Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

Chapman joins the 2-0 club in SCIAC by beating St. Katherine's 2-0 and, tonight, beating Stanton 4-2.  Who?  Stanton was founded in 1996 and is in Orange County, but started a varsity athletics program for the first time this year.  They are currently part of the USCAA (the US Collegiate Athletic Ass'n), but hope to join St. Katherine's in the NAIA in their second year.  All SCIAC teams end up playing at least 1-2 NAIA teams because there aren't any D3 teams for nearly a thousand miles around who aren't already members of SCIAC, except UC Santa Cruz, which is willing to make several trips a year to LA.  Some NAIA teams are really good, since they can give scholarships and in some cases have a bit lower academic standards which widens their recruiting pool.  Stanton's players, however, played like they didn't speak the same language,  which is probably because they didn't.  They only have 19 players, all presumably new to the university if they were recruited, or walk-ons, and every single one of them is an international.  They hail from Brazil (9 players), Portugal (2 players), Angola (2 players),and the  Netherlands (2 players) with one each from Mexico, Germany, Italy, and Turkey.  They had some individual skill, with bicycle kicks, Cruyff turns, heel flicks, and the like, and one of Stanton's goals came when one of the Dutch attackers noticed the Chapman goalkeeper a few yards off his line and casually chipped it over his head from 40 yards out.  But they didn't play much as a team, they were a lot more focused on offense than getting back on defense, and they had a bench that was way too thin to compete for the full 90 (they only really used three subs).  Not sure what Chapman got out of this game, other than rotating its keepers and getting time for some freshman.  So, while Chapman may be feeling good about their start, it's hard to say where they stand based on this game.

[Kuiper]

A good night for SCIAC teams against NAIA teams

Cal Tech 5 - Life Pacific 1

Cal Tech dominated this game from start to finish and is now 3-0 for the first time in forever.  Last year's SCIAC newcomer of the year, Etienne Casanova, and junior Andy Dimnaku, each with a brace. Incidentally, Cal Tech's player bios all start with "Research and STEM Activities" in case you were wondering who on the team invented or patented what.  I like to know that the team has a senior defender who planned and analyzed radio occultations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab for the upcoming Juno extended space mission from 2023-2025.  That can come in handy . . . I think?

Occidental 3 - Masters 1

Masters had some players who could present problems, but Oxy was stronger defensively and had enough offense late in the game to give them a cushion.  Oxy's Evan Karp was really strong.  I also just realized that one of Oxy's more dangerous attackers, Oury Diane, is a Connecticut College transfer.  It's not often that you get a cross-country transfer from the Northeast to SoCal in D3.  He will add to the attacking depth for Oxy in conference play.

Pomona-Pitzer 0 - Vanguard 0

Pomona kind of weathered the storm in this game and will be happy to have come out with a result in their home opener after a tough Texas road swing. Vanguard outshot them 13-6 and had 7 shots on goal to P-P's 0.  This was a game where Ethan Bae, P-P's junior GK, came up big, notching 7 saves and thwarted some dangerous 1 v. 1 opportunities.

[Kuiper]

A few games of note in Region X:

Whitman and Hardin-Simmons played to a 1-1 tie in San Antonio at Trinity University.  It was 0-0 for almost the entire game until Whitman scored on a PK in the 85th minute and Hardin-Simmons answered back with the equalizer in the 89th.  A tie is a pretty fair result in my eyes.  Both teams pass the ball reasonably well and more or less try to play out of the back.  Neither is good enough, however, to connect enough passes to get all the way to goal or to finish with any precision.  Brad Bankhead, the long-time coach at Mary Hardin-Baylor, is in his first year at Hardin-Simmons and I expect he will do good things at his alma mater.  Right now, though, he seems to be missing a few pieces.

Puget Sound is 2-0 after beating NAIA team Evergreen State College (the "Geoducks," which is apparently a very large saltwater clam that is a popular food in the Pacific Northwest) 2-0.  Puget Sound will be happy with its start to the season, but Evergreen is 0-3 and is a lower half team in its conference that Puget Sound beat by the same score last year.

Hope International, an NAIA team, beat Chapman 1-0.  The stream for this game was pretty bad and I wasn't going to drive down to Irvine for the game.  Hope Int'l doesn't have its own field, so it plays in a big multi-field complex that's great for youth club teams, but not very conducive to filming at night.  From what I could see, Hope Int'l was more physical than Chapman and were able to disrupt their passing lanes.  This is the second NAIA team Chapman has played, but it was a much stronger opponent than the St. Katherine's team it beat in its first game and the Stanton USCAA team it beat last game.

