Liberty League

Started by Saint of Old, August 12, 2014, 12:14:06 PM

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deutschfan

Congrats Saint and all Saints' fans.  Great final tomorrow.  Teams with the two best records who tied the first time around.  Both made the final with last second heroics and both will dance barring a total shaft of Ithaca by the committee if they lose.  Glad to see two LL teams likely to make the tournament.  Looking forward to some NESCAC/LL matches in the Dance.  Ithaca already has a NESCAC pelt along with 6th place Skidmore against NESCAC tourney finalist Williams.  Make us proud. 

Saint of Old

Quote from: deutschfan on November 03, 2018, 07:24:11 PM
Congrats Saint and all Saints' fans.  Great final tomorrow.  Teams with the two best records who tied the first time around.  Both made the final with last second heroics and both will dance barring a total shaft of Ithaca by the committee if they lose.  Glad to see two LL teams likely to make the tournament.  Looking forward to some NESCAC/LL matches in the Dance.  Ithaca already has a NESCAC pelt along with 6th place Skidmore against NESCAC tourney finalist Williams.  Make us proud.

Thanks Brother.
I agree with you that both Ithaca and SLU should be dancing this year regardless of the outcome, but now that Oneonta (Tied/Out Penalties), Cortland and Rochester ( Tied/out in Penalties) have also gone and will likely get the Pool C, I am sure both coaches  are going into this telling their players they need another win.


LL should get two teams, the league deserves nothing less, as I think all four teams that play today would have danced with anyone in the country.

Saint of Old

Just a word for Seniors from Hobart and RPI.
As someone who saw his career end on the SLU soccer field as well.

Hats off to an impressive Hobart senior class:
These boys had a very good and underrated and unrecognized run in the league.

They won the regular season title in 2016.

Won the regular season and Tournament in 2017.

An NCAA team in 2017 who gave the eventual champions ALL THEY COULD HANDLE in 2017 and almost got a win, who knows what would have happened next, maybe a deep run to the promise land themselves.

These boys came in in 2015 and quickly established their program as a powerhouse in the league and an elite LL team.

The true shame is that this class did not finish their careers in the dance.

For almost 3 seasons 2016-2018 they could not be touched in the league.
Have a whole lot to be proud of and leave their program situated well.

RPI are Giant Slayers.

They were the most dangerous team in the league this year, I for one am glad that we are not facing this team.

Beat Hobart 3-0
Beat RPI 3-0
Beat SLU 3-2 (Would have been 4 had the last shot of the game not bounced off the crossbar).
Beat Oneonta.
Beat Vassar 2-0 on the road.
These guys are an NCAA team, they just lost too many games to mediocre teams.
Today, they dominated a quality Ithaca team and were unfortunate not to win.
Hats off to Coach Clinton who did a masterful job this season and is by far one of the best coaches/tacticians in the league.

RPI Seniors should also be proud of thier body of work over the years.

This proud program missed the playoffs last year, and seniors had to set things right which they did in 2018 with one hell of a run.

I say again, the LL had 4 teams this year worthy of dancing, unfortunately the committee is unlikely to reward them all.




Bartman

+ k to Saint of Old for recognizing the Hobart and RPI players. The Statesmen gave it their all today and all season. The last two senior classes were special , for sure. Good luck to the Saints tomorrow and in the tournament.
"I never graduated from Iowa, but I was only there for two terms - Truman's and Eisenhower's."
Alex Karras
"When it's third and ten, you can take the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time."
Max McGee
"I love football. I really love football, As far as I'm concerned, it's the second best thing in the world".
Joe Namath

CU_GKnight

+k to Saint as well, he is truly a class act and I greatly enjoy his passion and insight.

I have watched the boards all season and not had a chance to post, but with my extra hour from daylight savings today I finally made the time.

