CCIW

Started by Mr. Ypsi, September 04, 2009, 08:57:08 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Gregory Sager

North Park (3-1) cruised to an easy 4-1 win over Aurora. The Vikings scored all four of their goals in the first 33 minutes of the contest, and then went on cruise control the rest of the way. Kris Grahn used his bench liberally, which was as much a recognition of the fact that the Vikings are somewhat banged up and were playing their third contest in four days as it was a matter of the scoreboard. In the second half the Vikings were much more concerned with simply playing keepaway at midfield than they were with pushing at the box; although they did put seven shots on frame in the latter stanza they could've definitely had more, since on a number of occasions a Viking leading a counter with the ball on the wing simply pulled back. Aurora broke the shutout with four minutes remaining by putting one past NPU's third-string keeper.

CCIW Offensive Player of the Week Peder Olsen had a pair of assists, moving him into third place on the NPU career assists leaderboard and into seventh place for career points. That's not bad for a guy who's only played in 47 matches thus far.

Wheaton (3-2) spotted Iowa Wesleyan an early goal before the hosts remembered that they are Wheaton and the other guys are Iowa Wesleyan and went about dispatching the Tigers, 4-1. CCIW Defensive Player of the Week GK Alex Ruckstaetter of Illinois Wesleyan (2-3) had a rough day at the office, though, as two of Wash U's four shots on goal got past him and the visiting Bears left Bloomington with a 2-1 victory over the Titans.

The first d3soccer.com poll came out today. North Park is #22, and, again, nobody else from the league got so much as a single point in the poll. That doesn't surprise me, as the CCIW is now an embarrassing 18-18-2 as a whole. This circuit needs to get on the stick and start playing better soccer.

There are two matches tomorrow, both very winnable, as Elmhurst entertains Concordia (IL) and Millikin travels to Fontbonne.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gotberg

Greg - any word on either Khoury or Holgersson's return?
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best

Gregory Sager

#1172
No word on Khoury yet. I'm hearing another week or two on Holgersson.

Stulen didn't dress last night, either, but I think that it was simply a matter of giving him a mental rest as well as a chance to avoid working his chronically sore shoulder.

i look down out of the press box and see Khoury, Holgersson, Lundeen, and Stulen all sitting there with the other students (the bench is too crowded for injured players), and I think to myself, "That's a ridiculous amount of talent that's just sitting there watching from the stands."
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Flying Weasel

#1173
Quote from: Gregory Sager on September 11, 2019, 12:08:46 AMThe first d3soccer.com poll came out today. North Park is #22, and, again, nobody else from the league got so much as a single point in the poll. That doesn't surprise me, as the CCIW is now an embarrassing 18-18-2 as a whole. This circuit needs to get on the stick and start playing better soccer.

I'm a little surprised that Wheaton (Ill.) didn't get a single vote given how many top teams did pick up ties and losses in the opening week and a half of the season.  Both Wheaton losses were away to ranked teams, one in overtime to Kenyon in a fairly evenly played game. Montclair State had two losses, also both on the road against ranked teams (one away, one neutral), but they get ranked #20.  It's the inertia of previous rankings and/or expectations.  Montclair was #4 and #6 in the D3soccer.com and USC preseason rankings, so with that as a starting point, they managed to stay ranked even though there were certainly several undefeated or 1-loss teams that didn't get ranked for whom a case to be ranked ahead of Montclair St. could have been made.  Wheaton came into the season largely off the Top 25 radar, and two losses isn't a way to get people's attention again.  Rochester is interesting as they were in the preseason rankings, also picked up two losses to ranked teams, but unlike Montclair State were not ranked in the first poll.  Is that because the D3soccer.com preseason ranking had them near the bottom, while Montclair was near the top?  What if Rochester had been in the preseason Top 10, would they have remained ranked despite the two losses?

When so many top teams pick up early losses (seems like there was more than usual this year) and there are so many somewhat contradictory results on a teams short early-season resume, ranking teams is a very difficult.  Unfortunately, however imperfect the initial rankings are, they do significantly impact/influence the rankings for much of the rest of the season.  To continue the above example, Montclair State will be punished less for losses than Wheaton, and rewarded more for wins than Wheaton in the coming weeks.  Not fair, but it's how it seems to work.