Millsaps tied East Texas Baptist 2-2 in Marshall, Texas.  I didn't watch the game, but from the box score it seems like a game where East Texas Baptist will be regretting its missed chances.  It outshot Millsaps 27-8 and 17-4 in shots on goal, forcing Millsaps keeper Michael Hamauei, who was honorable mention all-SAA last year as a freshman, to make 15 saves.  Last year, ETBU beat Millsaps 3-0.

[Kuiper]

Lots of intra-regional action in Region X tonight with Socal (SCIAC) teams taking on Northwest Conference teams and SCAC teams taking on ASC teams. 

Short summary:

SCIAC is way UP
SCAC is way UP
NWC is way DOWN
ASC is way DOWN

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (SCIAC) out-classed Willamette (NWC) in Salem for a 3-0 victory.  CMS looked a lot better than against UC Santa Cruz (where they won 2-1), scoring on some nice one-touch combination play through the middle of the Bearcat defense.  Speaking of the middle, Willamette's midfield is a problem. They can't seem to play through the midfield and they can't stop the other team from playing through the midfield.  And starting out the season 0-3 effectively rules them out of an NCAA bid other than through the AQ.  They only have one more non-conference game against Emory and it will be exclusively conference play here on out.  And given the other conference results in non-conference games, those games aren't going to exactly help their strength of schedule.

Emory (UAA) came from behind to beat Pacific Lutheran (NWC) 2-1.  Pac Lu didn't play badly, but they have Claremont-Mudd-Scripps coming up on Sunday and they'll need that to get another quality win.  Right now, they are 1-1-1 and Colorado College might be their only quality win of the season the way the NWC is looking.

Southwestern (SCAC) beat Whitman (NWC) 2-1, scoring the winning goal in the 88th minute.  The game was otherwise fairly even, with both teams scoring within 10 minutes of each other early in the first half and then trading shots the rest of the way.  Southwestern has now beaten both Willamette and Whitman from the NWC.

Whittier (SCIAC) beat George Fox (NWC) 2-0 on two goals in the latter part of the second half.

Redlands (SCIAC) crushed Life Pacific (USCAA) 9-0.  Gabriel Martinez had a hat trick and Phillip Kostenko had a brace for Redlands.  Cal Tech beat Life Pacific 5-1 earlier this week, so this is a team that is a punching bag for the SCIAC in its first year of operation.  For some reason, Life Pacific has an exhibition match scheduled for 9/18 against D1 San Diego State.  That will be a blood bath even if SDSU plays only its deep bench players.

La Verne (SCIAC) beat Linfield (NWC) 3-0.  Adan Villarreal had a brace.  The junior college transfer already has 6 goals in 3 games (143 minutes) on the season.  Perhaps even more impressive, he has 6 goals on 11 shots.  He is a clinical finisher.  If he keeps up a 2.00 goals/game average this year, he's going to shatter some records.  He's already putting the SCIAC on notice that they're going to have to game plan for him.

UC Santa Cruz (C2C) beat Pacific OR (NWC) 2-0.  UCSC controlled the game and probably should have won by more.

Austin (SCAC) beat Ozarks (ASC) 1-0.  Austin is 3-0 on the season and has beaten three straight ASC foes (including East Texas Baptist and LeTourneau). Ozarks has the best record in the ASC, having beaten Centenary LA of the SCAC and they are 2-1.

St. Thomas TX (SCAC) beat Concordia TX (ASC) 3-1.  St. Thomas continues their top form.  Taty Aleman had 2 goals and 1 assist, to give him 5 goals and 1 assist in 3 games on 14 shots.

Texas Lutheran (SCAC) beat Mary Hardin-Baylor (ASC) 2-0.  Texas Lu continues its hot start after beating Occidental and Cal Lu on its LA trip.  It's now beaten the preseason coaches poll favorites in both the SCIAC and the ASC.

Trinity TX (SCAC) beat UT Dallas (ASC) 4-1 to join St. Thomas and Texas Lu atop the SCAC with perfect 3-0 records.

Schreiner (SCAC) beat Howard Payne (ASC) 2-1

[bubbabeans]

One detail of note while watching the Willamette v. C-M-S game was the high quality of the Willamette play-by-play. Skeet Starr was the student commentating, and I found their work to be exceptional.

[Kuiper]

One detail of note while watching the Willamette v. C-M-S game was the high quality of the Willamette play-by-play. Skeet Starr was the student commentating, and I found their work to be exceptional.

I didn't realize he was a student commentator.  He is good!  Is he related to the Bearcat player Jett Starr?

[SimpleCoach]

One detail of note while watching the Willamette v. C-M-S game was the high quality of the Willamette play-by-play. Skeet Starr was the student commentating, and I found their work to be exceptional.

