Quote from: Ejay on December 01, 2025, 01:35:24 PMMy Junior year we won the ECAC tournament. It was awesome. My senior year, nobody wanted to play in it. It was a frustrating year and we just wanted it over. We made the finals and it was 38 degrees, raining, with 30 MPH winds. The absolute worst game to finish your career on. I was never so happy to be subbed off in the second half. With about 15 minutes to play, coach asked me to go back in. I said, "nah, I'm good. Let one of the younger kids play".

We won the ECACs in 97' my Freshman year.
In hindsight, it was the beginning of the 60 game win streak that saw us win the NCAA in '99.
ECAC Titles are a big deal man and does a lot for team confidence and building.

I think most of us would definitely want to lace them up a few times more if given the opportunity. For the boys playing now and especially this weekend. Enjoy it man.
You will be thinking about these moments for as long as you live.

Great season by Hobart for sure.

No shame losing in OT to Messiah.

These boys and especially seniors should be really really proud.
As a league we are going to have to improve and really get whoever we send to the dance ready to make a real run.

Back in the day, SLU went to the tournament after dog fights with Hobart/RPI/Clarkson each and every year. Plattsburgh was always a difficult game as well. 

The NESCAC boys have been on fire for 2 decades because they beat each other up so much during the season, when its time to dance, the intensity is not as high as a league match.

Thats how you win a title.

Again, congrats to Hobart on a great year. These boys have a great future of many NCAA tournaments to come and the seniors can leave knowing the program is in a better position than they found it.

Hats off to Hobart indeed.
Year after year they are a very competitive program.
Would be amazing to see them climb that mountain for the league.

Secretly, I was hoping to see Vassar win so the league could have their 2nd team make the dance, but Vassar will be back strong next season I'm sure.

Quote from: Saint_Dad on September 21, 2025, 10:22:18 PM

Quote from: Saint of Old on September 10, 2025, 12:20:16 PMThe most successful captain in Saint History led the team for two seasons.
Both undefeated (39w 0losses 2 ties) en route to an undefeated National Championship.
Was a Defensive player of the year and All American during the programs most dominant era ever.

We decided to  snub him for the Hall of Fame induction  last year while 8 other men got in.

This one action cut the Alumni support in half.

We have gradually cut all pipelines to recruiting and influential alumni.
We have WHITE WASHED a team that was the most diverse in college soccer for 25 years, bringing in some of the best African/Jamaican talent the division had ever seen year after year.
We have changed our playing style from attacking possession/penetration to pass backwards at all times and keep possession in our own final 1/3 waiting to get picked off.
We have decided to only play 13-14 players and hope to not get ran through by aggressive fit players.
Nothing  that is happening to the Saints was done by anyone but Saints.

Our dominance was not put to an end, We decided to end it.

The past 8 or so seasons we have had 2 of the best players in program history (Top 10) in Jethro Dede/ Marvin Sibanda, both African players.
These two men covered many cracks which are mentioned above, but now they are gone and so are the wins this program once took for granted.

Some of us tried to send a warning, first diplomatically, then more forceful, and we were called negative and dinosaurs.

SLU has been around since 1860, the soccer program since 1962.
First 0-4 start since 1962.

2024 (Last Season) was the 25th year of the 22-0-0 National Championship in 1999 and the program decided not to recognize the accomplishment in any way.


When you cut the roots of a tree, the tree dies.

I have to agree with a lot of this. It would be nice to see more players used over the years, rather than just a couple of subs. Perhaps Tosh doesn't have the depth, or that's just his style. It's been a problem with back to back games, and injuries the last few years. Last year the team seemed to be more aggressive than the previous year, perhaps because Mogul and Brown refused to go backwards. SLU had just two losses (7 ties) with a great back line, the player of the year up top, and the best player in the league on the wing. Unfortunately they were missing two international players in the middle which would have turned them into NCAA national contenders. Jeremy with an injury, and Marco Wong losing his eligibility playing in a few pro games in Hong Kong. With those two players you would have seen a very diverse starting team (5 international players from different countries, Cyprus, Holland, Kenya, Canada, and Hong Kong).
This was a diverse team. It wasn't the Jamaican connection. Somehow that was lost. Unfortunately, SLU is not the most diverse school. It is 75 percent white, and about 2 percent black or African American. The soccer team is certainly more diverse than the student body. What we do know about the team is that Tosh recruits kids with character. Just watch them on the sidelines. And after each game. Great kids.
This team lost some talented players from last year. George was a top goalie in the region. Will Baker and Owen Lillis were two of the best defenders in the conference, The Dutchman was a leader on the field, Henry Brown could score goals and has moved on to Tufts, where he is their PK taker, and Mogul, the attacker that stirred the drink, is attempting a pro career in Portugal.
There is some talent on this team. They are a young team with only two starting seniors. I'm not giving up on this season yet.

