Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

Games of interest to me Friday through Sunday in Region X

Friday 9/22

Christopher Newport @ Santa Cruz - a Coast to Coast conference game in Region X, but not actually on the West Coast because it is in Colorado Springs at the home of Colorado College.  So, the altitude and travel make this tough for both teams.  UC Santa Cruz's wins have come against two NWC teams and its losses have come against two SCIAC teams.  Christopher Newport is undefeated, but just came off a less than inspiring tie with William Peace University

Mary Hardin-Baylor @ Trinity (TX) - two heavyweights from the ASC and SCAC, respectively.  Trinity is 4-0-2 and just came off consecutive ties against Hardin-Simmons and DI Incarnate Word, while MHB has struggled some at 2-2-1, losing to both SCAC opponents thus far (Texas Lutheran and St. Thomas)

Concordia TX @ Southwestern.  I'm still not convinced by Southwestern even though USC continues to include them in the regional rankings.  They are 3-0-3, but the only quality win is against Willamette and that may not be as high quality as we once thought

Hardin-Simmons @ Texas Lutheran - Hardin-Simmons will be the closest Texas Lu will get to a real test until they host Trinity Oct.1

McMurray @ St. Thomas - St. Thomas should win this one easily, but if they don't then questions will be asked

Saturday 9/23

Christopher Newport @ Colorado College - playing two days in a row at altitude with the second game against home Colorado College is kind of brutal

Occidental @ Redlands - this is the big game of the night in the SCIAC.  Oxy has been dominant in several games, but has lost focus in the last two games (despite winning).  That can't happen against Redlands, who are coming off a big win against CMS. If Oxy's defense isn't careful, Jarrette Barajas can make them pay.

Whittier @ CMS - CMS should win this reasonably easily.  They play a better version of the possession style that Pomona-Pitzer used to beat Whittier, although CMS has lost leads in two games recently (Cal Lu and Redlands) and Whittier has shown that they can score

Sunday 9/24

UC Santa Cruz @ Colorado College - Should be a competitive match.  Neither team has been consistently strong this year, but both teams are solid at times.

Hardin-Simmons @ St. Thomas - If Hardin-Simmons can get results against Trinity and St. Thomas, they can revive their season.  Right now, at 0-2-3, they are more likely to be in a deep hole after the weekend.

Trinity @ Concordia TX - Trinity should take care of them, but this will be Trinity's very first away game all season and begins a three game road trip for the tigers.

Southwestern @ Mary Hardin-Baylor - Southwestern pretty much needs to win this and the Concordia game to stay in the regional rankings

What about Northwest Conference games?

I just don't find any of them compelling.  Basically, the reason to watch is to root for chaos

[Ron Boerger]

Worrying news for Trinity(TX) - for the second straight game, Michael Meese is not in the starting lineup again; not the first time this season that's been the case, but he did not see the pitch at all in the match earlier this week against Incarnate Word.

[D3Navy]

Worrying news for Trinity(TX) - for the second straight game, Michael Meese is not in the starting lineup again; not the first time this season that's been the case, but he did not see the pitch at all in the match earlier this week against Incarnate Word.

He ended up playing a good part of the game; nearly connected on a rebound in the box.  TU dominates 6-1 against UMHB (although you weirdly wouldn't think it listening to the TU announcer).

[Kuiper]

A few results of note in Region X:

Trinity crushed Mary Hardin-Baylor 6-1.  This was a dominant performance and a statement game by Trinity, which raced out to a 4-0 lead at halftime.  MHB has not been the same this year and falls to 2-3-1, but they had just beaten Austin 4-1 a week ago and lost to Texas Lutheran and St. Thomas by closer 2-0 scores, so I didn't foresee this kind of a score.  Best sign of the note, given @Ron Boerger's observation about Michael Meese, is that he played 36 minutes in the game and was credited with an assist, but the team scored a ton without him. 

St. Thomas crushed McMurray 6-0.  This was one I could foresee as long as St. Thomas took the game seriously.  And they did.  Taty Aleman had 2 goals and an assist in 54 minutes (he now has 8 goals and 2 assists in 6 games) and Daniel Flores also had a brace.

