Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

Occidental beat Pomona-Pitzer 1-0 on a late goal in the 80th minute.  It feels like these are two mid-table teams, but at this point Oxy is sitting on a 4-1-1 record at the top of the SCIAC when non-conference schedule is included.

Redlands took out their frustration on Cal Tech, winning 5-0 for their first victory of the season.  Any team that was doubting Redlands without looking at the degree of difficulty of their non-conference schedule did so at their own peril.   

Colorado College's defeat of Trinity is a really big win for them.  It comes on the heels of a sweep of Austin College and University of Dallas in a Texas road trip.  This is also Colorado College's first home game of the season.  Last year, their only home loss was to Trinity, so they could go undefeated at home this year given their quality and the difficulty for other teams playing them at altitude.

Is this the Astec of D3?

It's not quite Mexico's Azteca (which is 7200 feet), but it is reportedly 6035+ feet.  Not sure any other D3 team could come close to that given the absence of D3 programs in the Rockies.  There's a reason cycling and so many other sports train at the USOC training center in Colorado Springs, which is about 5 minutes from Colorado College's campus.

[PaulNewman]

Damn!  Pac Luth goes down.  Happy for Willamette but have to adjust my ballot again!

[Kuiper]

There are a few non-conference games in the North this week that could have national rankings/tournament implications.

This afternoon, Luther is playing at St. Olaf.  Luther is 5-1-1, while St. Olaf is only 4-3, but St. Olaf has played a pretty strong non-conference schedule with two of their losses to University of Chicago and North Park.  Luther and St. Olaf both lost to Chicago by identical 2-1 scores, so this game could be fairly evenly matched.

Tomorrow, 6-0 and #1 ranked (D3Soccer) University of Chicago plays at 5-0-2 and #9 ranked (D3Soccer) Calvin.  Calvin is coming off a 2-2 tie with Cornerstone on a PK by Cornerstone to tie it up in the 87th minute.  Calvin outshot Cornerstone 30-10 and forced Cornerstone's keeper to make 13 saves, so I expect Calvin were frustrated with the result and are eager to rebound, especially against Chicago.  One interesting thing to watch is whether Chicago defender Griffin Wada plays.  He sat out the last game against Luther.

[Kuiper]

Bunch of games in the SCIAC tonight.

Cal Lutheran beat Whittier 2-0.

La Verne beat Pomona-Pitzer 1-0 in what has to be considered a disappointment for P-P, which had a number of chances in the final minutes and couldn't find the net.  It was the kind of game where at least 3-4 P-P players were lying on the pitch at the end of the game after expending so much effort in the second half to try to claw back after La Verne's goal just before the end of the first half.

Claremont-Mckenna-Scripps found their shooting boots and crushed a decent Chapman team that had been undefeated (albeit with 3 ties) by a 4-0 margin.  The game was tight in the first half and C-M-S only led 1-0 at the break, but they exploded for 3 goals in the second, including 2 within one minute of each other in the 63rd and 64th minutes to put things to bed early.

Redlands might have thought they were cruising to a similar result as C-M-S in their game against Occidental after being ahead 2-0 at the break, but Oxy had different ideas in an entertaining game.  In the second, Oxy scored on a breakaway in the 54th minute and applied pretty steady pressure on Redlands throughout the second half.  It really took Redlands' GK Seth Lawrence standing on his head (almost literally) on a couple of chances at the end of the game to preserve the 2-1 win.  It will be interesting to see the rematch for this game (SCIAC teams play each other twice a season), because Oxy looked to be the more dangerous team in the second half, while Redlands was firmly in control in the first half.

[Kuiper]

A couple of upsets last night in the SCIAC have really left the league up for grabs this season and suggest the possibility of a changing of the guard.  Both winning teams played at home, though, so the losers will have the chance for revenge when they play at their home parks later in the season in the SCIAC's round robin format.

Occidental beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 2-1 in a game that snapped C-M-S' 19 game unbeaten streak in league play, which dated back to the 2019 season (with the 2020 season cancelled).  Oxy continued their strong play from the second half of their 2-1 loss to Redlands by jumping out to a 2-0 lead at halftime.  One of those goals was scored by sophomore Andrew Notter, who is quickly becoming the Tigers' most dangerous player after scoring the lone goal for Oxy v. Redlands.  Notter played for De Anza Force's Development Academy teams at U17/U19, but only got two games as a freshman at Oxy.  He's a big midfielder with speed and technical ability.  C-M-S made a run in the second half and scored on a flicked on long throw-in, but this was not a game where Oxy nipped a few lucky chances and just held on.  They outshot C-M-S 20-13 and had 12 corner kicks to C-M-S' 6.  C-M-S was the one trying to muck up the game by fouling, committing 17 to Oxy's 9.

