Mid-Atlantic Region

[Freddyfud]

Valiant effort by the Blue Jays.  They turned it on in the second half and almost pulled off another incredible comeback.

WAC Kenyon going to extra time.

[Hopkins92]

The Shorepeople advance to the Sweet 16. Good for them.

=-=-=-=

Fair result in Vermont, but a few second half crossbars are surely going to have the Jays ruminating on what could have been.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Yup brutal. Bet he'll hear that clank in his sleep for quite awhile.

Going to say out loud and I'm going to say that Cent. Conf stood up pretty well against NESCAC this year. Couple of balls going different ways, could be one less NESCAC team.

[D3Parent1]

Yes...a couple of balls going a different way and it would be 2 less NESCAC teams.....but the winners advance. 

[SKUD]

Yep 1 or 2 less clanks and you could have less Cent too!

[Kuiper]

A little Centennial Conference news for the Mid-Atlantic Region thread

Ursinus College announced that Head Men's Soccer Coach Daniel Clitnovici has stepped down to take the Head Women's Soccer Coach job at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

A return to coaching women's soccer for Clitnovici, who has spent most of his coaching career in the women's game on the pro and college levels, and to the DI level.

Ursinus was hard to figure out last year.  They went 1-7-1 in conference and 8-7-2 overall.  Their 1 win and 1 tie in conference were against two playoff qualifiers -- Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore -- and one of their worst losses was to McDaniel, which was tied with them at the conference cellar with a 1-7-1 conference record.  Still, Clinovici had the team pointed in the right direction since they were 0-8-1 in conference the previous year and went 4-10-3 overall.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Ursinus was hard to figure out last year.  They went 1-7-1 in conference and 8-7-2 overall.  Their 1 win and 1 tie in conference were against two playoff qualifiers -- Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore -- and one of their worst losses was to McDaniel, which was tied with them at the conference cellar with a 1-7-1 conference record.  Still, Clinovici had the team pointed in the right direction since they were 0-8-1 in conference the previous year and went 4-10-3 overall.

True, very true, but the previous year they went 5-4 in Cent. Conf. with wins against Wash (No. 24 at the time), JHU (no. 5 at the time), Muhls, Dickinson, McDaniel and OT loss to Haverford. They just narrowly missed the playoffs that year. Despite their record, I don't think any team took them for granted recently.

[4231CenterBack]

I was able to attend Messiah's spring match at Shippensburg.  They won 5-0 and Shippensburg (D2) didn't put up much of a fight.  Messiah had two 2024s who enrolled early so it was a nice preview of the fall.  One was a winger and the other is a target (striker).  They both scored.
Although Messiah lost quite a bit of quality to graduation – including 2 1rst team all-americans in MacDonald and Lent-Koop, they don't look like they are rebuilding.  They are returning 8 starters 3 of 4 in defense, 3 of 3 in the midfield, 1 of 3 in attack, and the goalkeeper. 

[Kuiper]

Franklin & Marshall has posted its 2024 roster, including freshman additions.

https://godiplomats.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster

A couple of observations (just because this is an early roster drop and not because I would do this for every school!)

- This is probably news to no one other than me, but I was interested to see that Oscar Horwitz is back.  He was listed as a senior last year, but he has only played 3 years of college soccer.  Presumably, he is a super senior using his Covid year in the last year that is possible.  There were other players listed as seniors in the 2023 roster who only played 3 years and aren't back (Kagan, Senatore, Sobel, Pine)

- Does F&M always staff its roster very thinly at the GK position?  I saw that last year they had only 1 GK on the roster and this year they added a freshman so they at least have a backup.