Texas Lutheran beat Hardin-Simmons 2-1 to go to 8-0 on the season.  TLU was facing a stronger opponent than Trinity and St. Thomas did, but, as usual, they did just (barely) enough to win, scoring the winning goal on a PK in the 88th minute.  They only took 5 shots the whole game.  On the other hand, Trinity could only tie Hardin-Simmons last week (2-2), so Texas Lutheran's narrower margin of victory than its conference rivals is not really concerning.  Nevertheless, until they face Trinity and St. Thomas in SCAC play, it's hard to know just how good TLU is this year.

Southwestern 1 - Concordia TX 0.  Southwestern goes to 4-0-3 on the year, so I think it's fair to include them in the national perspective thread.  Nevertheless, they haven't really proven anything other than they are better than the NWC teams they beat (Willamette and Whitman) and the ASC teams.  The SCAC is just loaded this year, so Southwestern may be the odd team out.

[Kuiper]

Cal Tech 4 - La Verne 2 

After beating Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne, Cal Tech is making a legitimate case for being a mid-table team in the SCIAC in forever.  Ishaan Matripagada got the hat trick for the Beavers, who are now 5-1-1 overall and 2-1 in conference.  They've already exceeded last year's win total of 4, which was the second highest in 30 years, and they've matched their conference record from last year with two wins, which was the highest since at least 2006.

Chapman 2 - Pomona-Pitzer 2

P-P was up 2-1 in the 73rd minute, but gave up a tying goal three minutes later, which is where it ended up.  Chapman doesn't look up to defending its championship this year.  They had more opportunities (e.g., 9 corner kicks while P-P had 0), but couldn't put anything home.

Pacific Lutheran 9 - George Fox 0

The Lutes never took its foot off the gas on the truck that ran over George Fox in this game.  Not bad marksmanship when you take 15 shots and score 9 of them.  Pacific Lutheran has scored 19 goals in its last three games (4-1 over Whitworth, 6-0 over Whitman, and 9-0 over George Fox) and its loss to Emory, tie with CMS, and win over Colorado College in Colorado Springs may start looking better in retrospect.  I still think the Lutes need to win the NWC to get in the tourney, but if they keep brutalizing the rest of the NWC, they may creep into the national conversation.  Craig Johnson now has 8 goals in 7 games.

Willamette 3 - Puget Sound 1

Willamette kind of bullied Puget Sound toward their second win in a row after four straight losses.  The one stat that stood out for me was that Willamette was called for 22 fouls v. only 9 for Puget Sound. 

Other NWC results:

Linfield 5 - Lewis & Clark 0
Whitworth 3 - Pacific 1

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 7 - Whittier 1

CMS took out its frustrations from consecutive losses to Chapman and Redlands to dominate against Whittier.  Gets its first win since Sept. 8 at Willamette.

Occidental 2 - Redlands 0

This was the big game in the SCIAC tonight and Occidental lived up to its preseason number one ranking, beating Redlands on the road to hand the Bulldogs their first loss of the season.  The first goal started with a great chipped pass by Vicente Navarro to his onrushing former club teammate Tyler Na-Nakornpanom in the box.  Na-Nakornpanom took it down and hit a beautiful shot from the far left side of the box to the far right of the goal.  The second was a bit of a lucky bounce as a shot by an Oxy player was deflected off a Redlands defender to the feet of another Oxy attacker who pushed it passed the GK.  Redlands had its chances, but Oxy's defense was on its game and I thought its GK Riley Nyhan had one of the more complete games I have seen from him, coming off his line for dangerous crosses and potential breakaways.  Oxy moves to 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the SCIAC and Redlands drops to 6-1 and 2-1 in conference.  You probably have to think about including Oxy in the national rankings even though this was arguably their first win against a quality opponent.

[Kuiper]

Texas Lutheran and McMurry are tied 0-0 early in the second half,  McMurry lost to St. Thomas 6-0 on Friday. 

The heat may be affecting the game (both teams are liberally substituting players and even the announcers are talking slooooow), but Texas Lutheran really needs to start picking things up.

UPDATE:  TLU scores on a PK in the 81st minute to take a 1-0 lead after they brought some of their starters back into the game. 

