NJAC Pre-Season Poll

Started by Ejay, August 15, 2018, 01:01:17 PM

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Ejay

#15
That's a HUGE conference win for Ramapo.  TCNJ was undefeated until this week, having lost to Drew mid-week. 
Also MSU 1-0 over Rowan.

I think the NJAC is completely up for grabs this year. 

Falconer

Quote from: willchar on September 21, 2018, 02:40:05 PM
Rowan has played a more competing schedule up to this point.  I'll take them over MSU. 

And maybe, just maybe, the coaching staff at NJCU has gotten that team turned around.  Expect them to give WPU all they can handle.  That grass field us definitely a home-field advantsge.
Things are turning out somewhat unexpectedly in the NJAC so far. Ramapo is outperforming expectations, and so is Montclair. Take out the lopsided loss to Messiah, and MSU is 8-0-1, while yielding just 2 goals--including one to a darn good team, Cortland. That MSU-Ramapo game next weekend is starting to loom large.

(It's worth adding that Nick West scored more goals himself vs MSU than all other opponents combined. As Mr Right and I have been saying, he's a beast.)

willchar

Your point is well taken but MSU played Oneonta in their first game.  And after Messiah and Oneonta their out of conference schedule is too weak.  They out scored Hunter, New Rochelle, Brooklyn, CCNY and Mt St Vincent 35-1 but those teams are a combined 9-26-2 with a couple of those wins against each other.  I'd suggest the overall conference is down this year.  Can you point to a single out of conference win that matters?

PaulNewman

Quote from: Falconer on September 24, 2018, 06:07:26 PM
Quote from: willchar on September 21, 2018, 02:40:05 PM
Rowan has played a more competing schedule up to this point.  I'll take them over MSU. 

And maybe, just maybe, the coaching staff at NJCU has gotten that team turned around.  Expect them to give WPU all they can handle.  That grass field us definitely a home-field advantsge.
Things are turning out somewhat unexpectedly in the NJAC so far. Ramapo is outperforming expectations, and so is Montclair. Take out the lopsided loss to Messiah, and MSU is 8-0-1, while yielding just 2 goals--including one to a darn good team, Cortland. That MSU-Ramapo game next weekend is starting to loom large.

(It's worth adding that Nick West scored more goals himself vs MSU than all other opponents combined. As Mr Right and I have been saying, he's a beast.)

Sneaking in another Nick West mention....well-played (if strained....and as if the overall quality of Messiah had nothing to do with scoring at a rate greater than all other teams).

I am reminded of the rant of the old Minnesota Vikings coach, Dennis Green....

Keep an eye on Chewy Gordon from Capital.

Falconer

Quote from: willchar on September 24, 2018, 08:40:08 PM
Your point is well taken but MSU played Oneonta in their first game.  And after Messiah and Oneonta their out of conference schedule is too weak.  They out scored Hunter, New Rochelle, Brooklyn, CCNY and Mt St Vincent 35-1 but those teams are a combined 9-26-2 with a couple of those wins against each other.  I'd suggest the overall conference is down this year.  Can you point to a single out of conference win that matters?

My bad--you're right, I was confusing Oneonta with Cortland. And this year, so far, Cortland is probably better than Oneonta. MSU's pre-conference schedule is indeed pretty weak: we agree on that. I doubt many expected them to defeat Rowan, however, and I think they will do pretty well in the NJAC. Soon we'll know if I'm over-rating them.

Falconer

Quote from: PaulNewman on September 24, 2018, 08:48:37 PM
Quote from: Falconer on September 24, 2018, 06:07:26 PM
Quote from: willchar on September 21, 2018, 02:40:05 PM
Rowan has played a more competing schedule up to this point.  I'll take them over MSU. 

And maybe, just maybe, the coaching staff at NJCU has gotten that team turned around.  Expect them to give WPU all they can handle.  That grass field us definitely a home-field advantsge.
Things are turning out somewhat unexpectedly in the NJAC so far. Ramapo is outperforming expectations, and so is Montclair. Take out the lopsided loss to Messiah, and MSU is 8-0-1, while yielding just 2 goals--including one to a darn good team, Cortland. That MSU-Ramapo game next weekend is starting to loom large.

(It's worth adding that Nick West scored more goals himself vs MSU than all other opponents combined. As Mr Right and I have been saying, he's a beast.)