The Liberty League looked to take a step forward this year as a conference and appears to be gaining strength.  It was also a little odd in that there were only 3 draws all season, two less than Skidmore alone managed last season.
There have been a lot of great stories in the league – SLU's continued strength and return to form after having a legendary coach leave the sideline, to the return to power for Ithaca (who's mid-1990's teams were stellar) and Hobarts rise to being a consistent threat to make the tournament – has been great to see.  But I think in some ways the re-emergence of Clarkson has gotten lost in the shuffle – so I wanted to take a little time, as an alum, to give it some credit.

While Clarkson didn't manage to break into the top-6 in the league like they did last season I think they made another substantial step forward. I think many expected them to drop off after Coach Taylor moved on to Plattsburgh, but I think this season showed continued growth for a program that once produced a Final Four team and badly wants to compete at a higher level.  Clarkson finished at 10-6-1 with it being the first 10 win season in 17 years.  I know the out of conference slate wasn't stellar, but this is still a tremendous achievement.  I also think that the loss of Aidan Subra to injury after only fie games hurt the teams momentum as he was having a very special year – with points in all five game from 2 goals and 5 assists.  As Clarkson has rebuilt over the past 5 or so years it has been an inconsistent process, with the 2016 team being the first to hit .500 by playing great defense. That team managed to hold opponents to 13 goals over a 16 game slate, but relied solely on counter attacking and were almost doubled up in shots.  The 2017 team built off the strength at defense and looked to open the offense up a little more and took a step forward with their first LL tournament berth.  This season saw the return to an excellent defense conceding a program record low of 10 goals but without the compromise of bunkering in.  Clarkson actually went the entire season without being outshot by an opponent with only Plattsburg and SLU equaling there shot totals.  They could stand to put a few more on frame, but the trend is certainly moving in the right direction. 

A few folks have mentioned the strength of schedule for out of conference, and I know it has been challenging for Clarkson to get solid opponents to bolster this.  Clarkson and SLU used to play nearly an identical schedule; however over the past 7-8 years it looks like that alignment has weakened as Potsdam looks to be Clarkson primary travel partner out of conference, which doesn't help SOS.  I would hope that Clarkson and SLU could eventually upgrade the quality of opponents in their start of season tournament and potentially tie themselves together for a weekend to bring in some higher caliber opponents.  To be honest, Clarkson alone can't draw a strong team with a home and home due to the geography and other constraints, but a weekend with SLU/Clarkson should be a draw for a few higher quality sides that would love a shot at adding SLU to their RvR totals. 

I think Clarkson appears to have absorbed the coaching change well and hopefully can look to the future with optimism.  They lose a few very good seniors but look to have the depth developed to continue to move forward.  Saint mentioned seasons that seem to occur every decade or so and listed 1997 as one for the Saints – I see shades of 1997 for Clarkson as well.  Clarkson was an excellent side in '97 and was off to a great start, including beating national top-5 Ithaca early in the season, before a few key injuries in the midfield slowed the offense.  The team lost each of its last three league games 1-0 in OT (just as this years team did) and never lived up to its potential, seeing 10 seniors graduate.  The 2018 team then came out and had one of the finest seasons the program has seen, giving SLU one of the best matches I've ever seen in the second round of the NCAA's before succumbing to a 1-0 OT loss.  Hopefully, the 2019 Clarkson team can take a page from that great team and move the program forward again.

Saint of Old

I appreciate it Brother Knight.

Your passion shines through as well.

Clarkson's revival did not escape me at all.
That new young coach has "it", whatever it is, his players clearly play for him and he has the makings of a talented squad that will only get better.

I thought earlier this year that the Route 11 weekend trip was making teams worry a lot just like it did a while back.

Vassar, a great team, had a beautiful season going before they made that trip this season.
Clarkson will be really good in years to come if they continued. I did not have them making the playoffs, but after 10 games I was tempted to change that prediction. I didn't know about the loss of a key player, that definitely will hurt a season.

You are bringing me back now my friend with the 97 reference.
That was a strange year. We lost our first 2 games.
Won the league title, won the ECAC playoffs, but it just still felt like a rough year.