At the same time Oxy beat C-M-S, Cal Luthern beat Redlands for the first time since 2017 by a score of 1-0.  Unlike in the Oxy-C-M-S game, this was a game where Redlands failed to put away their chances as much as Cal Lutheran capitalized on their best opportunity.  Redlands outshot Cal Lutheran 17-13 and had 14 corner kicks to Cal Lutheran's 6.  Cal Lutheran was the one trying to slow Redlands down by committing fouls at a clip of 25 to 16.  Regardless of how they did it, though, Cal Lutheran sits on top of the SCIAC standings with a 3-0 record in conference and 4-1-2 record overall, while Occidental, Chapman, Redlands, and C-M-S are in a four way tie for second at 2-1-1.

In other games, Whittier notched their first win of the season (albeit non-conference) away against UC Santa Cruz by a 2-1 score, Chapman beat La Verne 4-0, and Pomona-Pitzer beat Cal Tech 3-1.

[Kuiper]

In the Northwest Conference, Willamette beat Pacific 5-0 on Saturday and George Fox 7-0 on Sunday to run it's conference record to a league-leading 4-0 and 6-0-2 overall.  With wins over Colorado College, UC Santa Cruz, and Pacific Lutheran, plus ties to Cal Lutheran and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, they are in contention for being one of the best of a weaker west coast this year, even though C-M-S's down year won't help Willamette's strength of schedule.

The rest of the middle tier of the Northwest Conference are just beating each other up and treading water.  Puget Sound beat Whitman 3-1 on Saturday, but lost to Whitworth 2-1 on Sunday, while Pacific Lutheran beat Whitworth 3-1 on Saturday, and lost to Whitman 2-1 on Sunday

[Kuiper]

I watched the first half of the Willamette - Lewis & Clark game and feel like I should get some kind of merit badge for going above and beyond the call of duty.  I was kind of curious about it, though, since Willamette played games on Saturday and Sunday, making this the team's third game in three days.  Willamette's schedule doesn't indicate it is anything but a regular game, but Lewis & Clark's schedule lists it as an exhibition game.  L&C has to be correct since Willamette is playing a whole bunch of underclassman with high numbers who rarely get any playing time and maybe 1 defender and 1-2 other players who don't get to start much. Willamette is up 1-0 at half on a goal early in the first half that exploited a breakdown in L&C's defense and they do look more organized and more skilled generally, but they give the ball up pretty cheaply and L&C can muck up the game enough to bother them.  The best player on the L&C team might be their GK, a tall (6'4") player who made one decent 1 v 1 save (although I would be remiss if I didn't mention that he committed my cardinal sin of coming out for a cross and weakly punching it one handed to the side rather than going for the uncontested catch).

After the first half, my conclusion is that the gap between (1) last year's L&C club players who were willing to play varsity + some freshman who were recruited at the last minute by the coaches of the women's team who couldn't have had much time to spend on recruiting for the men since they were recruiting for the women's team too, and (2) Willamette's reserves is not that large.  I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't true at a lot of schools, although Willamette's freshman are more likely to be contributors eventually than many players on true reserve teams.

UPDATE:  After typing that, L&C scored the tying goal on a breakaway and it is now 1-1.  Lots of excitement.  Might be one of their first goals of the rebirth.

[Kuiper]

The big game in the North tonight is #4 North Park at #1 Chicago at 7 pm local time.  Chicago has met all challengers thus far, but North Park will be a tough out to be sure in the last of Chicago's string of tough non-conference games.

In the West, Cal Lutheran at Chapman is an opportunity to see if either team can really start to separate itself from the pack, especially with Occidental likely feasting on Cal Tech later that evening and Redlands/CMS having winnable games too v Pomona-Pitzer and Whittier, respectively.  A 4 pm (local) game on a Wed isn't going to draw much of a crowd for Chapman, so I'm not sure it gets much of a home field advantage other than avoiding a bus trip on the 101/405 interchange (which is no fun at any time of day!)

[Kuiper]

More chaos and near-chaos in SCIAC tonight.

Occidental beat Cal Tech 2-1, but the game was tied 1-1 at halftime and Oxy had to work for it.  Given that Cal Lutheran beat Cal Tech 4-1, Redlands beat them 5-0, and Pomona-Pitzer beat them 3-1, this score doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Oxy moving up in the national rankings.  It did leave Oxy tied for first in SCIAC on points, although not in PPG, at 3-1-1.  This wasn't the biggest game of the night, but it did bring out the fans as they had 783 in attendance on a Wednesday night at Oxy.

