Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

Game got underway in Sherman Texas between Colorado College and Trinity and Colorado College just scored two goals in quick succession on a long throw-in into the box and a breakaway a minute or so later by the same player.  CC up 2-0 midway through the first half.  As the announcer said in an understated Texas drawl, "Holy Cow."

UPDATE:  Game is officially in the bonkers category.  Trinity scores two goals a minute apart (and only a couple of minutes after CC's last goal).  Now, it's 2-2 with 17 minutes left in the half.

[Kuiper]

Occidental beat Pomona-Pitzer 3-1 in 2OT to advance to the championship.  Electric atmosphere and huge crowd.  The attendance was 3,689 according to the box score, which is kind of amazing for a Friday night and for a game where they actually sold tickets ($8 in advance and $10 at the door) because SCIAC requires it for the semifinals and finals.  Oxy got off to a quick start with an early goal on a free kick.  It was 1-0 at half, but a couple of minutes into the second half a Pomona defender got a second yellow and they went down a man.  Credit to them for leveling later in the half on a beautiful top bin free kick and then hanging on against a barrage of shots from Oxy the last 20 minutes of regulation.  Eventually, they just got worn down and Oxy went up at the very end of the first OT and added another in the second OT to win 3-1.

In the other semifinal, Chapman beat Cal Lutheran 1-0 on a goal in the fifth minute.  Big crowd for Chapman (555), although nowhere close to Oxy's crowd.  It's a shame that Champan will host on Sunday, since Oxy draws so much better, but well deserved for both teams to make it to the finals.  They tied in their two previous meetings this year (2-2 and 0-0), so I anticipate this will be a battle.

[MNBob]

UWS up 1-0 early over Bethany Lutheran
Gustavus up 1-0 early over St Olaf

[MNBob]

Bethany Lutheran 0 @ UWS 3  at the half
St Olaf 0 Gustavus 1 at the half

[MNBob]

Red card given to Gustavus so now playing with 10.

[MNBob]

St Olaf scores from way outside with a blistering shot to take a 2-1 lead with 1:00 left.

[MNBob]

St Olaf wins and gets the AQ. Be pretty surprising if Gustavus does not get an at large berth.
UWS still up 3-0 with less than 3 minutes left in UMAC championship.
Both games played in beautiful < 40 degree MN weather.

[Bearcat Press]

Willamette demolishes Linfield 5-0 in McMinnville. Bearcats take the NWC title and the AQ to the NCAA tournament.

[Kuiper]

Willamette demolishes Linfield 5-0 in McMinnville. Bearcats take the NWC title and the AQ to the NCAA tournament.

Pacific Lutheran beats Puget Sound 1-0 and has to hope it's resume is strong enough for a Pool C bid

[PaulNewman]

Willamette demolishes Linfield 5-0 in McMinnville. Bearcats take the NWC title and the AQ to the NCAA tournament.

Pacific Lutheran beats Puget Sound 1-0 and has to hope it's resume is strong enough for a Pool C bid

I was wondering about that because scoreboard had PS winning.  Gut tells me Lutes are in BUT by my count only one ranked win and a below average SoS.  I do think the cmte tends to give West Coast teams a bit of a break because of challenges to get ranked wins and higher SoS.  If they don't get a bid they'll regret dropping both games to Whitman.

[Kuiper]

Willamette demolishes Linfield 5-0 in McMinnville. Bearcats take the NWC title and the AQ to the NCAA tournament.

Pacific Lutheran beats Puget Sound 1-0 and has to hope it's resume is strong enough for a Pool C bid

I was wondering about that because scoreboard had PS winning.  Gut tells me Lutes are in BUT by my count only one ranked win and a below average SoS.  I do think the cmte tends to give West Coast teams a bit of a break because of challenges to get ranked wins and higher SoS.  If they don't get a bid they'll regret dropping both games to Whitman.

