Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

A few afternoon games of note in Region X

Occidental 1 - Pomona-Pitzer 1

With Oxy locked into 3rd place in the SCIAC, this game didn't have much meaning for it and it kind of played like it.  With it being Senior Day at Pomona-Pitzer and the teams playing an afternoon game on the P-P grass that favored their passing game over the speed of Oxy, it's therefore not surprising that the game was close. Oxy scored in the 78th minute, but P-P tied it up in the 86th.  It probably won't prevent P-P from finishing last in the SCIAC, but it ends the season on a brighter note.  For Oxy, it's not a great way to enter the the conference tournament for a team has gone without a loss in the last 4 games, but only has one win during that run (against Chapman) and ties against both Caltech and P-P.

Pacific Lutheran 3 - Pacific 1

Pacific Lutheran scored three straight goals, including a brace for Trevor Thompson that gives him 19 on the season, in a dominating performance ahead of its clash against second place George Fox.

Puget Sound 1 - George Fox

Puget Sound scores in the 2nd minute, allowing the Loggers to focus on defense and George Fox couldn't even muster a single shot on goal all game to equalize.  GF loses ground on Pacific Lutheran, although it still has a chance at catching them if they beat the Lutes on their visit to play them this Sunday, especially with more winnable games waiting for them next week against Lewis & Clark and Linfield.  Pacific Lutheran has the tougher remaining schedule away at Whitman and Whitworth.

[Kuiper]

Evening games in the SCIAC

Caltech 5 - Cal Lutheran 0

WOW!  Caltech crushes Cal Lutheran and finishes 8-7-3 for its first winning season ever (or at least as far back as I can find records).  Etienne Casanova scores a brace and two assists for Caltech, which was up 4-0 at halftime and then added another goal in the 86th minute.  With Cal Lu already clinching 4th and home field in the playoff game, and not being able to catch Oxy for 3rd, it's not surprising that it would rotate some players, but I'm sure it didn't intend to lay an egg this big at home. 

Whittier 1 - Redlands 0

Much like with Cal Lu, Redlands is locked into the top seed in the SCIAC tournament and didn't need this game, while Whittier was trying to finish strong and avoid finishing behind Caltech.  On the other hand, Redlands probably didn't want to hurt its chance at a Pool C bid if it didn't win the SCIAC automatic bid.  So, Redlands didn't rotate as much as Cal Lu and mostly used its starters.  Didn't matter.  Whittier scored in the 13th minute and held on, almost scoring an insurance goal late to ice the game on a counter, and held on to win the game.  Redlands can't drop this game since all losses count, so it's going to hurt its NPI.  Oxy, Cal Lu, and Redlands all limp into the SCIAC tournament.

[Kuiper]

SCAC final matchday of the regular season

Colorado College 6 - University of Dallas 0
Trinity 4 - Centenary 0

With Colorado College and Trinity TX both winning, the two teams finish as co-regular season champions.  Since they had identical 10-0-1 conference records, they tied 1-1 in their own meeting, and they have identical records against conference opponents, the SCAC had to go to the third tiebreaker, which was fewest goals allowed in conference games.  Colorado College only gave up 2 goals and Trinity gave up 5 goals.  Therefore, CC takes the top seed in the SCAC tournament and Trinity is second seed.

Southwestern 2 - McMurry 1

Southwestern finishes third in the SCAC, but it took a late rally against second-to-last place McMurry to avoid missing out on the conference tournament altogether.  McMurry scored right before halftime to take a 1-0 lead and was a little over 5 minutes from claiming their third SCAC win of the season, but Southwestern managed to equalize in the 86th minute and get the winner in the 87th minute.

St. Thomas 4 - Austin 1

UST came into the match one point behind Southwestern, Concordia, and Texas Lutheran for the fourth and final spot in the SCAC tournament.  They needed to win this game and hope Concordia and Texas Lutheran would tie and that's exactly what they got. Austin scored first in the 9th minute, but UST equalized right before halftime.  That 1-1 tie held up until St. Thomas exploded for three goals in the 77th, 79th, and 86th minutes to give it a chance to defend its conference tournament title.

Concordia TX 1 - Texas Lutheran 1

St. Thomas would have been on the outside looking in on the four tournament finalists if Texas Lutheran hadn't scored in the 84th minute, despite playing down a man because of a double yellow in the 81st minute, to equalize the game and thwart Concordia from securing the three points to stay ahead of St. Thomas.

SCAC Tournament Friday Nov. 8th (Semifinals)

Colorado College v. St. Thomas 5 pm CST

Trinity v. Southwestern 8 pm CST

Both games are at Sabercats Stadium in Houston, Texas, which is where University of St. Thomas plays its home games.