- On the other hand, what they lack in depth they make up in height at the GK position.  Their 6'6" junior is now joined by a 6'5" freshman.  I guess the old "shoot low and score high" adage applies against F&M

- Roughly the same roster size as last year (33 v. 32), with 10 incoming freshman

- Ethan Phillips from West Coast FC ECNL is someone who I've seen play out here in SoCal.  He's a solid addition in the midfield or wing as a freshman.  He has a good motor and fairly nifty dribbling/shooting skills

[Kuiper]

Johns Hopkins has posted its 2024 roster

A few observations:

-  27 players on the roster, compared to 31 last season

-  Three regular starters return for a grad COVID year:  Logan Falzarano (D), Francis Meyer (M), and Aidan Dunphy (MF).  One regular starter not returning is GK Drew Valsamedis, who started 15 games at GK last year. 

- Two grad transfers:  Loucas Costeas (GK transfer from DI UMass Lowell who had 12 total appearances and 9 starts in 4 years) and (F transfer from DI Siena who played 49 games, with 11 starts, with 4 goals and 1 assist in four years).

- Only 4 freshman newcomers, which may be a product of the number of Covid super seniors and grad transfers.  In years to come, I would not be surprised if Hopkins fills the gap in this class by looking in the transfer portal for D1 roster cap casualties who opt for high academic options.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Franklin & Marshall has posted its 2024 roster, including freshman additions.

https://godiplomats.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster

A couple of observations (just because this is an early roster drop and not because I would do this for every school!)

- This is probably news to no one other than me, but I was interested to see that Oscar Horwitz is back.  He was listed as a senior last year, but he has only played 3 years of college soccer.  Presumably, he is a super senior using his Covid year in the last year that is possible.  There were other players listed as seniors in the 2023 roster who only played 3 years and aren't back (Kagan, Senatore, Sobel, Pine)

- Does F&M always staff its roster very thinly at the GK position?  I saw that last year they had only 1 GK on the roster and this year they added a freshman so they at least have a backup.

- On the other hand, what they lack in depth they make up in height at the GK position.  Their 6'6" junior is now joined by a 6'5" freshman.  I guess the old "shoot low and score high" adage applies against F&M

- Roughly the same roster size as last year (33 v. 32), with 10 incoming freshman

- Ethan Phillips from West Coast FC ECNL is someone who I've seen play out here in SoCal.  He's a solid addition in the midfield or wing as a freshman.  He has a good motor and fairly nifty dribbling/shooting skills

Couple of things on F&M. When my son came in as a D1 transfer keeper in 2021, he was one of 4 (two seniors, him and a freshman).  The following year they added one keeper so 3. Last year they had 2, Levi Klein and Nolan Booth who competed for the start and Nolan did better. This year they have 3 with a freshman. Unlike previous lifetimes, being tall as a keeper does not always indicate good field play which F&M emphasized as well as many other programs. My son was a 5th back along with very good saving abilities at 6'1."  He was often able to cut off attacks before they really got going and also hit many really good outlet passes skipping the passing between the backs especially to the wings to move the ball into the other team's side. He also was a very good basketball player which made his play stronger especially during crosses. Lastly he was a solid 205-210 which was a throwback to our days where keepers made people pay for getting to close. http://www.hudl.com/v/2JhdGH Could have been worse - he could have raised his knee to protect himself.

Yes Oscar Horwitz is a kid who took his Spring 2024 semester off so that he could play 4 years of college soccer after setting the single season scoring record with 19 goals at F&M while leading the Centennial Conf (next closest was JHU grad student Griffin Meyer with 13). Falzarno at JHU did the same. Oscar came to F&M as a back, but scoring a nice goal his sophomore year against Hopkins which gave Wagner the idea to try him at striker. He had a nice junior year with 7 goals and was pretty much injured most of the second half of the year.

Person to truly watch is senior Koa Kaliebe. Very, very fast and dynamic at all times. Push the ball deep over the backs and Koa can run down most things as well break some ankles going towards goal while being very unselfish. With Oscar and Koa, teams have difficult times marking both. Koa has 9 assists and 9 goals (1st and 4th respectively in the Cent. Conf). 