Cortland, Messiah and Conn College are exceptional as well.

SC.

[Kuiper]

A few interesting (and a few expected) results involving teams West and North

Occidental beat Lewis & Clark 5-0.  No surprise against the second year L&C team that is still winless.

Chapman beat NAIA side Bethesda 2-1.  The only mild surprise here against the 0-4 Bethesda team is that it was this close.  Redlands beat them 4-1.

Cal Tech tied NAIA side Hope International 1-1.  Cal Tech's goal was scored on a well-placed curving free kick just outside the box by Ishaan Mantripragada (I had to look up the spelling - and may still have gotten it wrong!).  This extends Cal Tech's unbeaten streak to 4 games, which may be an all-time high.  More interesting is that Hope International, unlike Bethesda or Life Pacific, some other NAIA teams SCIAC teams have faced, is pretty good.  They were 5-1 entering the game and had just beaten Chapman 1-0 two days ago.  So, for Cal Tech to tie them is a pretty good measuring stick for them.  While the Beavers have been beating up on pretty weak teams thus far, this was a legit opponent.

Colorado College completed their Ohio roads swing with a 1-1 tie at Ohio Northern.  That's a big result for Colorado College, which had lost to Pacific Lutheran in the first game of the season and needed something from this game to establish some measure of credibility outside of Region X.

Loras ties Saint John's University 1-1.  Loras has been beating up weaker teams and just tied Gustavus Adolphus 1-1.  Saint John's won three straight after losing to SCIAC team La Verne 4-2 to open the season.  Maybe Saint John's is better than we thought?

[Kuiper]

Last week in the SCIAC, Adan Villarreal of La Verne was named the offensive player of the week and Owen Jamieson of Redlands was named the defensive player of the week.

https://thesciac.org/news/2023/9/5/mens-soccer-athletes-of-the-week-sept-5-2023.aspx

Villarreal has 6 goals (on 13 shots and 8 shots on goal) and 1 assist in 4 games.  His 6 goals accounts 60% of La Verne's offense.  No other goal scorer has more than 1.

Jamieson is definitely a good defender, but this award is more a reward for a defender scoring goals in each of Redlands' first two games.  Redlands beat UC Santa Cruz 4-3 in one of those games, where Redlands gave up 3 goals in the last 20 minutes of the game, so it wasn't like the defense was working on all cylinders.

This week in the SCIAC, Rafeal Otero of CMS was named offensive player of the week and Jacob Sattler of Redlands was named defensive player of the week

https://thesciac.org/news/2023/9/11/mens-soccer-athletes-of-the-week-sept-11-2023.aspx

Otero scored a PK against Willamette that proved to be the game winner and then scored a brace against Pacific Lutheran. 

Sattler was part of the defense that held Life Pacific scoreless (in a 9-0 victory) and contributed a goal.  Once again, I don't love giving the award to a defender based primarily on the fact that he scored a goal (especially in a 9-0 win). 

[Kuiper]

One detail of note while watching the Willamette v. C-M-S game was the high quality of the Willamette play-by-play. Skeet Starr was the student commentating, and I found their work to be exceptional.

Cortland, Messiah and Conn College are exceptional as well.

SC.

Since this is on the Go WEST thread, I think it's fair to acknowledge the really strong commentators (who I'm pretty sure are students) on the Pomona-Pitzer broadcasts.  It's a man and a women team and their knowledge, insights, and delivery feel so professional that I could see them replacing many of the pro play-by-play commentary teams without anyone noticing the difference.

[Kuiper]

Forgot to cross-post this last night

Some interesting non-conference results in Region X.  For the most part, SCIAC and SCAC continued to dominate the NWC and the ASC, but there were a few noteworthy exceptions.

Pacific OR (NWC) tied Cal Lutheran 2-2.  Cal Lu has had an up and down start to the season, losing to what appears to be a tough Texas Lutheran team, but beating Marymount (VA) and Whitworth.  So, I would have expected them to handle Pacific, which is predicted to finish below Whitworth in the NWS preseason polls.  Instead, Pacific had a 2-1 lead until Maxi Schelotto tied it up in the 85th minute at the UC Santa Cruz invitational.  The stream was awful (it appeared to be livestreamed from Veo, the picture wasn't straight, and the stitching together of the two sides wasn't complete), so I didn't watch too much, but it looked like Pacific was better than expected.  Still, from the stats Cal Lu had more shots on goal than Pacific and simply couldn't put them home.

