New England Soccer Discussion

[4231CenterBack]

Gordon dominated for most of the match.  Endicott keeper came up huge and Endicott defenders cleared multiple balls off the line.  Winning goal was a GREAT finish but their first two were Gordon miscues.  A big 3 points for Endicott but Gordon is quite capable of running through the rest of the conference slate. Again, major kudos to Jack Bacon, without him it would have been 5-2 in regulation.  The Gordon attack ran riot over the Endicott Defense.  Was a totally different match from last years defensive battle.  My guess is they will see each other again in an elimination match

[blooter442]

Again, major kudos to Jack Bacon, without him it would have been 5-2 in regulation.

Endicott could say he "saved their Bacon." 

As for Gordon, I don't disagree they could run the table the rest of the way, but I think Roger Williams will put up a good fight this weekend. They did lose their first game of the season on Saturday, and I imagine they will still be smarting from that setback. Should be a good one.

[4231CenterBack]

Agreed.  I watched the Endicott/Roger Williams match and RW is much improved.  They could certainly pull an upset.  But as far as overall quality, after having seen them all play in person, its a 2 horse race with RW or Salve maybe crashing the party.

[blooter442]

Agreed.  I watched the Endicott/Roger Williams match and RW is much improved.  They could certainly pull an upset.  But as far as overall quality, after having seen them all play in person, its a 2 horse race with RW or Salve maybe crashing the party.

Good call -- I do wonder about Salve. I have seen a bit of Endicott, Gordon, and RWU, but not Salve. They did get a nice 0-0 on the road at Endicott, as well as an OT win at WNE, so clearly they can pull out solid results.

[4231CenterBack]

Salve can score goals which is useful! They have some pacey guys up front...especially #9 Donald Igo.  They are super dangerous on the counter as a result.

[Mr.Right]

A ton of talk about how competitive the CCC is this year and for good reason as Endicott, Gordon, Salve and RWU are bringing the league up a notch. Curry, Wentworth and UNE are all well behind those 4 programs and I doubt will make any noise in the CCC Playoffs. I believe the Top 7 qualify instead of the Top 8 because Eastern Nazarene bolted. The one team that is down this year is Nichols BUT they are capable of possibly knocking off one of those Top 4 sides in the CCC Tournament. Capable not probable but something to watch for.

Shout out to another Top heavy league that has come back to life is the Little East. ECONN, WCONN and Keene St are all solid sides and while UMB is down a bit this year if you catch them on a weeknight or when they are playing some decent futbol they can beat anyone in this league. WCONN defeated Trinity last night in a wild game 5-3. WCONN is the defending champion and they will not go down easy as they are extremely potent in attack. Senior Chauncey Allers is well on his way to becoming an All-American this year as he has racked up 14 Goals and 6 Assists. He scored 4 GOALS IN 11 MINUTES LAST NIGHT at Trinity. Trinity is a bad team and horrible defensively but they are certainly not Green Mountain bad. With Allers and Della Penna plus Allers brother and Richeme, WCONN reminds me of maybe a poor man's 2017 RUN...They have tons of skill and speed but are undersized. They also have a MONSTER problem in net and leak goals like crazy. If Head Coach Joe Mingachos can somehow get more stable in the back and hope his GK can figure it out WCONN could make the Little East a 2 bid league. Its a big if......Mingachos should be credited with this amazing turnaround even though the former Head Coach brought in this fantastic Senior class. 5 years ago WCONN I think was almost winless. They have 2 huge games coming up an imprtant league clash at Keene St and then a great non-conference match at Ramapo.

[Buck O.]

Salve can score goals which is useful! They have some pacey guys up front...especially #9 Donald Igo.  They are super dangerous on the counter as a result.

THAT'S where he went!  He was a UMass commit a couple of years ago but never actually materialized on the roster, and I always wondered where he wound up.

[Bobcat1]

Bates up on Thomas 1-0 at the half.

How about St. Joe's! Many thought this would be their toughest test to date this season.  Robinson and Matos help each other score as the Monks jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first half and were able to tack on another early in the second half to beat Norwich 3-0. That's a strong road win!

[blooter442]

Thomas kid gets a red with about 10 minutes left. Ran out of steam with juke moves and then came in from behind with no attempt to win the ball, as it had already been played. Super late. One of the contenders for worst tackle of the season.

