Newmac 2016

[Mr.Right]

I have been impressed with the 1st Half of Babson v ECSU. Babson really playing well and look much improved from 2015. They had 3-4 great chances to score and were really knocking the ball around well. 1-0 Halftime lead for Babson is a fair score so far. ECSU had maybe 2 or 3 decent chances to score but nothing to dangerous. As I am typing I missed ECSU scoring early 2nd Half to tie the match up 1-1. Anyone see it? Sounded like some sort of deflection. Good game so far

[Mr.Right]

2-1 Babson defeats ECSU...Always tough to lose in the 88th minute but Babson deserved it and look much improved from 2015. The real test will be this week-end against the 2 Jersey teams especially Rutgers Newark. If they come out unscathed after the weekend they will be in good shape.

[Mr.Right]

What is going on in Norton? Wheaton(MA) down 1-0 to Wentworth. Former Wheaton player and oft injured Connor Erickson really has started to turn Wentworth around starting in 2015. Let's see if they can hold on. Video quality much better this year for Wheaton but no audio

[Mr.Right]

Wheaton trying to push forward and Wentworth snags another goal. 2-0  Wentworth with 10 minutes left. Cushing has his hands full with this group but I expect them to get better as the season progresses but cannot rack up to many losses early. Not sure if they took Wentworth lightly but I think Wheaton looks to have some athleticism and some speed but are lacking some midfield creativity. Let's see if they can rebound against the 2 Jersey teams coming in.

[Mr.Right]

Watched Wheaton's game v RUN and was impressed with both teams. They both have holes in different spots. RUN has some attacking flair and speed and grit in midfield and up front. Wingbacks could not handle Wheaton's #9 Sesay as he burned them all day. He put Wheaton on his back yesterday and they need him all year.He is a massive talent and has improved from last year. Wheaton can bang a bit and looked ok in the back and in net. If teams shut down Sesay, which they will, who steps up? I have no answer for that. Still, a very good weekend for Wheaton after a disappointing loss to Wentworth. Also, not bad for RUN playing up in New England on 2 grass fields(well 1 grass field and 1 dirt field). They will be exciting on the turf and should finish top 4 in NJAC but looked a bit gassed 2nd Half and shore up the back line a bit and they will be fine.


Did Wellesley have a water ban this summer? Babson's field looks like a high school JV Football field. Wheaton's field looked fine and I know we have a had a massive drought in New England but Babson's field was bad. 0-2-0 against the NJAC at home and giving up 5 goals in those 2 games NOT GOOD.

[Off Pitch]

Wellesley does have a voluntary water ban in place.   Ironically as a "Green Campus", I'm sure Babson has limited the watering of its grounds and athletic fields.

Regarding Babson, it is sometimes hard to tell on video, but it looked like Babson has been playing with just 3 in the back line.  It does not look like this early season experiment has been successful.

I think the NEWMAC is down a little this year and any of Babson, Wheaton, Springfield, WPI or MIT could win it.  Babson, Wheaton and MIT are all down from last year.   Springfield and WPI have perhaps maintained, although WPI will be hard pressed to score against quality opposition.

[blooter442]

Regarding Babson, it is sometimes hard to tell on video, but it looked like Babson has been playing with just 3 in the back line.  It does not look like this early season experiment has been successful.

I think the NEWMAC is down a little this year and any of Babson, Wheaton, Springfield, WPI or MIT could win it.  Babson, Wheaton and MIT are all down from last year.

Interesting. I'd have thought that Babson would perhaps be better this year, but they have been very Jekyll and Hyde thus far. I saw Anderson and a couple of Babson kids at the Brandeis game and heard him pointing out after the final whistle that Brandeis likes to attack by swarming the midfield with runners. Certainly an accurate observation, but I suspect that it might be much more difficult to stop them from winning the midfield battle, especially if Babson has shown to be a little fragile defensively this year. They looked really good against ECSU and deserved the win, but going 0-2 at home and giving up 5 goals in 2 games is not how you want to finish your opening weekend.

With all that in mind, it's worth noting that Brandeis plays Anderson's team next weekend at Babson's field. And while Brandeis is 4-0 against Babson since 2012, including a 2-0 win at Babson in 2014, I suspect that Babson will be more defensive next weekend if in fact they have been playing 3 at the back. They will probably try to park the bus and hope they can nick a goal on the counter against Brandeis' back 4 who - even with 2 new starters - looked solid yesterday against Haverford and gave up 1 goal this weekend to Babson's 5. The Judges will no doubt be the favorites heading into the game based on ranking and form, but Babson is good on its home patch and will want to end the longest winless streak in this rivalry match in program history (last year's seniors was the first class in Brandeis history to never lose to Babson). I won't be able to make it, but should be a good match.

[Mr.Right]

Wellesley does have a voluntary water ban in place.   Ironically as a "Green Campus", I'm sure Babson has limited the watering of its grounds and athletic fields.

Regarding Babson, it is sometimes hard to tell on video, but it looked like Babson has been playing with just 3 in the back line.  It does not look like this early season experiment has been successful.

I think the NEWMAC is down a little this year and any of Babson, Wheaton, Springfield, WPI or MIT could win it.  Babson, Wheaton and MIT are all down from last year.   Springfield and WPI have perhaps maintained, although WPI will be hard pressed to score against quality opposition.

Water ban or not if my kid is paying 50,000 and we show up to campus with a field like that I would not be happy. I have never seen Babson play with 3 in the back in Anderson;s 30 years. Always a 4-4-2 but hey maybe after last year he is switching.

[Off Pitch]

NEWMAC week 1:

I've been on such a roll with my NESCAC and Premier League picks, I thought it would make sense to focus my crystal ball on another league.