Connor Anderko also started with Oscar and mostly took his spring 2024 semester off so he could play 4 years of soccer. He has started 56 games (injured for a few his 2nd year) over his three years and been the mainstay on defense. Generally recognized for his play, but not a headliner like Oscar. My son had a great time and definitely relied on him.

Other players to watch are: Isaac Mintz at midfield or wingback; Nathan Schlesinger for free kicks and several rising sophomores who played a lot last year.

F&M pretty much comes back with the same team talent wise mostly and this will have to be their year. No going down to PKs in the second round two years in a row will be good for them this year.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Johns Hopkins has posted its 2024 roster

A few observations:

-  27 players on the roster, compared to 31 last season

-  Three regular starters return for a grad COVID year:  Logan Falzarano (D), Francis Meyer (M), and Aidan Dunphy (MF).  One regular starter not returning is GK Drew Valsamedis, who started 15 games at GK last year. 

- Two grad transfers:  Loucas Costeas (GK transfer from DI UMass Lowell who had 12 total appearances and 9 starts in 4 years) and (F transfer from DI Siena who played 49 games, with 11 starts, with 4 goals and 1 assist in four years).

- Only 4 freshman newcomers, which may be a product of the number of Covid super seniors and grad transfers.  In years to come, I would not be surprised if Hopkins fills the gap in this class by looking in the transfer portal for D1 roster cap casualties who opt for high academic options.

Interesting. I see they on track to have a grad keeper which is really too bad for anyone who is a keeper and wants to go JHU to play. I would not recommend a kid despite JHU having one of the best keeper coaches around to go to JHU. It would also be hard for any undergrad kid to go to JHU with the grad students always dipping in and out.

They are going to have to find some goals with Griffin Meyer gone. He had 13 and next had 3. Also replacing Ben Goodman who I thought played great will be tough. Seemed like any time he was on the field something happened.

[Freddyfud]

Person to truly watch is senior Koa Kaliebe. Very, very fast and dynamic at all times. Push the ball deep over the backs and Koa can run down most things as well break some ankles going towards goal while being very unselfish. With Oscar and Koa, teams have difficult times marking both. Koa has 9 assists and 9 goals (1st and 4th respectively in the Cent. Conf). 

Koa has a broken thumb at the moment and is wearing a cast.  He is playing though.  Watched him in a game on son's USL2 team just a couple of weeks ago.

[Kuiper]

Lebanon Valley has posted its 2024 roster.

Here are a few observations

- 32 on the roster this season, compared with 29 last year

- Tons of quality experience on this roster.  Eight grad students returning for a Covid Year, including All-MAC Freedom 1st team members GK Dalton Fitterling and F/M Lucas Strange (back for his fifth year) as well as regular contributors Connor Given (M),  Kevin Donahue (M), Aidan Negron (F/M), Charlie McCormick (M/F), Matthew Weinstock-Collins (F), and grad transfer Nolan Ross (F/M) from DI Southern Indiana (and before that D2 Charleston for two years).  Plus, they return Defenders Logan Hicks, Tyler Snavely, and Harrison Davis, who started almost every game last year, as well as defender Ben Kolarek, who started 13 games.  Plus, All-MAC Freedom Offensive Player of the Year, Junior Nathan Prex, who scored 20 goals and 5 assists last year, returns up top.  Basically, they can field an entire starting lineup plus a few subs full of players who have been there and done that.

- Not surprisingly, given all that experience, they only have 4 first-year players on the roster.

- Given that Lebanon Valley finished 13-2-4 last year and has so much returning experience and quality, I would expect its first game of the season hosting last year's final four team Washington College to be one to watch.

[Kuiper]

Susquehanna has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 33 on the roster, compared to 30 last season

- 6 freshman on the roster

- Top scorer Max Paczewski (10g/3a) returns, as does 6'4" central defender Clay Yannazzone

- Looks like forward Henry McElroy transferred in after he was the second leading scorer (with 4 goals) in his freshman year at Gordon, where he played 15 games and started 10.  Luke Edwin also transfers in from Montgomery County Community College