[Bobcat1]

Thomas kid gets a red with about 10 minutes left. Ran out of steam with juke moves and then came in from behind with no attempt to win the ball, as it had already been played. Super late. One of the contenders for worst tackle of the season.

Agreed! Bates is able to see it out. 1-0 final. Three big NESCAC games left with a full week to get ready for Bowdoin.

[OldNed]

Bates up on Thomas 1-0 at the half.

How about St. Joe's! Many thought this would be their toughest test to date this season.  Robinson and Matos help each other score as the Monks jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first half and were able to tack on another early in the second half to beat Norwich 3-0. That's a strong road win!

I was at Norwich for the game and I think St. Joe's played their most complete game of the year as of this point. It looked like St. Joe's had a gameplan of attacking up the sides and they were effective early with the first two goals by Robinson and Mattos.  Despite the 3-0 score, I came away impressed with Norwich after seeing how they played.  I thought going into this year that they had lost too much senior leadership and talent, but Coach Pfeifer brought in a  stellar class of freshmen and many of those freshmen played important parts in the game - center mid Nemeye, and the Badibanga brothers at outside mid and forward, in particular.  Norwich is a team that can play with some of the better New England teams right now, and they will be formidable when those freshmen get more experience.

As for St. Joe's, I've been concerned about their lack of offense against some of the poorer GNAC teams, but I think that is a product of those teams packing it in and making it difficult to execute anything other than set pieces.  Norwich played to win, but in doing so that allowed St. Joe's more space to operate between the 18s and they really took advantage.  In addition to Robinson and Mattos, Cody Elliott played really well and Dalton Gaumer on defense was masterful all night as Norwich continually pressed high and Gaumer was easily able to dribble around the press and get the ball safely to the midfield.  Blake Mullen also had some really nice saves on several long range shots from Norwich that would have been goals against a lot of other keepers..  If St. Joe's plays like they did last night, they can do some damage in the NCAAs.

[4231CenterBack]

I've seen Gordon play St. Joe's, Brandeis, Colby, Springfield, Amherst and Endicott.   St. Joe's was the most impressive of that group.  They are athletic, organized, and technical enough.  Until I saw them in person I naturally discounted their success because of their weak conference. I have no doubts anymore.  With very few exceptions (Tufts, ?) they are the New England team I would least like to see in a first round match.

[blooter442]

Salve beat RWU last night, 2-0, in Bristol. With the Hawks dropping 2 matches in a row after a 12-0 start, it will be interesting to see how the battle for the CCC top seed shakes up.

[4231CenterBack]

I watched a bit of it online and Salve definitely looked better on RW's home pitch.  Looks like Roger William's wings are beginning to melt.  IMO - Salve can now be considered a legitimate 3rd horse in the CCC race.  If Gordon takes care of business at home vs. RW this Saturday, the top 3 should be confirmed.

[blooter442]

Well then...RWU beats Gordon in OT. Second straight home OT loss for the Scots. They are 3-2 in conference but 7-6 overall. Looks like AQ or bust for the Wenham side. They got that nice win over Brandeis back in September but other than that I don’t see any marquee results on their CV. Maybe I need to look again. Roger Williams and maybe now Salve look the most likely to get an at-large bid but even they probably have to win the conference to get in. Could the CCC be a two-bid League this year? Who knows. Endicott looks good, even if they’ve had to grind out some results. They started 1-4 but have roared back and are sitting at 8-4-2. They too probably have to bank on the tournament for a bid but they are in a solid position nonetheless.

Regardless of their result today I think it’s safe to say Brandeis is out. Injuries have hurt the Judges and they have lost their composure at critical overtime junctures but I also wonder about the tough scheduling particularly with a team that lost a bunch and with no conference tournament to provide a road to redemption. 5 losses in mid-October with Amherst, Chicago et al still to come. You can’t fall ass-backwards into an NCAA bid a la 7-loss Babson did in 2015 in the UAA. As much as I hate the Amherst approach of mostly playing a bunch of non-conference cupcakes (there are exceptions but they are exceptions rather than the norm) knowing that the NESCAC schedule has plenty of potential ranked wins, it seems that could have helped the Judges this year.