2023 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[PaulNewman]

Welp...that's got to be one of the quickest honeymoons on record.  Nothing like an opening day loss to bring one's enthusiasm grinding to a halt.  Thank goodness yesterday's matches were only exhibitions.

I was torn about where to post because Ohio Northern definitely deserves the National thread while Kenyon should be relegated to Great Lakes.  The only thing worse than Kenyon's performance was the dysfunctional video streams for too many games, including this one.  Very hard to get a fair sense when you only see snippets in between long frozen stretches, and of course as a partisan I'd love to focus on ONU getting two phantom PK calls, especially the second one, as well as a 35+ yards free kick from pretty much straight on that a kid buried in the corner top shelf.  The truth from my pov is that ONU outplayed the Owls from start to finish, looking like the far more mature, more dangerous squad.  Kenyon seemed disorganized, disconnected, sloppy, and at a loss for ideas.  They battled and for a brief spell looked likely to equalize after getting back to 3-2, but the second PK was the coffin confirmation.  Impressive, important outing for the Polar Bears who in addition to avenging last year's 6-2 spanking pick up a valuable likely RR win.  By contrast, the Owls are already 0-1 in RvR with JCU coming to town, followed by Hanover and St Olaf.  You don't want to start 1-3 or even 0-4 in RvR but that is now on the table.  Martinez did not play which is disconcerting and Duratovic (something like 18 goals last year) only got about 30 minutes. 


Certainly there's no need to engage in abject panic (yet), but at least a handful of presumed upper tier teams are at risk of starting out with several blemishes and potentially being behind the eight ball on RvR.


Some other results I think not mentioned yet that caught my eye...


Babson 1, St Joe's (ME) 0


Lynchburg 2, Hardin Simmons 0


Emory 0, Covenant 0


OWU, Hope 0


Hanover 2, Centre 0


CWRU 1, Otterbein 0


Skidmore 0, Oswego 0


Brandeis 0, Western NE 0


Leb Valley 4, Rut-Newark 0


Chris Newport 2, Berry 1


New Paltz 2, Drew 1


Denison 2, Roanoke 0


Scranton 1, Muhlenberg 0


MIT 3, Haverford 3


JCU 2, Oberlin 1


Montclair 2, NYU 0


Widener 2, Coast Guard 1


WPI 1, Worcester St 1


J&W 1, Bridgewater St 1


Trine 1, Wooster 1


DePauw 4, Wilmington 0


CMS 2, Santa Cruz 1


RIT 1, Brockport 1


Texas Lutheran 1, Occidental 0


Hobart 6, Keuka 0

[Kuiper]

Emory and Washington & Lee tie 0-0.  W&L had a PK early in the game that Emory saved and a W&L player got booked for simulation very late in the game in an attempt to get a second PK try, but that was it for offense on either side.  Both teams tried ambitious passes that were cut off by the other side, but basically lacked the kind of offensive ideas necessary to unlock their respective opponents.  Given that neither team has scored a goal through two games, I don't think you can attribute the scoreless tie today simply to outstanding defenses (unless you can blame it on Emory's field, since Oglethorpe and Covenant, also tied 0-0 today at the same field). 

[Kuiper]

Franklin & Marshall with a big time win over Stevens 2-1 on a last minute header off a corner.  Stevens went up first on great hold-up play by the forward, who dragged and turned a defender, creating space for a lateral pass to the onrushing Stevens shooter.  F&M then evened it up (somewhat against the run of play in the game overall) and it looked like it would stay that way, but F&M appeared to be energized by the home crowd and kept lumping the ball into the box whenever it had a chance and finally got a clean head to put a ball home.  The commentator for F&M said that Stevens didn't give up 2 goals in a single game all season last year, making F&M's goals all the more impressive.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Stevens v. F&M Crazy silly to play back to back games.  I'm going to guess that Stevens will never do that again even though both teams subbed very liberally (1st half each team made at least 9 subs a piece).  I totally agree with coaches saying that they should not have to play back to back games in the post season, yet somehow they schedule back to back games??!!

First half pretty even with a little bit to Stevens.  They did hit the post.  Second half, first 30 min. or so Stevens hit the cross bar and scored a decent goal. At the 13 min, Stevens defense just collapsed and F&M took advantage. 1-1 on a really good goal stretching the defense catching Stevens ball watching for jam in from just out side the keeper box. With about 2 min remaining and on a right side free kick, the F&M player pushed way towards the left end line, F&M heads it across the goal mouth where the player headed it in for the put away. Come from behind 2-1 win. 

Also, I believe that Stevens did not give up 2 goals in a game all year.  Right now, Stevens does not have another ranked team on its schedule which obviously could change. However, they looked good and could easily make the NCAAs.

FYI, in other news, squirrel loose on the field in Happy Valley halting the PSU game.

[SKUD]

Stevens plays Babson next Sunday.

[Another Mom]

The start of this season feels similar to the start of last year's season with W&L -- that is, they have to work out the kinks. The offense really struggled in the final third. I have confidence Coach Singleton will be able to make adjustments and get the team back in form. Next game is Tuesday.

ETA out of the 8 games with the four teams at this event, *one* goal was scored. All the other games ended in 0-0 ties. So W&L was not alone in struggling how to figure out how to score.

