Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Ron Boerger]

Meese has ankle issues he is trying to overcome. Outcome very iffy

Poor guy just can't catch a break from injuries.  He's not listed on tonight's starting roster; surprisingly, Omkar Satpathy is getting his first career start in goal.

[Kuiper]

In a bit of an upset, UC Santa Cruz beats Pacific Lutheran 2-1

Redlands loses a heart breaker to DII Cal Poly Pomona.  After being up 1-0 at the half, Redlands falls apart in the 85th minutes and Cal Poly Pomona scores two goals 45 seconds apart to win the game 2-1.

At Cal Lutheran, the Kingsmen found themselves down 1-0 to Willamette in the 15th minute, but came back to tie it up in the 69th on a score from 5th year senior JP Melgoza and go ahead 2-1 in the 87th minute on a goal by junior Max Scott to win the game.

Remember when I said that Whittier added so many new players that they have to be considered a wildcard until we see them in real games? They beat Albion 5-0 on two goals from freshman defender Anthony Dolce, and goals from Swedish freshman Bobo Anderson, French sophomore Nils Degardin and senior Dominic Morello.  Albion may not be world beaters and with the flight and time difference, Whittier certainly had the home field advantage, but Albion was 9-7-1 last year and Whittier beat them with a score that looks like a Calvin-Albion game.  It's worth watching the Poets to see if this form continues against other teams.

In CMS-Luther, the score was tied 1-1 in the 63rd minute when CMS goal scorer James Gomez was hit with a red card.  CMS had to play down a man until Willamette's Luther Fernandez earned a red card in the 87th.  Game ended 1-1

[Kuiper]

Oxy up 3-0 over Willamette at the half on goals by Diane, Notter, and freshman Bening in the first 16 minutes.

Based on Oxy's play in the first half and Willamette's play in the first half and against a weakened Cal Lutheran team on a Friday (where they lost 2-1 on a late goal), two things are true.  Oxy is an offensive juggernaut and Matt Corti-Young has his work cut out rebuilding Willamette back to its success of a few years ago.

UPDATE:  Notter scores a second and Occidental is up 4-0 in the 67th minute

FINAL:  Willamette gets a consolation goal in the 82nd minute by Ryan O'Grady, but that was after almost all the regulars were long out of the game, including Oxy's starting GK.  Oxy wins 4-1

[Kuiper]

Pomona-Pitzer up 1-0 on Pacific Lutheran at the half.  CB Nic Ulrich scores for P-P in the 32nd minute.

The Lutes are outshooting P-P 11-5, but GK Will Brooks is holding firm with 6 saves in the first half.  Interesting that Brooks starts this game after Broad gave up 2, including one somewhat suspect near post goal, in the loss to UC Santa Cruz.  With 6 (yes, SIX) GKs on the roster for P-P, all but two of whom have meaningful starting experience in pressure games, it may be an open competition or rotation all season

FINAL:  3-3.  Wild game.  Pacific Lutheran gets the tying goal in the 87th minute as the teams combine for 5 goals in the second half.  Both teams can score.  Defense ... not so much.

Incidentally, UC Santa Cruz has historically had the worst stream for its games.  This year, they used a drone to supplement the ground-level streaming and the picture quality was gorgeous.  Check out a clip of one of Ulrich's two goals that shows off the drone footage (click through the post for the videos).

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_Y_2beSw-S/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[Kuiper]

Cal Tech cruised past Albion 4-0 today.  Etienne Casanova scored 2 goals and had 2 assists and Andy Dimnaku scored the other two goals.  Still no Ishaan Mantripragada in the lineup.  He did not start and played 7 minutes in the opener against Park.  In this game, he did not play at all.  Must be injured, but it's impressive that Cal Tech is still winning and scoring without him. 

Cal Tech is now 2-0 and a third of the way to equaling last year's record win total. 

Albion, however, is finishing a miserable road trip.  It looks like Whittier's 5-0 defeat of Albion on Friday and Cal Tech's 4-0 defeat of Albion Sunday may say more about Albion than Whittier or Cal Tech.

[Kuiper]

Wild action in San Antonio in the 79th.

Methodist went up 1-0 in the 78th minute after GK Joshua Lynch received a straight red for handling the ball outside the box trying to save a 1 v. 1 opportunity and Methodist's Casey Atwell hits a great free kick up and over the wall and into the top corner to score.

Then Adam Knutsen scores the equalizer less than a minute later.

Both sides aggravated the other side with celebrations in front of each other's benches.

UPDATE:  Trinity almost scores a winner a minute later but the goal was waved off for offside and Methodist almost scores on another free kick and the GK who came in for Lynch makes a great save on a header

FINAL:  Game ends 1-1.  Trinity not inspiring a lot of confidence starting their season with ties against Hendrix and Methodist at home, especially after Southwestern beat Methodist 2-1 and Hendrix 2-0 over this same period.

[Ron Boerger]

Agreed.  The offense has been lacking with the exception of Knutsen (who caught Methodist still celebrating their goal to easily slot one in from around the penalty spot, off a nice pass from Will Powell who was totally unmarked deep in the attacking third).  Announcers on the Hendrix game said Meese would be out at least a few weeks nursing an ankle but it's not good when you can't beat a team picked sixth out of seven in the SAA at home. 

[Kuiper]

To wrap-up from this weekend, here are the results from the SCIAC games against NAIA opponents and a little bit of context to help figure out what the results mean. 