UPDATE:  TLU wins 1-0 (they scored a second goal in the last minute that the stream gave to them, but I think it was called offside).  Once again, TLU did just enough (barely) to win the game.  It was hot and dry and the coach's strategy appeared to be to rest the starters until late to come in an rescue the game.  So, that might have hindered things, but TLU never seems to score much.  They go to 9-0 on the season

[Kuiper]

Hardin-Simmons has been playing tough teams very tightly, but falling short of winning.  It tied Trinity 2-2 and Southwestern 1-1 and it just lost to Texas Lutheran on a late goal, 2-1.

St. Thomas is proving it's a different level (or Hardin-Simmon is just wilting in the hot sun) because it is up 5-0 at the half.  Daniel Castro has 2 goals and 2 assists and Taty Aleman has a goal and an assist.  St. Thomas scored all of its goals in the first 29 minutes.

UPDATE:

St. Thomas 5 - Hardin-Simmons 0

St. Thomas took its foot off the gas in the second half and emptied the bench in the heat.  Didn't matter as H-S still couldn't score. 

[Kuiper]

Scratch everything I said about Pacific Lutheran playing its way into the national picture with a bunch of blowouts.  Instead, my "root for chaos" plea sort of came true, at least for one of the games involving the conference leaders.

Pacific Lutheran 0 - Linfield 0

It looked like the Lutes were copying their Texas Lutheran brothers and trying to just get enough for the win, but a PK call was waived off and a couple of very good saves by the Linfield keeper kept PLU off the scoreboard.  According to the announcer, this was the first time Linfield didn't lose to PLU in a very long time.  It won't prevent Pacific Lutheran from winning the NWC (playing everyone twice rather than having a conference tournament makes it very forgiving for a blip like this), but it won't help them if they don't win the conference.

Willamette 6 - George Fox 0

Not quite the 9 goals PLU scored, but I think we can safely say that PLU and Willamette are at one end of the conference and George Fox is somewhere toward the other end ahead of Lewis & Clark, which lost to Puget Sound 5-0.

[Kuiper]

Colorado College continued its sweep at home, following up its win over Christopher Newport on Saturday with a 2-0 win over UC Santa Cruz to go to 5-2-1 on the year.  They may enter the picture for the regional rankings after this weekend, depending upon how Southwestern does against Mary Hardin-Baylor.  Chapman also could drop out after losing to Cal Lutheran and tying Pomona-Pitzer this week.

[Kuiper]

Games of interest to me in Region X on Wednesday 9/27 (there's virtually nothing on Tuesday and a number of less interesting ASC games in Texas on Thursday).

Cal Lutheran @ Occidental

Occidental is coming off of a big win @ Redlands and is sitting at 7-1 with it's only loss to undefeated Texas Lutheran in the first game of the season.  Cal Lutheran is 3-1-3 and just beat Chapman 3-1.  Throw the records out though.  Cal Lu generally seems to play Oxy tough.  Last year, they faced each other twice, tying the first game 1-1 at Cal Lu and tying the second game 0-0 at Oxy.  Oxy has some new offensive weapons  this year (former Conn College player Oury Diane has been notable with his 5 goals and 2 assists in 8 games), but Cal Lu is capable of being stingy on defense.

Pomona-Pitzer @ Redlands

Redlands is smarting from the 2-0 loss to Occidental and Pomona-Pitzer just tied Chapman 2-2.  I would expect Redlands to take this one fairly easily, but P-P beat Redlands @ Redlands last year 4-3.  Not sure whether that will inspire Redlands or provide confidence for the young Sagehens.  Either way, the game could have lots of goals.  Both teams have shown themselves capable of scoring goals a lot of different ways.  Redlands forward Jarette Barajas has the athleticism to press the P-P young defenders into mistakes or to go off on them one v. one, while Pomona-Pitzer defender Niclas Ulrich has scored in three of the last four games, twice on left-footed free kicks from outside the box (one bent over the wall to the upper near post and the other past the wall to the lower far post).

Cal Tech @ Whittier

Cal Tech has rebounded from its big loss against Oxy to win two in a row and currently stands at a historic 5-1-1.  Whittier is harder to figure out.  It was just crushed by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 7-1 on Saturday, but beat La Verne 4-0 last Wednesday.  The game probably comes down to whether Cal Tech can control Whittier forward Lawrence Dydell.  He had a hat trick v. La Verne, but couldn't get off a shot v. CMS (although he assisted their only goal).  If Cal Tech wins, they will go to 3-1 in conference for the first time ever I think, surpassing the two conference wins they had last year.