CMS beat Whittier 3-0.  The game was tied 0-0 at half, but CMS came out inspired and scored three goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half.  Despite CMS' rocky start to the season, it's now 3-1-1 and tied for first in points and tied for second with Oxy in PPG.

The game that should have been the big game in the conference tonight - Cal Lutheran at Chapman - was kind of a dud and finished 0-0.  Cal Lutheran looked a bit more threatening offensively in the first half, and Chapman looked more threatening in the second, but neither team really distinguished itself.  Cal Lutheran maintains its hold on first in the conference, but only narrowly.

The best game of the night turned out to be Pomona Pitzer at Redlands.  This was the first real barnburner of the season, with Pomona-Pitzer winning 4-3 in a game that was tied 2-2 at half.  I would say that this was a game for two great offenses, but it's more like this was a game for GK errors and leaky defenses.  Redlands' senior keeper had one ball go through his hands for a goal in the first half.  Pomona-Pitzer's freshman keeper then tried to catch a cross at the corner of the box with his body rather than his hands and it bounced back to the onrushing striker who kicked it home for a goal in the first half. Pomona brought in a different keeper in the second half, a sophomore, and he was caught between a hold and a parry on a diving save of a shot on the ground and left it in the path of an onrushing Redlands striker, who hit it home.  Then, Pomona scored two goals in the second half on set plays, one of which was headed in by Pomona's big 6'3" freshman defender Niclas Ulrich from Bethesda, MD and a second by Ulrich again for the win on a poor clearance from a free kick that went right to him at the top of the six yard box and he calmly one-timed it to the opposite corner of the goal.  This was Pomona-Pitzer's first win over Redlands since 2018. 

More importantly, this means Pomona holds the tie-breaker over Redlands for playoff purposes since it's the only time they play each other this year.  I recently realized that SCIAC is no longer completely round robin (presumably to allow for more non-conference play).  They play four schools twice and four schools once. For example, Pomona plays Oxy, Redlands, Cal Tech and La Verne once, but Cal Lutheran, Chapman, Whittier, and CMS twice.  CMS, by contrast, plays La Verne, Whittier, Oxy, and Chapman once, but Redlands, Cal Lutheran, Pomona-Pitzer, and Cal Tech twice.  That could impact qualification for the conference playoffs (and SOS for NCAA purposes) since some teams will have harder conference schedules than others, but this is also what allowed schools like CMS and Redlands to schedule challenging non-conference teams to try to up their SOS.

[Kuiper]

Here are United Soccer Coaches' regional rankings for Region X as of Sept 27.  Cal Lutheran and Chapman tied on Wednesday and Occidental beat Cal Tech, so those results wouldn't affect these rankings.  Mary-Hardin-Baylor did tie LeTourneau Thursday, though, which could hurt them in the next poll.  St. Thomas plays at Colorado College this afternoon.  So does Pac Lutheran against George Fox, but that can't help them and can only hurt them if they don't get the full three points or underwhelm.

Region X - Poll 3 - September 27, 2022
Rank    School    Prev    W-L-T
1    Willamette University    1    7-0-2
2    University of Saint Thomas (Texas)    2    7-0-1
3    Pacific Lutheran University    3    6-2-0
4    California Lutheran University    NR    4-1-2
5    Occidental College    8    4-2-1
6    University of Mary Hardin-Baylor    NR    4-1-1
7    Chapman University    NR    4-1-2
8    Colorado College    6    4-2-2

[Kuiper]

St. Thomas tied Colorado College 1-1 this afternoon. CC started out fast and got a goal on a quick breakaway with a chip over the keeper in the 5th minute, but the striker was called offside.  Instead, about 5 minutes later, St. Thomas scored on a free kick (which looked to be deflected) that left the CC keeper standing still.  I don't know whether St. Thomas was already feeling the effects of the altitude or whether the plan was always to nick a goal as quickly as possible and then hang on in-between sucking in air for the rest of the game, but the time wasting and other ****housery began even though it was only 10-11 minutes into the game.  First, on a missed shot the St. Thomas GK went back and got a drink of water, moved his towel and water bottle, went in search of a ball (the farthest away no doubt) etc and the ref gave him a talking to.  Then, while the ref was sorting things out near the goal on a free kick for St. Thomas near midfield, the camera, which stayed on the ball, showed the St. Thomas player casually moving the ball up about 15 yards, leading a CC player to challenge him and the ref had to intervene and gave the St. Thomas player a yellow.  The time-wasting stopped when Colorado College scored on a well-worked play to the right side of the box for a left footed shot over the GK to the right corner of the goal to tie it at 1-1 in around the 15th minute, but the other nonsense continued.  For example, when the ref called a foul for St. Thomas, the St. Thomas played mock clapped for the ref and he got a yellow.  Basically, the St. Thomas players were chirping at the ref all half whether the call was in their favor (asking for a card) or not, and the ref was taking none of it.  When they weren't doing that, they were using all of the dark arts on the sly. 

