MARSHMALLOW CUP 2015 - Messiah at E-town, Wednesday, Sept. 30

Started by Flying Weasel, September 30, 2015, 02:54:47 PM

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Flying Weasel

it's that time again . . .


16th ANNUAL MARSHMALLOW CUP
53th Meeting of Central PA Rivals

#22 Messiah Falcons
(5-2-1)

AT

#19 Elizabethtown Blue Jays
(7-1-1)


Ira R. Herr Field
Elizabethtown College
Elizabethtown, PA
September 30, 2015
7:00 pm



Mr.Right


Flying Weasel

For those message veterans from the old D3Soccer Message Board set-up by BlueJayFan in the 2000's, this year marks the 10th anniversary of my first posting of the complete history of Messiah/Elizabethtown rivalry way back in 2004. So in honor of its 10-year anniversary and the fact that Elizabethtown is ranked coming into this game for the first time since that first posting in 2004 (when Messiah was ranked #9 and E-town #25), I dusted off the cobwebs and brought the bad boy back to life . . . over on the old D3Soccer Message Board (the reason to do it there, besides nostalgia, is that that board accepts HTML code and this one does not, and I had everything stuff set-up for HTML.  So for anyone wanted to review it once again after a few years in hiatus, have a look.

Flying Weasel

Quote from: Mr.Right on September 30, 2015, 02:56:10 PMHow is ETOWN's webcast? Is it viewable or choppy?
No idea.  I'll be at the game anyways.  According to their webcast page, they don't seem to ever do audio for the soccer games, just streaming video.

Flying Weasel

Even while Messiah was racking up national titles and E-town was fading into mediocrity, the game with E-town remainded a close game (on the scoreboard) through to 2007.  It's only 2008 to present that the games have gotten lopsided.

QuoteGAMES DECIDED BY ONE GOAL OR LESS:
All Games: 34 of 52 (65%), 15 straight ('91 Reg. Season thru '99 Reg. Season)
Reg. Season: 20 of 33 (61%), 13 straight ('91 thru '03)
Post-Season: 14 of 19 (74%), 6 straight ('91 NCAA's thru '97 Commonwealth Final)
At Grantham: 18 of 27 (67%), 5 straight ('04 Commonwealth Final thru '07 Commonwealth Final)
At Elizabethtown: 16 of 25 (64%), 14 straight ('91 NCAA's thru '05 Reg. Season)

Games Decided By One Goal or Less ('80 thru '07): 33 of 44 (75%)
Games Decided By One Goal or Less ('08 thru '13): 1 of 8 (13%)

Games Decided By One Goal or Less ('97 thru '07): 16 of 20 (80%)
Wins ('97 thru '07): Messiah 16-1-3 Elizabethtown

But no doubt, the 15-game streak of 1-goal games in the 90's is when this was the Duke-UNC rivalry of D-III soccer.

Flying Weasel

#5
• This year marks the first time since 2004 that both team are ranked nationally entering the match.  Elizabethtown is No. 19 and Messiah No. 22 in the D3soccer.com Top 25.  Neither is in the NSCAA National Poll although Elizabethtown did receive votes.

• Last year's match, which would have been the first non-conference regular season meeting since Elizabethtown left the Commonwealth Conference, was suspended in the 58th minute and not resumed.  So this year's match has the chance to be the first non-conference regular season match.

• Last year's incomplete and therefore unofficial match was on September 30 which would have been the first September meeting in the rivalry since perhaps the early 1980's.  That distinction now falls to this year's game.

• Elizabethtown already has as many wins this year (7-1-1) as all of last year (7-5-3).

• Messiah hadn't lost two of their first six games since 1998 and it's been even longer since they've had three blemishes after six games.  The earliest they've had three blemishes in the previous 17 years is after eight games in both 2000 (national champs) and 2003 (Sweet 16 PK elimination).

• Both teams are perfect when scoring first (Messiah 5-0-0, Elizabethtown 7-0-0) but winless when conceding first.

• Messiah has been held scoreless in the first half of five of their eight games this season, going 3-1-1 in those games. Elizabethtown has scored in the first half of seven of their nine games, winning all seven.

• Defensively, Messiah is conceding 50% more shots on goal this year as compared to last year and their goalkeepers are saving just 72% of those shots on goal compared to 88% last season.

• Messiah has an unusually high yellow card count, 7, by their standards.  Elizabethtown has earned 9 yellow cards.