[Kuiper]

Chicago and Gustavus Adolphus play to a 2-2 tie in Saint Peter, Minnesota.  Chicago secured a 2-1 lead about 12 minutes into the second half, but GA tied it up to sort of avenge getting knocked out in the NCAA tournament by U of C last season.  Considering Chicago only had one tie all last season, this seems significant, although coming away with a win and a tie on a tough road trip to St Olaf and Gustavus Adolphus would count as a big success in most team's books.

[TNAggie]

Happy birthday SimpleCoach! I see that government offices and banks are closed for your birthday today — your status as a social media influencer is quite impressive! I enjoy your podcasts — thanks.

[coach analytics]

Rumored results out of the NESCAC first week scrimmages from my coaching contacts

Middlebury 4 - Williams - 0  (Williams in disarray with a lot of personnel losses)
Tufts 1 - Harvard 1 (tufts super bowl to play against former coach)
Conn 4 - Trinity -0 (trinity played far fewer players with a number hurt, conn players competing for PT)
Columbia 1 - Wesleyan 0 (sort or one sided for Columbia)

[SimpleCoach]

Happy birthday SimpleCoach! I see that government offices and banks are closed for your birthday today — your status as a social media influencer is quite impressive! I enjoy your podcasts — thanks.

Thank you @TNAggie.  Appreciate the well wishes and the support.  You know, when they originally suggested to close down the economy for a whole day in my honor, I humbly asked that they reconsider as I thought it was a bit much.  But I was over ruled.

Thanks again!

SC.

[Ejay]

Franklin & Marshall with a big time win over Stevens 2-1 on a last minute header off a corner.  Stevens went up first on great hold-up play by the forward, who dragged and turned a defender, creating space for a lateral pass to the onrushing Stevens shooter.  F&M then evened it up (somewhat against the run of play in the game overall) and it looked like it would stay that way, but F&M appeared to be energized by the home crowd and kept lumping the ball into the box whenever it had a chance and finally got a clean head to put a ball home.  The commentator for F&M said that Stevens didn't give up 2 goals in a single game all season last year, making F&M's goals all the more impressive.

F&M another team using hockey assists for their stats. Double assist given on their game winning free kick that was sent far post then headed back across the net for someone else to finish 

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity(TX) came from behind in a 3-2 win over Pomona-Pitzer as Michael Meese came off the bench in the 20th minute, shortly thereafter assisting on the Tigers' first goal from Adam Knutson when the PP keeper, Ethan Bay, came off his line to challenge.  He later would score his first of the season in the 64th minute after a indirect free kick was awarded when a back pass was (somewhat questionably) called to tie the match at two.  The game-winner would come less than a minute later as Chen Adjei collected a rebound off a save by Bay, took a touch, and fired a shot too high for Bay to collect.  Joshua Lynch, who played the entire match in goal, would collect all of his three saves on the day afterwards to preserve the win.  Bay had eight saves in the loss.

Pomona scored its initial goal in the second minute on a low roller from outside the box by Marvin Heilbronn off of a blocked attempt that surprisingly made its way in just off the left post.  Keyon Namdar put the Sagehens up in the 61st after Brendan Kish picked the pocket of a Trinity defender and found him open on the right side for a shot he slotted into the back left. 

[TNAggie]

FYI NCAA RULE EXCERPTS RE ASSISTS (Looked it up b/c I saw 10.5.8 occur at a game this weekend):

10.5.2 If a scoring play consists of two consecutive passes without a defender gaining control of the ball, two assists may be awarded, provided the second player does not have to elude a defender to make the final pass. Both passes must have a direct influence on the outcome of a goal scored. If the second player needs to elude a defender before passing to the goal-scorer, credit only that assist.

10.5.5 A corner kick, throw-in or free kick leading to a goal each counts as a pass in awarding assists.

10.5.7 If an attacking player's shot hits a post or crossbar and bounces back into the field of play and, before a defender can touch the ball, another attacker shoots the ball into the goal, credit the player whose shot hit the post or crossbar with an assist.

10.5.8 If an attacking player shoots and the goalkeeper or defender blocks the shot but cannot control the ball, and a second attacking player immediately knocks the rebound in for a goal, credit the player who took the first shot with an assist.

[OWU Dad]

A new year, but the exact same start for OWU. Tied 0-0 against Hope; lost 0-1 to Calvin. The guys had their opportunities, including a wide open breakaway, but could not finish. Frustrating weekend for the Battling Bishops.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Franklin & Marshall with a big time win over Stevens 2-1 on a last minute header off a corner.  Stevens went up first on great hold-up play by the forward, who dragged and turned a defender, creating space for a lateral pass to the onrushing Stevens shooter.  F&M then evened it up (somewhat against the run of play in the game overall) and it looked like it would stay that way, but F&M appeared to be energized by the home crowd and kept lumping the ball into the box whenever it had a chance and finally got a clean head to put a ball home.  The commentator for F&M said that Stevens didn't give up 2 goals in a single game all season last year, making F&M's goals all the more impressive.

F&M another team using hockey assists for their stats. Double assist given on their game winning free kick that was sent far post then headed back across the net for someone else to finish 

Thanks for assist clarification!   I was definitely not in the two pass category and did not understand the two assist rule. As you will see at the end of the highlight, the ball never touched the ground.

http://www.hudl.com/v/2LY41J

While this does not mean anything soccerwise, the kid taking the free kick kicked the winning field goal at the end of the game in the 4a PA state championship two years ago.