CMS beat Bethesda 6-0. Bethesda was 2-11-1 last season and was 0-2 this season coming into this game.  They lost 4-1 to Stanton and 4-2 to LaSierra. CMS outshot Bethesda 25-2 and had 7 corner kicks to 0 for Bethesda.  Of late, Bethesda is an opponent you schedule for other than competitive reasons.  For CMS, this was merely a nice chance to empty the bench and give all the CMS players who were healthy a chance to get their feet wet. CMS played 20 players, including 3 GKs. Occidental plays Bethesda Oct 12 and I'm guessing it will be designated senior night and lots of players will play and they may play rondos at some point. If not, it could get ugly. 

Cal Lutheran beat Soka 2-1. Soka is not quite a punching bag like Bethesda, but it is probably an average to below average NAIA team this season.  It was 9-7-1 last season, but was 1-3 coming into this game. Fun Fact:  Soka has a huge endowment at ~$1.3 billion+, but it's so tiny that the endowment per student is second in the country behind Princeton at ~$3 million per student (Some of you are probably scrambling to look up the student stats at Soka and wonder why your kid didn't apply there to try to get scholarship money).  They clearly don't spend that money on the men's soccer team.  Cal Lu outshot Soka 25-9, but just wasn't as clinical in front of the box as CMS was against Bethesda.  Incidentally, Occidental also plays Soka on Sept 14th. If I have one complaint about Oxy this year it's that unless UC Santa Cruz and Swarthmore turn out to be much stronger this season, the non-conference schedule is not very competitive and I'm not sure the conference schedule is going to do much to get them ready for the tournament, although it will test Oxy's ability to remain focused, which has been a problem in the past.

Westcliff beat LaVerne 2-1. Westcliff is a whole different level of NAIA teams than Bethesda or Soka.
Westcliff was 18-2 last season, beat UC Merced for the conference title, and lost in the NAIA championship game to Bethel (Indiana) 2-0. They beat D1 UC San Diego during the regular season 2-1 in a game that counted for both teams.  Westcliff lost some players, though (that's what happens in NAIA, where stars get picked off) and was ranked #15 to start the season. They were 1-1 coming into this game, having lost to Missouri Baptist (which is 3-1) and beaten The Masters, dropping them to RV in the NAIA rankings.  Still, they are a good team.  So, LaVerne losing 2-1 is a respectable result. This, however, was a game where Westcliff outshot LaVerne 17-9 and LaVerne probably did well just to keep the game close.

Chapman beat Stanton 6-3. Last season, Stanton was 6-9-3. Stanton is 3-1-2 this season and beat Cal Tech 1-0 on 8/24 in a game that was a scrimmage for Cal Tech. Stanton beat Bethesda 4-1, so that give you an idea that they are definitely ahead of Bethesda, but they've never reached the heights that Westcliff has reached. They are an average to below average NAIA team in most years. So, this was a decent result for Chapman and a great game for soph F Leo Wells, who exceeded his point total from all last season with 2 goals and 1 assist.  Having said that, Occidental played Stanton in preseason and Oxy beat Stanton 7-1, so I think Stanton isn't really that good this season.

[Kuiper]

LaVerne is hosting a school called Southern California Leadership University tonight.  While it's not unusual for SCIAC teams to have to play some pretty anonymous schools in non-conference games if they can't travel out of state or induce someone to travel to them, Southern California Leadership University is really pushing the boundaries of being an actual school.  It apparently started last year, and, not surprisingly, is not accredited (at least by normal accrediting bodies), but it's not even clear what it teaches.  It is a bible college, which is fine, but I'm just not sure I understand how its "Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies Kinesiology" or "Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies Sports Management" are even legitimate bible studies courses. The only full-time faculty/staff are the athletic coaches and the president and founder of the university is also listed as the basketball coach.  Feels like a version of the Westgate Christian University team that has shown up on some of the D3 football schedules in the American Southwest Conference in Texas and appears to be an athletic arm of another bible school.

In any event, LaVerne and SCLU are currently tied 0-0 at halftime.

UPDATE:  LaVerne won 3-0, but it turns out they classified the game as an exhibition game, so it won't count in the standings.

[Gray Fox]

The Oxy basketball women played them twice last year. It was so one sided that Oxy sat their best player out completely in the second game. I think they only had seven players.

[EnmoreCat]

LaVerne is hosting a school called Southern California Leadership University tonight.  While it's not unusual for SCIAC teams to have to play some pretty anonymous schools in non-conference games if they can't travel out of state or induce someone to travel to them, Southern California Leadership University is really pushing the boundaries of being an actual school.  It apparently started last year, and, not surprisingly, is not accredited (at least by normal accrediting bodies), but it's not even clear what it teaches.  It is a bible college, which is fine, but I'm just not sure I understand how its "Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies Kinesiology" or "Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies Sports Management" are even legitimate bible studies courses. The only full-time faculty/staff are the athletic coaches and the president and founder of the university is also listed as the basketball coach.  Feels like a version of the Westgate Christian University team that has shown up on some of the D3 football schedules in the American Southwest Conference in Texas and appears to be an athletic arm of another bible school.

In any event, LaVerne and SCLU are currently tied 0-0 at halftime.

Whilst not religious myself, I was brought up to believe that your deity of choice works in mysterious ways.  This might just be another one.

[Hopkins92]

I come here for the Cal Tech update and I get this bizarre bible school angle. Very strange.

Sounds like something out of Righteous Gemstones.

[Freddyfud]

I come here for the Cal Tech update and I get this bizarre bible school angle. Very strange.

Sounds like something out of Righteous Gemstones.

Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers

[Gray Fox]

I come here for the Cal Tech update and I get this bizarre bible school angle. Very strange.

Sounds like something out of Righteous Gemstones.

Caltech

[Hopkins92]

I come here for the Cal Tech update and I get this bizarre bible school angle. Very strange.

Sounds like something out of Righteous Gemstones.

Caltech

Kuiper spells it out like that 8 million times and you call me out?!?!

jk... thanks for the tip, did not know that...