 

[Kuiper]

NWC de facto championship game

Pacific Lutheran 4 - George Fox 0

PLU dominates this game, scoring 2 in each half, including Trevor Thompson's 20th of the year, and outshooting GF 18-6, to take an 8 point lead in the NWC with two games to go in the regular season and clinch the Northwest Conference championship and the NCAA AQ.  George Fox lost both games this weekend and 3 out of the last 4 to fade out of contention after a hot start to the NWC season.  They fall to third with Whitworth's victory over Lewis & Clark.

It will be interesting how the Lutes approach the last two games of the season at Whitworth and Whitman.  The games are meaningless for qualification and they might want to rest some players and avoid injury, but they also might want to go into the NCAA tournament on a roll.  Plus, the additional victories could marginally help with PLU's seeding, even though PLU is already higher ranked than both teams in the NPI.

[Kuiper]

ASC conference tournament starts tomorrow.  Not as much drama as other conferences since everyone makes the tournament.  Nevertheless, that sets up the opportunity for a team to come out of nowhere and take the ASC automatic bid, and the two teams playing tomorrow would be coming out of absolutely nowhere if they did so.

https://ascsports.org/tournaments/?id=159

Quarterfinals:  Tuesday Nov 5 2 pm central

#4 LeTourneau hosts #5 Howard Payne

During the regular season, LeTourneau beat Howard Payne 4-0 on 9/28 at home and the teams tied 1-1 on 10/17 at Howard Payne.  LeTourneau (4-8-5 and 1-4-3) gets the benefit of hosting this game and should be heavily favored as Howard Payne is on an 18 game winless streak this season (0-14-4 and 0-7-1).  Howard Payne did only lose to Hardin-Simmons 1-0 on Saturday, though, so perhaps they will be full of confidence, if you can draw confidence from a close loss. LeTourneau, by contrast, comes in struggling, having gone winless in the last 8 games and is on a 4 game losing streak.  They have been outscored 17-3 in the last 4 games, so this is definitely a weakened LeTourneau team from the one that beat Austin College and tied Mary Hardin-Baylor and East Texas Baptist.  Realistically, neither team deserves to be in a conference tournament, but the ASC has only five teams, which isn't enough for a full non-conference schedule, so this is a way for them to get some extra games.

 

[Kuiper]

The SCIAC tournament starts tomorrow.  They have a play-in game for the first time this season.

Play-In Game:  Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 7 pm Pacific

#5 Chapman @ #4 Cal Lutheran

Both teams come off really bad performances in their last games of the regular season.  Chapman lost 4-0 to Occidental and Cal Lutheran lost to Caltech 5-0.  During the regular season, Cal Lu won 2-0 at Chapman on 9/25 and the teams tied 1-1 at Cal Lu on 10/26.  Neither team is coming in on a high.  Cal Lu has gone winless in 6 of its last 7 games, while Chapman has been winless in 6 of its last 8 games.  On the other hand, both teams have had lots of ties.  The teams are the bottom two teams in the SCIAC in all offensive stats (shots, goals, assists), so expect a low scoring affair that could end in OT or PKs.

[Ron Boerger]

I fear that with the SCAC tournament being held at a participating FloSports member school that the tournament broadcasts will only be available via that outlet. 

[SKUD]

I think the conference trumps the host. If the conference staff has any skill.

[Ron Boerger]

The SCAC is pushing Flo - they don't have independent production capability.  In the past they have leveraged whatever broadcast facilities the host school provides (sometimes with invited announcing talent). 

[Kuiper]

The SCAC is pushing Flo - they don't have independent production capability.  In the past they have leveraged whatever broadcast facilities the host school provides (sometimes with invited announcing talent). 

Last year, SCAC used Cooper Sports Media as their broadcasters for the SCAC Championships held at SaberCats Stadium in Houston.  I expect they will use them again.  They are also the regular home broadcasters for University of St. Thomas and this is where UST plays its home games.  Whether they are on FloSports for the championships is unclear from the press release

[BTXCru18]

ASC conference tournament starts tomorrow.  Not as much drama as other conferences since everyone makes the tournament.  Nevertheless, that sets up the opportunity for a team to come out of nowhere and take the ASC automatic bid, and the two teams playing tomorrow would be coming out of absolutely nowhere if they did so.

https://ascsports.org/tournaments/?id=159

Quarterfinals:  Tuesday Nov 5 2 pm central

#4 LeTourneau hosts #5 Howard Payne

During the regular season, LeTourneau beat Howard Payne 4-0 on 9/28 at home and the teams tied 1-1 on 10/17 at Howard Payne.  LeTourneau (4-8-5 and 1-4-3) gets the benefit of hosting this game and should be heavily favored as Howard Payne is on an 18 game winless streak this season (0-14-4 and 0-7-1).  Howard Payne did only lose to Hardin-Simmons 1-0 on Saturday, though, so perhaps they will be full of confidence, if you can draw confidence from a close loss. LeTourneau, by contrast, comes in struggling, having gone winless in the last 8 games and is on a 4 game losing streak.  They have been outscored 17-3 in the last 4 games, so this is definitely a weakened LeTourneau team from the one that beat Austin College and tied Mary Hardin-Baylor and East Texas Baptist.  Realistically, neither team deserves to be in a conference tournament, but the ASC has only five teams, which isn't enough for a full non-conference schedule, so this is a way for them to get some extra games.