Gregory Sager

The lingering influence of a preseason poll, which ideally ought not to have any effect upon a poll that's based upon actual results, is why I try not to take rankings seriously until at least a month deep into a season. By that time, if the pollsters are doing their job correctly, there should be enough results in the database to burn out that lingering influence.

I note the rankings of the initial USC and d3soccer.com polls, because they're news and they're interesting, but it doesn't mean that I necessarily agree with either of them.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

Millikin 3, @ Fontbonne 0
@ Elmhurst 4, Concordia (IL) 0

EC is now 3-2-1, and MU improves to 3-1.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

The CCIW is picking up the pace, as all three of the league's representatives that were in action tonight got easy wins. Carroll (3-2) stomped Martin Luther to the tune of 5-1 in Waukesha. I watched large chunks of the other two matches, as Carthage (2-3) whomped St. Olaf in the afternoon up in Minnesota, 5-1, and Wheaton (4-2) marked an easy 4-0 victory over Albion in the western suburbs.

The Red Men looked like they've finally got their mojo back, as they were easily too much to handle for an Oles squad that didn't by any stretch of the imagination resemble a team that came into the game with a 3-0 record. And while Albion is nobody's idea of good competition, either, Wheaton did what it had to do and never let the Britons get more than a couple of good chances against Hasten Biddlecome. Wheaton has a nice freshman class, which leads me to think that WC's fortunes may soon be on the upswing.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

One step forward, one step back seems to be the formula for the CCIW in the non-conference portion of the slate. Today three of the four CCIW squads who were playing took losses, although a couple of them were hard-fought road losses against good teams.

The bright side is that Augie (1-2-1) finally broke through in the QC and picked up a win, albeit at the expense of a hapless Beloit team that hasn't beaten anybody besides Maranatha Baptist in seven tries. The close-but-no-cigar awards go to North Central (3-3), which was shut out over on the other side of the lake by Kalamazoo in a very competitive match, and Millikin (3-2), which got a scoreless-tie-breaking goal in the 74th minute at undefeated Rose-Hulman, only to give up two a few minutes later and drop the 2-1 decision.

The shocker was Illinois Wesleyan (2-4), which statistically dominated host Greenville but nevertheless fell to the Panthers, 2-1, for their third straight loss.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

The four CCIW teams effected a split today, but the league definitely got the worst of it. Elmhurst improved to 4-2-1 with a 4-0 triumph at Illinois College, and Carroll suffocated Concordia (IL), 5-0, in Waukesha and in so doing the Pios upped their mark to 4-2. Neither of those wins will impress anybody, though, while in the meantime the two CCIW powers that were playing marquee matchups fell short. North Park (3-2) dropped a 3-1 decision at home to Rowan, and Carthage (2-4) was dumped in St. Paul by Macalester by a score of 2-0.

That puts the league at 26-23-2 (.529), with nary a signature win to be found among the nine CCIW teams.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

Wheaton (4-2-1) tied Chicago tonight, 1-1, at Joe Bean. The hosts were fortunate to draw tonight, as the Maroons dominated most of the match, although they scored their lone goal of the night only 18 seconds after the kickoff. Chicago outshot Wheaton 29 (15) to 17 (10), and the Maroons had a whopping eight corners with which to work. If not for the heroics of Wheaton GK Hasten Biddlecome, who is having a remarkable season thus far, Chicago would've had three or four goals in regulation.

But in spite of Chicago's advantages in size and technical skills, Wheaton was pretty doughty. In fact, as the second half wore on Wheaton actually took control of play for fairly long stretches. The Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance obviously developed the confidence that they could hang with the Maroons after taking that early punch in the mouth and only falling behind by a goal, while the Maroons were clearly in butt-clench mode by the end of regulation -- they overshot a lot of passes and had too many overextended touches for them to maintain their ball control, and they started fouling more in their own end rather than dispossessing Wheaton players at will the way that they had earlier in the match. Wheaton finally broke through and tied the match in the 85th minute on a really pretty bloop shot from Joey Sopikiotis at the top of the box.

Both sides had one great chance in the second overtime, with Biddlecome smothering a full-speed header from the left side early in that second bonus stanza and U of C GK Aaron Katsimpalis laying out to smack away a redirect sent in from the middle of the box in the waning minutes.