Chapman @ La Verne

Two teams coming off bad results.  Chapman tied Pomona-Pitzer 2-2 and La Verne lost to Cal Tech 4-2.  Both teams are capable of beating teams, but they are also capable of bad losses.  Chapman should win this one, but if Adan Villarreal can get hot for La Verne, then they can do some damage.

George Fox @ Lewis & Clark

Two teams at the bottom of the Northwest Conference standings.  On the one hand, Lewis & Clark is bad in an epic way while George Fox is capable of winning games.  On the other hand, George Fox just lost 9-0 to Pacific Lutheran and 6-0 to Willamette this weekend, so we'll see if they have lost the plot or will come to the game looking to put a thumping on Lewis & Clark.  Either way, don't expect Lewis & Clark to generate much offense.  They have scored only 1 goal all season (in 7 games) and that was in a 5-1 loss to Whittier.   

[Kuiper]

As I expected, Colorado College, fresh off its victories over Christopher Newport and UC Santa Cruz enters the regional rankings, replacing Chapman, which lost to Cal Lutheran and tied Pomona-Pitzer

Region X - Poll 3 - September 26, 2023
Rank    School    Prev    W-L-T
1    University of Saint Thomas (Texas)    1    6-0-1
2    Trinity University (Texas)    2    5-0-2
3    Texas Lutheran University    3    9-0-0
4    Occidental College    5    6-1-0
5    University of Redlands    4    6-1-0
6    Pacific Lutheran University    6    4-1-3
7    Southwestern University    7    4-0-3
8    Colorado College    NR    5-2-1

[Kuiper]

For a NORTH game (that isn't worth the national perspectives thread) . . .

Macalester 1 - Bethel University 1

Bad tie for Macalester at home.  Bethel is 3-3 and only lost 2-0 to Carleton on Saturday, but they lost 6-1 to St. Olaf two weeks ago and Macalester's only loss before this game was 1-0 to Gustavus Adolphus.  I didn't see the whole game, but Macalester just couldn't connect passes and then they started launching the ball wildly and ineffectively long before they needed to do so.  They did have one chance toward the end to nick a goal, but the Bethel GK somehow came away with the ball in a scrum in the box.  The whole sequence, and much of the game I watched, looked like one of those bad HS soccer games.

[Ron Boerger]

As I expected, Colorado College, fresh off its victories over Christopher Newport and UC Santa Cruz enters the regional rankings, replacing Chapman, which lost to Cal Lutheran and tied Pomona-Pitzer

Region X - Poll 3 - September 26, 2023
Rank    School    Prev    W-L-T
1    University of Saint Thomas (Texas)    1    6-0-1
2    Trinity University (Texas)    2    5-0-2
3    Texas Lutheran University    3    9-0-0
4    Occidental College    5    6-1-0
5    University of Redlands    4    6-1-0
6    Pacific Lutheran University    6    4-1-3
7    Southwestern University    7    4-0-3
8    Colorado College    NR    5-2-1

SCAC MSoc looking like SCAC VB used to look ... five out of the top eight schools in the region with conference play starting this weekend.  Trinity at Southwestern on Friday, Trinity at TLU, CC at St. Thomas on Sunday will both impact these rankings next week.  Next weekend we get both Southwestern and TLU at St. Thomas.

[Kuiper]

All four games at the half in the SCIAC tonight and they are all tight

FINAL:  Four games -> Four Ties (SIAC is western for Centennial)

Occidental 0 - Cal Lutheran 0

Oxy had the lion's share of the chances, but Cal Lu had a chance near the end of the first half where the ball lay invitingly on the six yard box amid a scrum, but Oxy's GK was able to scoop it up.  His best (or second-best) save, by the way, was on a potential own goal by an Oxy defender.  That's always fun for the GK.

UPDATE:  Oxy 1 - Cal Lu 1

Oxy scores in the 50th minute.

Cal Lu ties it up in the 71st on a beautiful play by Kai Nemoto to receive the ball at the top of the box bracketed by several defenders and make one turn left to get a window of space and he loops it over Oxy's 6'4" GK, who was diving to his right and couldn't get it.