Sneaking in another Nick West mention....well-played (if strained....and as if the overall quality of Messiah had nothing to do with scoring at a rate greater than all other teams).

I am reminded of the rant of the old Minnesota Vikings coach, Dennis Green....

Keep an eye on Chewy Gordon from Capital.

Busted again, Paul, busted again.  ;D

In fairness to my point, however, so far West has 13 of Messiah's 25 goals in 8 games. In recent seasons, as most here realize, the Falcons haven't been scoring at the same rate people had grown accustomed to. This was true even in the 2017 season. What made that team so good was their mental toughness: they were going to score at least one goal regardless, and they did; but they often struggled greatly to get that one goal, and almost never got goals in bunches. That's a major change.  But, even in the lower scoring years, the goals have been distributed among more players. Last year, e.g., the Falcons scored 62 goals in 26 games. Robbins had 15, West 14, Thomas 9, then a big dropoff to Brandt and Brautigam with 4 apiece.

West is on a pace to score 40 goals--an absolutely unprecedented number in Falcon history. I doubt he will come close to 40 in the end, but it's also unprecedented for any Falcon to score anywhere near 50% of the team's goals.  Not even the great targets from early last decade ever got close to that. DMac had 25 of Messiah's 88 goals in 2004, and 20 of 82 goals in 2005. Matt Bills had 14 out of 72 in 2003 (when he missed 5 games to a leg injury that also nagged him in the tournament and probably contributed to the season-ending scoreless tie with Salisbury). I think Bills had at least 20 goals in 2002, but the online archives don't go back that far. I'm sure he didn't score anywhere near 50% of the team's goals in 2002.

Quite possibly, West will go down as the greatest scoring threat in Falcon history. Given the general outline of that history, that would be saying something quite significant--probably enough to make him the offensive POY in 2018, whether or not the Falcons repeat (I doubt they will).


PaulNewman

Quote from: Falconer on September 25, 2018, 03:45:54 PM
Quote from: PaulNewman on September 24, 2018, 08:48:37 PM
Quote from: Falconer on September 24, 2018, 06:07:26 PM
Quote from: willchar on September 21, 2018, 02:40:05 PM


Quite possibly, West will go down as the greatest scoring threat in Falcon history. Given the general outline of that history, that would be saying something quite significant--probably enough to make him the offensive POY in 2018, whether or not the Falcons repeat (I doubt they will).

OK, now you got my attention.  I'm going to watch him the next few games if I get the chance.  I thought Colby Thomas was supposed the scoring superstar when he came in.  Did he have injuries during his tenure at Messiah?

Falconer

Yes, Colby Thomas was often injured. This affected his numbers every year except his last. As you know, I am a huge Thomas fan, and I thought he was always a lot more dangerous than his relatively modest numbers suggested. His freshman year, when he played behind Danny Brandt, I felt he was even then being shortchanged--that he should have been starting somewhere, even over Brandt if necessary.

For most of his career, however, he couldn't go to his left effectively. Nor was he quite as fast as West, and didn't have the same fitness level--if anyone on any team is fitter than West, I don't know who that would be. (That man would have to be running the mile under 4:30.) He was probably stronger, but not as nimble, so teams would stack defenders on him, keep their hands on him, and force him to go to his left (if they could). As a senior, he finally became dangerous to his left, but never showed West's ability to play equally well with either foot and from either side of the field.

West is far more dangerous than Colby. He goes wherever he wants, starts scoring plays from anywhere he wants, and finishes them in any way he wants. He is also now a serious threat to score on free kicks. Thomas was nowhere near as versatile.

OldMCGuy

Quote from: Falconer on September 25, 2018, 03:45:54 PM

Busted again, Paul, busted again.  ;D

In fairness to my point, however, so far West has 13 of Messiah's 25 goals in 8 games. In recent seasons, as most here realize, the Falcons haven't been scoring at the same rate people had grown accustomed to. This was true even in the 2017 season. What made that team so good was their mental toughness: they were going to score at least one goal regardless, and they did; but they often struggled greatly to get that one goal, and almost never got goals in bunches. That's a major change.  But, even in the lower scoring years, the goals have been distributed among more players. Last year, e.g., the Falcons scored 62 goals in 26 games. Robbins had 15, West 14, Thomas 9, then a big dropoff to Brandt and Brautigam with 4 apiece.