 

Changed to 7:30 CST and at a local high school on turf due to weather.

[Kuiper]

ASC conference tournament starts tomorrow.  Not as much drama as other conferences since everyone makes the tournament.  Nevertheless, that sets up the opportunity for a team to come out of nowhere and take the ASC automatic bid, and the two teams playing tomorrow would be coming out of absolutely nowhere if they did so.

https://ascsports.org/tournaments/?id=159

Quarterfinals:  Tuesday Nov 5 2 pm central

#4 LeTourneau hosts #5 Howard Payne

During the regular season, LeTourneau beat Howard Payne 4-0 on 9/28 at home and the teams tied 1-1 on 10/17 at Howard Payne.  LeTourneau (4-8-5 and 1-4-3) gets the benefit of hosting this game and should be heavily favored as Howard Payne is on an 18 game winless streak this season (0-14-4 and 0-7-1).  Howard Payne did only lose to Hardin-Simmons 1-0 on Saturday, though, so perhaps they will be full of confidence, if you can draw confidence from a close loss. LeTourneau, by contrast, comes in struggling, having gone winless in the last 8 games and is on a 4 game losing streak.  They have been outscored 17-3 in the last 4 games, so this is definitely a weakened LeTourneau team from the one that beat Austin College and tied Mary Hardin-Baylor and East Texas Baptist.  Realistically, neither team deserves to be in a conference tournament, but the ASC has only five teams, which isn't enough for a full non-conference schedule, so this is a way for them to get some extra games.

 

Changed to 7:30 CST and at a local high school on turf due to weather.

Thanks!  I see that the game was moved to Spring Hill High School, whose artificial turf football field doubles as a soccer field.  In Texas, when you move from a college soccer field to a high school football stadium, it's more than likely a step up.  Spring Hill has probably around a 5,000 seat stadium, which is pretty big for a school whose enrollment is only about 1,000.

https://www.shisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=3761276&type=d&pREC_ID=2440203

I bet the locker rooms are pretty nice too.

[Gray Fox]

Thanks!  I see that the game was moved to Spring Hill High School, whose artificial turf football field doubles as a soccer field.  In Texas, when you move from a college soccer field to a high school football stadium, it's more than likely a step up.  Spring Hill has probably around a 5,000 seat stadium, which is pretty big for a school whose enrollment is only about 1,000.

https://www.shisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=3761276&type=d&pREC_ID=2440203

I bet the locker rooms are pretty nice too.

Halftime shows with bands, etc are big in Texas.  The parents and community all attend.

[Kuiper]

ASC 4v5 game

LeTourneau 1 - Howard Payne 0

LeTourneau scored on a PK in the 29th minute as part of a dominant first half in which they had 10 shots to HP's 1 to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.  Howard Payne, however, came back strong in the second half, outshooting LeTourneau 14-7.  Despite going down a man in the 90th minute on a second yellow, HP almost tied the game on a shot with 3 seconds left that the LeTourneau goalkeeper appeared to save off the line.  It was so close that the refs actually conferred to review the play, but decided the original call of no goal stood.  Howard Payne finishes the season winless and LeTourneau advances to face #1 Mary Hardin-Baylor on Thursday at 1 pm central

SCIAC 4v5 game

Chapman 2 - Cal Lutheran 1

Very evenly matched game.  Cal Lu struck first with a goal in the 40th minute that gave them a 1-0 lead going into halftime.  Chapman came out of halftime and equalized less than 30 seconds into the second half.  About 10 minutes later, Chapman took the lead on a great turn by the striker inside the box and quick left-footed shot back toward the near post.  The game got chippy at the end, with yellow cards being handed out twice to Cal Lu players in rough plays that brought the teams together in what might have expanded to all out fights, but cooler heads prevailed.  Chapman travels to Redlands on Thursday for the semifinals at 7 pm in a rematch of a game Redlands won 1-0 back in mid-September.

[BTXCru18]

I'm sure this might have been mentioned in the NPI or national threads, but with Colorado College having such a  high ranking but no proximity to hardly any school, what will happen to their hosting priority?