sidelines like Mogul does. I think some of them do have the ability and worse case is SLU gets a corner out of it. Arguleta appears to being getting comfortable. Hope it continues. I wish someone would just sit down with Brown and tell him that you are not going to get the call every time you get touch. This ain't high school any more so stop looking at the ref with your arms out. At one time the ref just looked at him and shook his finger and head no. He is young so hopefully he will learn. Hope to see all the injure players back soon. League play starts next week.

Crossit4fun · September 17, 2023, 09:24:01 PM

Watched about 35 min of the Ithaca / Brockport match. Brockport created more chances and had the better of the play but Ithaca did generate a couple of chances.

Skidmore are in shambles, totally dominated by NP. Skidmore had trouble connecting passes when they got across midfield which was not too often.

Oneonta hosts NP Wednesday will be a measuring stick match for NP.

Quote from: stlawus on September 16, 2023, 10:58:53 PM
New Paltz might be the real deal, Skidmore struggling out of the gate.

Union a bit unlucky, but they are a lot more competitive this year and Plattsburgh seems to be getting back to their winning ways.

RIT probably disappointed to draw with SJF but all bets are off in rivalry games.

UR avenges their loss to Hobart last year by running them off the field.

More props to Bard for a perfect record so far.

Ultimately a draw with Brockport isn't the worst thing, but like deutsch has said Ithaca has some questions about goal scoring.

Good result for Vassar on the road at MSU. Scored a pretty good goal to open things, but MSU is too good to not equalize.

Lots of injuries/players resting for SLU but they take care of business against their route 11 rivals. Very impressed with Henry Hart who got his first collegiate start filling in for some injured players. Mogul continues to prove to be SLU's best player.

stlawus · September 19, 2023, 09:35:39 PM

Union has nothing to be ashamed of after their performance against Williams. 2 goals off of some really bad luck.

Good to see Clarkson keep up their winning ways.

As far as I can tell Canton scored their first ever goal against SLU tonight, good shot that just hung in the air and snuck under the crossbar. Aside from that, pretty cynical performance from the Roos. They played a 4-6 formation it looked and the coach seemed to mainly care about keeping the scoreline respectable than actually trying to get a result. Nice to see some young Saints step up tonight. Henry Hart had a great rip to open things early in the game.

Saint_Dad · September 19, 2023, 10:46:35 PM

Stlawus, I agree that it looked like Canton just parked the bus in order not to lose again 9-0 like last year. But I have to give the Canton coach and his players more credit. They knew they were outmatched so they tried to prevent SLU from scoring and look for counters. They almost tied it at 2-2 in the second half. They double and triple teamed Mogul but had no answer for him at the spot. SLU moved the ball around well and will hopefully be prepared for a big opening game against RPI at home on Saturday.

stlawus · September 19, 2023, 10:59:54 PM

The Roos certainly had a chance or two to get back in it in the 2nd half, I just found it odd they rarely tried to get out of their final third even when they got the ball. This has sometimes been a tricky fixture for SLU, as often times all bets are off in local rivalry games. An interesting contrast between the teams is that it appeared Canton had absolutely 0 injured players, whereas SLU has a hefty amount. From the sounds of it at least some of them will be back for RPI this weekend.

Saint_Dad · September 20, 2023, 10:29:12 AM

I believe SLU has four players out with concussions. Hopefully we will see some of them back this weekend if they are ready. I was disappointed that SLU wasn't able to get a lead early so coach would be confident enough to see how some of his other players fare, especially in the midfield. They actually subbed the least amount all year against their weakest opponent. Edmonds brought a lot of energy to the game when he came in.

deutschfan · September 20, 2023, 09:08:56 PM

Owen Fauth is proving to be Vassar's MVP for the second year in a row. Against Montclair his assist generates Vassar's only goal. Today his assist and goal bring Vassar back from a 1-0 deficit to defeat Drew in New Jersey. Let the League games begin.

stlawus · September 20, 2023, 09:15:10 PM

You can talk about Bard's strength of competition until the cows come home but you can't change the fact they're 5-0. York beat them 2-0 last year, and they returned the favor tonight to say the least. 41 shots to York's 0.

Good win for Vassar on the road, easily their best so far. They're not dominating anyone of note yet and definitely are a different team without Wnorowski but that head to head result against Drew could prove useful come ranking season. If New Paltz and West Conn have good seasons Vassar will have a good SOS since they have also played Montclair and have Middlebury on the schedule.

Speaking of SOS, right now SLU is on pace to have an equal or greater SOS than Vassar given that Oneonta, Cortland, Plattsburgh, Geneseo and Hartwick continue to rack up wins. We'll see how things stand in a month, but a much different SOS story for SLU this year thus far.

Ithaca once again struggles to find the net getting boat raced at Cortland. I do think Ithaca is better than last year but they look like they'll struggle again trying to find goals against good teams.

Saint_Dad · September 20, 2023, 10:51:48 PM

We will see how Bard does in Liberty League play. 41-0 in shots? 11-0? Game stops after 77 mins? Is 11-0 a mercy rule of was it because York didn't have enough players to continue? I think they started with only 10 players.
Re SLU, can strength of schedule help if you are winless against those strong teams? Seems like SLU will have to win the tournament to go to the NCAAs. I like their chances.
Big test vs RPI. Young players have been getting sone good experience because of injuries. This will help the team as the season moves on and players return from injuries (mainly concussions). Hopefully the team's 4 goal performance, which was one more than the first 5 games combined, will give them the confidence to continue to score.

stlawus · September 20, 2023, 11:05:56 PM

Last year proved SOS was way more important than wins. Vassar did not have any wins of note but remained ahead of SLU in the regional rankings until the last week solely due to SOS. SLU had a win @Cortland but Vassar still remained ahead until SLU won the AQ. The only win Vassar had against a regionally ranked opponent last year was against New Paltz who were the last regionally ranked region 3 team.