FINAL:  Oxy 1 - Cal Lu 1

Pomona-Pitzer 0 - Redlands 0

Pomona-Pitzer is really good in possession and plays nicely with combinations, but gets shut down as they get closer to the box.  Redlands seems to have more trouble getting there and is becoming frustrated, launching long hopeful shots.

UPDATE Redlands 1 - Pomona-Pitzer 1. 

Jarette Barajas finally breaks through for Redlands in the 51st minute.  The problem with Pomona-Pitzer's beautiful play out of the back is that when they get intercepted or have an errant pass, Redlands is ready to pounce and and knows to get the ball to Barajas, who dribbled through several defenders and took a shot from the top of the box on the left side to the right side of the goal for the score.

Pomona-Pitzer ties it up in the 79th minute on a great pass from the right side of the box to Chris Chow on the left side who tapped it in before Redlands' GK could shuffle back over to that side.

FINAL:  Redlands 1 - Pomona-Pitzer 1

Chapman 1 - La Verne 0

The only non-tie at half.  Chapman scored in the 34th minute for the lead.  They are getting more chances than La Verne, but that's basically by design as La Verne is trying to start the counter.  Problem is that they keep getting called for offside - 5 in the first half alone.

UPDATE:  La Verne ties up seconds into the second half

FINAL:  Chapman 1 - La Verne 1

Cal Tech 2 - Whittier 2

The only shootout in the SCIAC tonight thus far.  I mentioned in my preview that the key for Cal Tech will be controlling Whittier's Lawrence Dydell and they've had mixed results thus far as Dydell has a goal and an assist.  Cal Tech's reliable scorers - Etienne Casanova and Ishaan Mantripragada have scored for the Beavers in what is generally a pretty even game, although Cal Tech has had more of the possession.

UPDATE:  Whittier 4 - Cal Tech 4

Whittier scores in the 50th minute to take the lead

Cal Tech ties it back up in the 66th on a second goal by Ishaan Mantripragada, assisted by Etienne Casanova (just in case you're wondering the two players you absolutely have to mark out of the game to shut down Cal Tech)

Can't keep up with the scoring in this game, but Whittier's Lawrence Dydell gets another to tie it up in the 81st minute

FINAL:  Whittier 4 - Cal Tech 4

In the NWC, there is only one game

Lewis & Clark 0 - George Fox 0 in the 26th minute

Seems like a pretty even game based on the stats.  Lewis & Clark has even taken 2 shots, but none on goal yet.  As expected, George Fox has had more offensive chances, but not productive ones.

UPDATE:  George Fox woke up in the second half (or Lewis & Clark got tired) and GF 3 - L&C 0

FINAL:  George Fox 4 - Lewis & Clark 0

Lewis & Clark drops to 0-8 and still has only scored one goal all season.  George Fox is 2-5-1 and gets its second NWC win to go to 2-2-1.

[Kuiper]

We're about 1/3 of the way through the conference schedule for the SCIAC and here are the standings.  Pretty heady territory to see Cal Tech in a playoff position at this point.

School    CONF. GP    CONF. W-L    CONF. PCT    CONF. PF-PA    GP    W-L    PCT    PF-PA    L10    Streak
Occidental 5    4-0-1    .900    18-5    9    7-1-1    .833    28-7    7-1-1    T1
Redlands    4    2-1-1    .625    5-5    8    6-1-1    .812    25-11    6-1-1    T1
Caltech    4    2-1-1    .625    9-14    8    5-1-2    .750    21-18    5-1-2    T1
California Lutheran    4    1-0-3    .625    6-4    8    3-1-4    .625    13-8    3-1-4    T1
Chapman    5    1-2-2    .400    6-8    9    4-3-2    .556    14-12    4-3-2    T2
Pomona-Pitzer    5    1-2-2    .400    9-11    9    2-4-3    .389    14-19    2-4-3    T2
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps    4    1-2-1    .375    9-5    7    3-2-2    .571    16-8    3-2-2    W1
Whittier    5    1-3-1    .300    12-16    8    3-4-1    .438    20-19    3-4-1    T1
La Verne    4    0-2-2    .250    4-10    9    4-3-2    .556    18-16    4-3-2    T1