West is on a pace to score 40 goals--an absolutely unprecedented number in Falcon history. I doubt he will come close to 40 in the end, but it's also unprecedented for any Falcon to score anywhere near 50% of the team's goals.  Not even the great targets from early last decade ever got close to that. DMac had 25 of Messiah's 88 goals in 2004, and 20 of 82 goals in 2005. Matt Bills had 14 out of 72 in 2003 (when he missed 5 games to a leg injury that also nagged him in the tournament and probably contributed to the season-ending scoreless tie with Salisbury). I think Bills had at least 20 goals in 2002, but the online archives don't go back that far. I'm sure he didn't score anywhere near 50% of the team's goals in 2002.

Quite possibly, West will go down as the greatest scoring threat in Falcon history. Given the general outline of that history, that would be saying something quite significant--probably enough to make him the offensive POY in 2018, whether or not the Falcons repeat (I doubt they will).

Sorry to add more Messiah stuff to an NJAC thread
And since my screen name is OldMCGuy (please emphasize the OLD and the MC as in Messiah College) so you know where I am coming from  :)

I would point out that a long time ago (1973) Eddie Oostdyke from Messiah scored 31 goals in one season and in those days the season was only 16 games.  31 out of Messiah's total of 70 goals...Eddie had over 44% of the team total.


In 1972 Kent Worman from Messiah scored 18 goals out of the teams total of 43 (nearly 42%) in a 14 game season

Ji Sung Park the Bus

Move it along, Rowan vs Stockton tonight!  Rowan is the better team but lets see if Stockton can come out at home fired up and looking for revenge after that NJAC game last year with the goal that shouldn't of been!

lastguyoffthebench

Quote from: PaulNewman on September 25, 2018, 03:52:57 PM
Quote from: Falconer on September 25, 2018, 03:45:54 PM
Quote from: PaulNewman on September 24, 2018, 08:48:37 PM
Quote from: Falconer on September 24, 2018, 06:07:26 PM
Quote from: willchar on September 21, 2018, 02:40:05 PM


Quite possibly, West will go down as the greatest scoring threat in Falcon history. Given the general outline of that history, that would be saying something quite significant--probably enough to make him the offensive POY in 2018, whether or not the Falcons repeat (I doubt they will).

OK, now you got my attention.  I'm going to watch him the next few games if I get the chance.  I thought Colby Thomas was supposed the scoring superstar when he came in.  Did he have injuries during his tenure at Messiah?



I would give the nod as greatest scoring threat in Falcon history to Matt Bills....



NJAC PREDICTIONS
Rutgers-Newark @ Ramapo                   4:00 PM
RUN 3, Ramapo 1

Montclair State @ William Paterson        7:00 PM             
MSU 3, WPU 0

TCNJ @ Rutgers-Camden       7:00 PM   
RUC 2, TCNJ 0
       
New Jersey City @ Kean        7:30 PM
Kean 2, NJCU 1

Rowan @ Stockton       7:00 PM     
Rowan 2, Stockton 1

willchar

You're probably right on 4 of them but I'll take NJCU over Kean.

Ejay

I'm gonna get on the Ramapo train and say they beat RUN.

Ejay

So, after I made my prediction I tuned in to the game at the start of the 2nd half.  RUN proceeded to score almost immediately, and then added 1 more 20 minutes later, both on breakaways  - one a long ball, the other a defense turn over at midfield.  However, 'Po is absolutely dominating and RUN can hardly cross midfield. With 7 minutes left, shots are 28-7 in favor of Ramapo.  No reason for RUN to win this game.  Coach Pinton has got to be fuming.

Flying Weasel

I imagine neither coach is happy after this games, though for different reasons.  Even with the players RUN lost from last year, Coach West's expectations for his team got to be very high on the heels of winning the NJAC last year and reaching the NCAA Elite 8 the year prior.  So I got to think he'd be fuming at being largely dominated and outshot 32-7 (14-3 SOG) by anyone, all the more so by an upstart like Ramapo.  The "W" is some consolation, I guess, but teams that can can make a post-season run, though often able to win ugly and in games they aren't at their best, don't get outplayed to the extent the box score would indicate.

By the way, does anyone know if Fabio de Sousa got injured or if he just isn't making the grade with Penn FC in the USL (just 1 appearance for 9 minutes).  If the later, I wonder if he regrets his decision to go pro after 2 years of college.