Most of that, however, stopped for the second half.  I credit St. Thomas' coaches in part, who probably calmed their players down at half, and the ref, in part, who likely looked at the 5 yellow cards handed out to St. Thomas to 1 to Colorado College on one half, and realized he might have been overreacting to things (St. Thomas has only gotten 14 yellows and 1 red in the 8 games prior to this one, so 5 in a half was out of character for them).  In the second half, the ref may have wanted to even things out and started handing out yellows to CC and cards ended up tied at 5-5.  Otherwise, it was a decent game, if not a pretty one.  The GKs started punting back and forth to each other's boxes (apparently forgetting that the ball carries better in altitude), which was annoying, but St. Thomas had a few chances to win it toward the end, including a dangerous free kick in the 87th minute, forcing the CC keeper to make a great top-hand save.

A couple of minor notes that  might only be of interest to me:

- There was one play in the 89th minute that illustrates the danger with the GK punching the ball in the box.  On a high bouncing ball that had emerged from a scrum at the top of the box, the CC GK realized he needed to come off his line to make a play with a striker onrushing alongside a defender.  The GK tried to awkwardly punch the ball with one hand and it looked like he ended up catching the striker in the jaw.  I wasn't sure because the ****housery wasn't quite over and the striker went down in the kind of exaggerated fashion that generates suspicion, but the ref had called a foul before that anyway so the play was dead and he decided to do nothing further.  I suspect the GK got kind of lucky on that.

- St. Thomas only used 3 subs the whole game, one of whom was a defender who came on a played the remainder of the game for a player who I think came out with injury before halftime.  That's kind of insane at altitude.  Maybe they aren't very deep or brought a thin roster, but they might just be very well conditioned.  The only player who looked like he really was struggling at times was their striker #9, who was a big powerful guy that CC lost at times early in the game and fouled later in the game on plays where it looked like the big fella was going down a bit easier than he might have normally because of the exhaustion.

[PaulNewman]

@Kuiper, I was trying to think about how I would describe a gut feeling that STU would be unlikely to escape the first weekend of the NCAA tourney (if they get there) and certainly would not prevail at the Sweet 16 level.  And your post explains it really well.

Despite everything you said, STU should have won that game.  They had two steals not that far out of the box basically putting them 1v1 with the GK at close range, and for whatever reason the player each time drifted left (once with a move and once with a pass) and essentially snuffed themselves out when should have scored (definitely at least once).  And then there was the free kick Kuiper mentioned.

The 1-1 result leaves me about where I was at before the game...so still cloudy, except for the part about not being Sweet 16 ready.

[Mr.Right]

Keep it rolling Kuiper.

[Kuiper]

@Kuiper, I was trying to think about how I would describe a gut feeling that STU would be unlikely to escape the first weekend of the NCAA tourney (if they get there) and certainly would not prevail at the Sweet 16 level.  And your post explains it really well.

Despite everything you said, STU should have won that game.  They had two steals not that far out of the box basically putting them 1v1 with the GK at close range, and for whatever reason the player each time drifted left (once with a move and once with a pass) and essentially snuffed themselves out when should have scored (definitely at least once).  And then there was the free kick Kuiper mentioned.

The 1-1 result leaves me about where I was at before the game...so still cloudy, except for the part about not being Sweet 16 ready.

I agree.  I don't know if St. Thomas makes it out of the SCAC.  Southwestern and Trinity both won their first SCAC games and could make a run. Also, St. Thomas tied Southwestern 1-1 in what was called a non-conference game on 9/16, with a conference game upcoming on 10/7.  If St. Thomas does win the SCAC, though, they have to play a lot more as a team rather than relying upon individual skill to beat stronger and more organized teams.

[Kuiper]

A couple of underwhelming results in the Northwest Conference tonight.

Pacific Lutheran beat George Fox 2-0.  The result was expected, but the score was underwhelming.  George Fox is 1-6-2 and lost to Willamette five days earlier by a score of 7-0.  George Fox has played other teams more tightly, but it does suggest that the gap between Willamette and Pacific Lutheran is legit.

Puget Sound tied Pacific 1-1.  Pacific was 0-7-1, while Puget Sound was 5-2-3 coming into the game.  Pacific's one tie was to Bushnell, an NAIA team that is 3-6-1.  Puget Sound is already 1-2-2 in conference, but a tough 2-1 loss to Willamette suggested they might be better this year.