Still not giving up on the season?

Quote from: StatesSoccerFan on November 05, 2025, 11:11:30 PMRPI also had single digit results and only 1 lone LL win which is super surprising based on how strong SLU and RPI have been in this league over the years. Very unusual for both these programs to be down this year. RPI only has two wins in LL in last two years in fact.

RPI was 4-8-5.  Got results in 9 out of 17 games.

Lets say then, SLU was the only team in the league that failed to get a result in atleast half (50%) of their games.

SLU is the only team in the Liberty League that has double digit losses (10) and Single single digit results (6) Every other team has double digit results (Wins/Ties).

Transition from Saints to Larries Complete.

Quote from: kevdog on November 04, 2025, 04:50:15 PM

Quote from: stlawus on November 04, 2025, 03:27:30 PMWith today's result, SLU achieves their first 10 loss season since 1991.  In the 63 year history of the program, there had been only 4 double digit loss seasons until this year. But I'm sure I'll watch the next SC vid and hear all about how dramatic I'm being.

That 1991 team went 3-1 in the first 4 games and then the wheels fell off so to speak. Like I have said before, Tosh needs to hit the recruiting trail hard.  I was told that Tosh was orchestra recruitier of the those great teams in the late 90's and early 2000's but I find that hard to believe since Durocher had some very good recruiting class 2009-2015.  Hats off to Vassar and Coach Hood.  Best of luck to them in the semis.

Whoever told you that the current Coach recruited the late 90s and 00s stars  was either mistaken or misinformed.

Big CONGRATS to the Statesmen for taking the league and to Clarkson for making the baby Bance.
Some of the best (and tightest) games I played back in the day was against Clarkson and Hobart, two great Programs.
Should be a very good tournament and hopefully it works out in a way that the league gets two bids from the conference. Any of the top 4 teams could win (Union has just one loss) and I wouldn't be surprised if Clarkson makes a crazy run and does something special.

Bomber program has always been a class act.
Class Program.

Also shows the tight bond of the Alumni/Susa FC and all involved in honoring a great Ithaca legend.
The games on Saturdays are fun, but the true meaning of college football is the Brotherhood that teams like Ithaca and Williams show in winning games and honoring their Brothers when they are here and also when they are gone.

The true bond formed at programs like these is not lifelong, its wayy wayy more.

The most successful captain in Saint History led the team for two seasons.
Both undefeated (39w 0losses 2 ties) en route to an undefeated National Championship.
Was a Defensive player of the year and All American during the programs most dominant era ever.

We decided to  snub him for the Hall of Fame induction  last year while 8 other men got in.

This one action cut the Alumni support in half.

We have gradually cut all pipelines to recruiting and influential alumni.
We have WHITE WASHED a team that was the most diverse in college soccer for 25 years, bringing in some of the best African/Jamaican talent the division had ever seen year after year.
We have changed our playing style from attacking possession/penetration to pass backwards at all times and keep possession in our own final 1/3 waiting to get picked off.
We have decided to only play 13-14 players and hope to not get ran through by aggressive fit players.
Nothing  that is happening to the Saints was done by anyone but Saints.

Our dominance was not put to an end, We decided to end it.

The past 8 or so seasons we have had 2 of the best players in program history (Top 10) in Jethro Dede/ Marvin Sibanda, both African players.
These two men covered many cracks which are mentioned above, but now they are gone and so are the wins this program once took for granted.

Some of us tried to send a warning, first diplomatically, then more forceful, and we were called negative and dinosaurs.

SLU has been around since 1860, the soccer program since 1962.
First 0-4 start since 1962.

2024 (Last Season) was the 25th year of the 22-0-0 National Championship in 1999 and the program decided not to recognize the accomplishment in any way.


When you cut the roots of a tree, the tree dies.

Quote from: Kuiper on May 02, 2025, 02:49:54 PM

Quote from: stlawus on May 02, 2025, 02:35:09 PMSLU's Henry Brown has transferred to Tufts for next season.

Wow.  Big pickup for Tufts and loss for the Saints.

Y would a Saint who has top scored (basically) his first seasons leave the team for a D3 program?
Not blaming the young man,  but imo things cannot be going right for this to happen.
Disrespecting history eventually impacts the present and future.

Quote from: EnmoreCat on January 29, 2025, 04:19:32 AM

Quote from: stlawus on January 29, 2025, 01:49:14 AMI missed it at the time but Jeremy Ogango from SLU was in the transfer portal in early December. Don't know what came of it, if anything as he's still on campus. Though that doesn't necessarily mean anything for next year. I believe it is/was an attempt to level up.

The Portal Whisperer!