I think the year you referenced in your post was 1998 not 2018.
Wow what a NCAA game between Clarkson and SLU.
Instant Classic!!!
It seems in 1998 we were destined to go up against the best teams in the country during the tourney.
A tough Plattsburgh, a determined talented Clarkson and Williams, who I thought would win it all that year.
Back then Clarkson and Williams were just coming off final 4 runs a few seasons earlier and Plattsburgh were undoubtedly a power in the region.

People dont get that for the alumni, this is where its at.
Watching these games/seasons and cheering for the boys enjoying games.
While we were playing there was no time to 'enjoy" these games or seasons, it was a battle, constant war and competition and fights wo win games. These boys have to play their part in these wars now and then enjoy it down the line knowing they were a part of building the brotherhood we all enjoy.

CU_GKnight

You're correct I did mean 1998.  That was back when there was no AQ and the East region got 4 teams – 3 of which (Clarkson, SLU and RPI) came from the LL predecessor UCAA.  It would be nice for the LL to get back to that kind of representation. 

I didn't recall how SLU ended their season in 1997 and it does surprise me that they were as successful as they were in terms of results.  We played them mid-season and I perceived it as a down year by their standards.  The 1997 SLU matchup was one of the highlights of my career.  Clarkson didn't have a goalkeeper coach back then. But, as a testament to how great a person coach Durocher is, he allowed Mike Toshack (current coach and former MLS keeper coach) to come over to Clarkson once a week and train our keepers.  With the game tied 1-1 in the second overtime, SLU played a diagonal ball into the box on the ground and SLU's striker was in behind our defense.  The striker used the angle of the pass to touch a shot towards the upper corner from about 14 yards out.  I'm sure I remember it being much better a save than it actually was but it was destined for the upper 90 before I pushed it over the crossbar to preserve the tie.  When I was getting up I looked over toward the SLU bench and saw Durocher mockingly hitting Toshack.  After the game Durocher said Tosh's privileges were revoked, but true to form Tosh was there the next week to train the keepers from his rivals team.  While Clarkson and SLU were always rivals back then (and still would be if we could get back to getting a result at least once a decade) I always felt a strong sense of brotherhood with them and truly enjoyed playing amongst many of the great saints players.

deutschfan

For those of you getting a sandwich during the LL final halftime, check out the Colby-Williams pks.

Mr.Right

St.Lawrence takes a 1-0 lead over Ithaca early 2nd Half and bubble teams can breathe easier for now. I just tuned in so I do not know how Ithaca has played today but I actually thought they would concede a few goals today. Ithaca has had problems defending when I have seen them this season but I have not seen them in a couple weeks.

stlawus

Ithaca has been solid.  At least as solid as you'd expect someone to play on Sandy.  They've defended well and until that goal SLU hadn't generated any real chances.   Kelly has had a tremendous season and that goal was 100% a product of his run down the right flank.   SLU has retained a ton of possession but again, until that goal hadn't done much up to that point.

Mr.Right

WOW...Ithaca draws even 1-1 on a fantastic header from a beauty of a cross...GK was left with no chance...1-1 about 29 minutes left...

BTW...Where are the guys that usually announce SLU stream?? These two are about as dour as listening to an insurance summit.....DUDE from the gut and give us some emotion.....damn

stlawus

SLU doesn't have regular commentary.  It's done by students who cycle in an out due to graduation and what not. 

Mr.Right

Quote from: stlawus on November 04, 2018, 02:56:41 PM
SLU doesn't have regular commentary.  It's done by students who cycle in an out due to graduation and what not.

OK....but usually they have guys who are into it...IDK it is what it is......

Mr.Right

SLU and Ithaca drew 0-0 in the regular season and it says both teams had about 16-20 Shots each but amazingly Ithaca had 3 SOG and SLU 2 SOG so not a ton on net...Entertaining game here though as it is starting to get stretched with both teams maybe starting to get a little leg heavy...

deutschfan

Ithaca was very fortunate to get by RPI who dominated in every statistic but the one that counts.  Very resilient bunch.  I thought SLU would carry the day with ease today with all of their offensive firepower.  Credit to both sides for a really entertaining game.