Babson 1 - Coast Guard 0   -  The Bears come into the weekend 4-0-1 and have yielded a single goal in those 5 games.  However, their opponents are a combines 6-12-7 (0.380).  Babson is not a prolific scoring team but will eke this one out behind an improving defense.

(#9) Springfield 3 - Wheaton 2  -  Springfield is undefeated against opponents with a woeful record of 4-18 (0.182).  Wheaton forgot to show up at Keene St in their only away game so far losing 6-1.  The Pride prevail.

(#10) WPI 1 - (#7) Clark 0   - Two undeated teams.  Clark is #7 in New England and a surprising 5-0 while WPI is 4-0-1 coming off a 0-0 draw with Brandeis.  WPI's defense stymies the Cougars

MIT 3 - Emerson 0  - MIT is down a little from last year's squad, but Emerson is perpetually down.  The Engineers ease pass the Lions.

[Off Pitch]

The 2016 NEWMAC is wide open.  With perennial powers Babson and Wheaton falling back into the pack, and Clark and Coast Guard improving, every team but Emerson must feel that they have a chance to finish in the top couple of positions.  Parity makes this a good conference without any exceptional teams.

Babson (2-4-1) has now scored a grand total of one goal in their last five games.  With MIT, Bowdoin, UMass-Boston and Wheaton all coming up in the next couple of weeks, this could be the worst season in memory for the Beavers.

Clark (6-0) is the surprise of the year in the NEWMAC.  They have not finished better than 7th in the conference since 2010, when they were 6th.  With a win at WPI, they now have to be taken seriously.  With 7 freshmen in a rotation of about 16, Coach O'Toole may finally have this program on the rise.

Coast Guard (5-0-1) has only surrendered one goal to date.  Their trademark is that the are extraordinarily fit and play very hard.  It will be interesting to see how they fare Tuesday at Conn College.  I would expect a 0-1 loss or something similar.

Emerson (2-3) is in their fourth season in the NEWMAC and has still not won a conference game (0-20-1).  With the improvement at Clark, it is difficult to see that changing this year.

MIT (4-1) lost a ton of talent from last year's squad, but they have started the season admirably.  However, with an upcoming stretch of games against Wentworth, Babson, Amherst, Coast Guard and Brandeis, they will most likely find their level at or a little above 0.500

Springfield (5-0-1) may have played one of the weakest schedules in the country so far.  Their non-conference opponents are a combined 5-21-1 (0.204).  The strongest out of conference opponent on their schedule is Keene St next Sunday. 

Wheaton (5-2-1) has put together a respectable record, but they got absolutely crushed at Keene St 6-1 and were down 5-0 30 minutes in.  That performance is hard to reconcile with a win over Rutgers-Newark.  With games remaining at Brandeis, at Trinity and at Wesleyan, Coach Cushing will have to help this team find some consistency to be any kind of threat make the NCAAs.

WPI (4-1-1) is built on defense, so they have to be very disappointed to surrender two goals in a 2-1 loss at home to Clark after playing Brandeis to a 0-0 tie.  They are likely destined to be a middle of the pack team given the parity in the conference this year.

[Ommadawn]

Thank you for your thoughtful analysis and for shining light on what has to be one of the most academically eclectic athletic conferences in the country.  Throw in the three women's colleges (Smith, Mt. Holyoke, and Wellesley) and the odd mix becomes even odder! 

[Off Pitch]

As expected, Coast Guard falls 0-1 at Conn College.   Playing on the road, the Bears were most likely fatigued by their long trip.

[Off Pitch]

Current NEWMAC standings:

1.  Clark 2-0-0 (8-0-0)    I guess we have to start taking Clark seriously with their wins over Coast Guard and WPI.  Although neither of those teams was expected to win the conference, they are legitimate potential upper half of the conference contenders.  Clark plays a lot of freshmen.  In fact, 5 of their top 8 scorers are freshmen.  With games the next two Saturdays with Springfield and at Babson, we will know if the Cougars are actual threats to win the conference.

2.  Springfield 1-0-1 (7-0-1)  The Pride tied Wheaton at home Saturday, but they remain difficult to evaluate having played such an abysmal schedule.  Their non-conference opponents now have a combine record of 15-35-2 (0.308), and none of their remaining non-conference opponents currently has a winning record.  Springfield will need to be an AQ to play in the NCAAs.

3.  WPI  1-1-0  (6-1-1)   
     Coast Guard  1-1-0  (5-2-1)
     MIT  1-1-0    (4-3-0)
     Babson 1-1-0  (4-4-1)

At least one of these teams will likely not be one of the five that qualify for the conference tournament.  I wouldn't bet against Babson.  My pick for the team that falls out of this bunch is MIT who barely got by Emerson 1-0.

7.  Wheaton  0-1-1  (5-4-1)   The Lyons are 2-3-1 in their last 6 and have been blanked in their last 2.  With Brandeis, Babson, Trinity, MIT and Wesleyan in the next two weeks, this season could quickly get away from them.

8.  Emerson  0-2-0  (2-5-0)   Outscored 27-4 in 7 conference games last season and 6-0 in 2 games this season, the Lions hope to finish their schedule.

[Mr.Right]

Babson up 1-0 10 minutes us in Wheaton...This is a game I think Wheaton needs to win as they could be looking at a 0-1-2 Newmac start. Not good

[Mr.Right]

Coast Guard up 1-0 on MIT with 10 minutes to go in the 2nd Half.  The winner of this game puts themselves in position for a Top 4 seed in the Newmac tournament with the loser having to battle for most likely the #4/#5 seed. Coast Guard starting to really take their time but MIT is not pressing to get the ball back. As much as I was critical in 2014 for their NCAA tournament team and being overrated, they are fun to watch because while not every player is tremendously skilled they all work their asses off. If you come out not ready to go against them they will come at you hard.