I agree that the Whitman losses are killers, but they did beat Willamette in conference and they beat Colorado College and Cal Lutheran, both of whom were (are?) regionally ranked.  They also beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who they surely assumed would help their strength-of-schedule at the beginning of the season.  At 17-3, not qualifying would be a bitter pill for them to swallow I'm sure.

I don't follow the details for selection, but my guess is that they need St. Thomas to beat Trinity in the SCAC finals.  I assume that would reduce the case for a Pool C bid from that conference and with SCIAC and ASC also lacking an obvious Pool C candidate (maybe Concordia (TX)?), that might leave an opening for Pac Lutheran if the committee was willing to select one.

[Kuiper]

In the SCIAC championship, it's 0-0 at halftime between Occidental and Chapman.  Chapman's keeper, Chandler Siemonsma, has only been credited with a couple of saves, but he has cut off a ton of chances by being super aggressive.  You can see why he was voted the first team all-SCIAC GK this season.  Not sure all of those forays to outer reaches of his box and beyond were all warranted or safe (one ended in Siemonsma getting a yellow card), but his defenders well know he's pretty decisive/reckless and they scoot behind him and have blocked some shots that have come from balls he only deflected or pushed and he's now defenseless to stop now that he's lying in a heap on the ground.  He's not super tall (listed as 6'0", but I bet he's a little under that), so when he punches and waves a hand to push a ball away from an attacker's head, you can see why he couldn't go for a catch against taller strikers.

Incidentally, as much as Amherst is accusing of committing tons of fouls (they had 13 in the first half (+1 yellow), compared to 5 for Conn College (+1 yellow), Oxy has 12 in the first half (+1 yellow) and Chapman has 10 (+2 yellows).  The sun is shining and the ball is moving much quicker on the turf than on the wet grass at Williams, but the game is still a mix of soccer and rugby.

Incidentally, the crowd support for Oxy is intense.  They traveled well on Sunday afternoon and have brought their vuvuzelas!  The two student announcers conceded before the game that it felt like a home game for Oxy in Chapman's stadium.  Maybe Oxy provided buses for the students?

[Ejay]

Incidentally, as much as Amherst is accusing of committing tons of fouls (they had 13 in the first half (+1 yellow), compared to 5 for Conn College (+1 yellow), Oxy has 12 in the first half (+1 yellow) and Chapman has 10 (+2 yellows).  The sun is shining and the ball is moving much quicker on the turf than on the wet grass at Williams, but the game is still a mix of soccer and rugby.

Amherst ranks dead last (408th) in D3 for fouls per game with 15.44.
Occidential is only 4 spots behind (404th) but "only" average 13.88.
Chapman is T383rd with an average of 13.

Rugby indeed.

[Kuiper]

Incidentally, as much as Amherst is accusing of committing tons of fouls (they had 13 in the first half (+1 yellow), compared to 5 for Conn College (+1 yellow), Oxy has 12 in the first half (+1 yellow) and Chapman has 10 (+2 yellows).  The sun is shining and the ball is moving much quicker on the turf than on the wet grass at Williams, but the game is still a mix of soccer and rugby.

Amherst ranks dead last (408th) in D3 for fouls per game with 15.44.
Occidential is only 4 spots behind (404th) but "only" average 13.88.
Chapman is T383rd with an average of 13.

Rugby indeed.

Well, I did say a mix of soccer and rugby.  I need to start watching those full rugby games that just call themselves soccer!  Soccer and rugby do have common origins after all

In fairness, both the Conn-Amherst game and the Oxy-Chapman game had/have some beautiful passing sequences from each team at times.  I think Amherst's rep comes from the type of fouls rather than the number,  I was mostly speaking tongue-in-cheek, since the number of fouls is obviously a function of what the ref decides to call as much or more as the force/recklessness of those fouls and depends upon whether the ref takes seriously the responsibility to keep the game moving.

[Kuiper]

Occidental-Chapman ends 0-0 in regulation.  Heading to OT.