Pacific Lutheran (NWC) tied Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (SCIAC) 2-2.  These are two heavyweights from their respective conferences and the match reflected that.  It looked like Pac Lu had the upper-hand after taking the lead in the 69th, even though CMS was very strong in possession and connected passes with lots of skill, but CMS managed to tie it up in the 86th minute.  I haven't seen anyone in the NWC likely to challenge Pac Lu.  CMS has more potential competitors in the SCIAC, but they definitely are playing better than they did last year already.  One advantage of the stream at Willamette, where the game was played, was that you could hear Coach Cartee's instructions to his players.  He seems to have them pointed in the right direction.

Pomona Pitzer (SCIAC) beat Linfield (NWC) 3-2.  This was harder for P-P than I expected, but they pulled it out with Alex Greenstein scoring a brace.  I can't decide whether Linfield is better than predicted or P-P is worse.  Cal Tech beat Linfield 3-2 and La Verne beat them 3-0, but they tied Augsburg for the only blemish on their record thus far.  I think Linfield might be able to break out of the bottom tier of the NWC standings, but they won't challenge the leaders.

Whittier (SCIAC) beat Lewis & Clark (NWC) 5-1.  Nice showing by Whittier, but Lewis & Clark hasn't proven to be a challenge for anyone yet.  They'll need another recruiting class or two before they can be competitive.

George Fox (NWC) beat La Verne (SCIAC) 2-1.  The only win for the NWC against a SCIAC foe in a game between two teams predicted to be toward the bottom of their respective conferences.  La Verne was pretty wasteful with it's chances, having 12 corner kicks to GF's 2.  Still, GF could have won by more as La Verne's excellent keeper, Logan Reese, saved a PK.

Trinity TX (SCAC) beat Whitman (NWC) 3-1.  Whitman finishes a really tough three game Texas trip winless.  Not sure that this game establishes that Trinity is fully back, but Michael Meese scores another goal and is currently the leading scorer.  When Meese is scoring regularly as he has been thus far, Trinity is always going to be tough.

UC Santa Cruz (C2C) beat Whitworth (NWC) 2-1 in the UC Santa Cruz invitational.  UCSC only has a 2-2 record, but their two losses were close: away to CMS 2-1 and to Redlands 4-3.  With the C2C having their conference tournament in Santa Cruz this year and every team but UCSC having to make a very long (in most cases cross-country) trip to play in it, this could be UCSC's year if they can find some way to get by Mary Washington and Christopher Newport.  The C2C tourney is such a wildcard because, unlike other conference tournaments, many of the teams have never played each other before the conference tournament.  So, you never know.

Emory (UAA) beat Willamette (NWC) 2-0 in Salem, OR.  Willamette is now 0-4 to start the season.  While they've played a tough schedule in TX (St. Thomas and Southwestern) and then two good teams at home in Emory and CMS, they haven't looked great, scoring only 1 goal in those 4 games and giving up 3 in all but the Emory game.  With Whitman and Whitworth doing no better, they may still be toward the top of the NWC by default, but it could be a tougher slog for them this year.

UT Dallas (ASC) tied Southwestern (SCAC) 1-1.  This is somewhat of a surprise, but UTD played Babson and Wheaton tough in their road trip to Massachusetts and Southwestern's victories have come against the NWC teams (Whitman and Willamette), which may not be as impressive as they seemed based on other results.

St. Thomas (TX) (SCAC) beat Mary Hardin-Baylor (ASC) 2-0.  St. Thomas continues its dominance, along with Trinity, of the Texas D3 schools and Mary Hardin-Baylor continues it's tough start to the season.  They may be feeling the departure of their head coach to Hardin-Simmons.

Texas Lutheran (SCAC) beat Concordia (TX) (ASC) 1-0.  Texas Lutheran is now 4-0, having dispatched four teams predicted to be in the upper third of the SCIAC and ASC conferences.  I'm not sure they can beat the top two of their own conference (St. Thomas and Trinity), but those will be games to watch.  Concordia, which was 10-3-4 last year, starts the season 0-3-1.

[Kuiper]

Northwest conference men's soccer players of the week for 9/5

https://nwcsports.com/news/2023/9/5/friesen-barry-named-nwc-mens-soccer-student-athletes-of-the-week.aspx

SCAC players of the week

https://scacsports.com/sports/msoc/2023-24/potw

ASC players of the week

https://ascsports.org/news/2023/9/5/asc-mens-soccer-players-of-the-week-1-seymour-cardwell-daniel.aspx

[camosfan]

Any preview on tonight's game between NP and Chicago?

[Gregory Sager]

Are you interested in NPU's published gameday preview, or do you just want my opinion as NPU's broadcaster?

[camosfan]

Your assessment! On the other hand, don't let me put you on the spot.