I like Jeremy.
He is a class player.
Honestly, can't say I blame him for attempting to improve his football enviornment and perhaps playing football in a more diverse team. Not the same vibe/talent level that existed between 94-2015.

Quote from: SierraFD3soccer on January 23, 2025, 09:34:38 AM

Quote from: Kuiper on January 18, 2025, 04:12:56 PM

QuoteFour years ago, Patrick Agyemang was playing D3 college ball.

Now he's the big winner from #USMNT January camp.

https://www.soccerjournal.com/patrick-agyemang-transfers-to-uri-from-eastern-connecticut-state/

Not quite try 5 or 6 years ago. It appears that he played two years with ECU which ended in 2019. Yes, he scored 21 goals in 2019, but most of those were against not great D3 teams. COVID happened and he transferred to d1 Univ. of RI to finish his college. https://qcnerve.com/patrick-agyemang-charlotte-fc/  He did pretty well with URI where he played 2.5 season for good to mediocre D1 team. I bet he still owes some college loans.

Also it appears that he was around 5'8" as a junior in HS and finished growing to 6'4" in college. He also came from East Hartford which is a really tough part of of CT. Besides being smaller early, the other reason IMO it appears to be he was from a poor family. No big mystery, no big star in the rough. He's 24 now and has a few more years.

I know we all want some great player to emerge from D3 purgatory/obscurity, but that does not appear to be here. He plays MLS and scored a goal against Venezuela. He had a decent season last year with splitting between starting and coming off the bench (19 starts 12 sub with 10 goals). I do hope it gets even better in the future, but don't think he'll end up in the EPL.   

This young man had many people who doubted he would end up Pro so I am sure some believing he won't go EPL  does not affect him in the slightest.
Football does not work going from 5 8 to 6 2, this is not basketball. The kid made it through hard work skill set and dedication to improvement. What does his school loans have to do with anything? This is a great story, an inspiring story for D3 as a whole, footballers individually and just a brilliant human story, but there will always be those who try to down play someone else's achievement and accomplishment. If you are a young athlete or a parent of one, this D3 to National story should inspire.
Ian Wright and Jamie Vardy were underrated as well and made the jump. This is Football.

Quote from: Mr_November on December 06, 2024, 12:32:17 PM

Quote from: PaulNewman on December 06, 2024, 12:23:58 PMTo no one in particular...

So you're saying I don't have to feel bad about myself?

I don't have to ingest repeated failures to reach the F4 or win a title as a personal narcissistic injury?

Same for fans/parents/alums of Midd, W&L, Hopkins, F&M, Cortland, Rowan, GAC, Babson, JCU, ONU, etc, etc?

There are many quality clubs that compete for the Champions League that have never won it. Needless to say, they are still widely regarded as a world powerhouses.

Some clubs have title winning dynasties from past or present (Real Madrid, Bayern, Liverpool, AC Milan) and others are still hoping that one year will be the special year they clinch their first UCL title (Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, PSG).

*Please excuse this somewhat sorry analogy. D3 soccer is obviously different than the UCL

No, but football is football and the analogy applies.
It is like Jose Mourinho said. Football Tradition.
"Whatever man has done Man can do" - Marcus Garvey.
The reason that Liverpool or Tufts players can put on a jersey and know they are competing for the entire thing is because of football tradition.
The blood sweat and tears don't wash out of the jerseys... they stay there and give the future players a quality you cannot quantify.
What the Conn boys did a few years ago is giving CC confidence going into the season and the game.
There are many great programs that have not won yet. Oneonta/U of R Ithaca to name a few from my neck of the woods. They are great programs but I guarantee that once they win that first chip the future players will use it as a confidence boost going forward... Just like the Ajax/Man U/Chelsea boys.

Quote from: PaulNewman on December 06, 2024, 10:57:05 AMjknezek, I certainly try to milk numerous Sweet 16s and a couple of Elite 8s as far as I can, but from my vantage point the gulf between the Elite 8 and making a F4 is huge. Would be curious to hear Hop92's take here. The F4 is its own breakthrough. No one cares that you lost the Elite 8 in PKs or on a 109th minute fluky, defensive flub.

For me the multiple F4s are more impressive than one title...and imo much harder to achieve.

As someone who lost the elite 8 (to Williams) at home in penalties, yes you are right. That was an amazing team we had that was technically undefeated that season, but no one really remembers besides the men you battled with.

Final 4 is a different animal.
A bigger deal.

What Final 4 and Elite 8 losses do though is get a team pissed enough to come back with even more potent venom for a title run.
Richard Stocton boys did this after their finL 4 loss and became a Championship team not long after.

Amherst is in a strange position of being a champion but also failing to climb the hill several years.
Many programs have 1 title... when you get that second star is when you are in that next level company of Wheaton/Messiah/Tufts.
This is what is at stake for both finalists this weekend.