A draw is just another day at the office for the Maroons, I guess, as they now have four of them, but Wheaton's gotta be tremendously happy with this result. This will probably be a big confidence boost for DeClute's kids.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

#1180
North Park (4-2) topped Illinois Tech tonight, 2-0, in what was a pretty frustrating performance for the Vikings. They took 30 shots in this contest, ten of which were on goal -- another of which hit the post on the side vacated by the IIT goalkeeper and another six or seven of which sailed a ball's diameter or less over the crossbar. Plenty of offense ... just not a lot of finishing. Compounding the frustration was the fact that Illinois Tech played the second half a man down, as a Scarlet Hawk was sent off for spitting on a Viking right in front of the ref towards the end of the first half.

The two scores were set up beautifully by Angel Barriga, who now leads the league in assists with five. Barriga, who is only a sophomore, is really starting to come into his own. The goals were by his fellow soph Patrick Knap and by freshman William Sandkvist. The NPU coaching staff continues to find good newbies every year and doesn't hesitate to use them right away.

The Scarlet Hawks didn't put a shot on frame all night, and didn't get a shot off at all until the 73rd minute. They finished the night with three shots total.

The Vikings are going to have to sharpen their shooting touch on Saturday when they travel to Kalamazoo, which notched its second straight 1-0 home victory over a CCIW foe tonight. Elmhurst (4-3-1) was the victim of the Hornets this time. North Central (3-3-1) fought Dominican to a scoreless draw in River Forest this afternoon, while Carroll (5-2) won its fourth straight by blowing up Wisconsin Lutheran on the home pitch of the Warriors, 3-0. The final game of the night was a 1-1 draw between UW-Whitewater and Millikin (3-2-1) in Decatur.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

Wheaton (5-2-1) came up with a nice win last night over Wash U, 3-2, in the western suburbs, despite the Bears putting 14 shots on frame compared to only eight for Wheaton. Any win over a UAA team is a good win.

Carthage was not as fortunate, as the Red Men dropped a 2-0 decision at home at Keller to Calvin. The box score indicates that the Red Men played Calvin even, although knowing Calvin and seeing that the Knights were called for offsides seven times to Carthage's once I suspect that the Knights likely got the better of it in the run of play. The Red Men are now 2-5, and although this season really has not worked out for them at all they have at least known for some time now that their focus has to be on getting into the CCIW tournament and then winning it.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Buck O.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on September 21, 2019, 09:26:32 AM
Wheaton (5-2-1) came up with a nice win last night over Wash U, 3-2, in the western suburbs, despite the Bears putting 14 shots on frame compared to only eight for Wheaton. Any win over a UAA team is a good win.

I watched the game, and Wheaton deserved the win, despite the stats.  The Thunder were the better team by far during the first 30 minutes and while they only scored once during that time, it easily could have been more.  I thought that WashU was the better team over the last 60 minutes, but they weren't as dominant as Wheaton had been in the first 30, and while WashU had its chances to even the score (in particular, a missed penalty late in the first half and two shots from point blank range saved midway through the second half), they couldn't convert.  Inconsistency within a game was a huge problem for WashU last year, and while it's gotten better this year, there's still work to be done.

Gregory Sager

Terrible loss by NPU on Saturday at Kazoo, made worse by the fact that the Hornets scored the game's lone goal in the ^%&(+$&* 89th minute. The Vikings had the run of play all day, but to no avail. This loss likely puts the underachieving Vikings in the position of needing to win the CCIW tourney in order to get into the D3 playoffs.

The pleasant surprise within the CCIW was Carthage's 4-2 win over Hope at Keller Field, in spite of the fact that the Dutchmen dominated the scoresheet: 19 (10) to 8 (7) in shots, and 8-1 in corners.

The rest of the league went chalk on Saturday. Dominican cruised past Millikin in River Forest, 3-0; Augustana slipped past Coe on the road, 1-0; North Central topped Lake Forest, 1-0, up on the North Shore; Illinois Wesleyan blew out Principia, 4-0, in Bloormal; and Elmhurst beat Manchester, 2-0, in northeastern Indiana.

The CCIW is now 34-27-5 (.553) in non-con play.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

The CCIW Meatloafed today, with Wheaton (6-2-1) winning at home in double OT over Lake Forest, 1-0; Illinois Wesleyan (4-4) holding serve at Neis Field over Dubuque, 3-1; and Augie (2-3-1) the lone loser in the two-out-of-three scenario, dropping a 2-1 decision at home to Knox.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell