Quote from: soccerfan111 on October 19, 2026, 12:39:08 PM

Quote from: stlawus on October 17, 2026, 06:12:13 PMSLU had to play against a desperate RIT, and although they were without 2nd leading scorer Sammy Bothwell today they got back Gustav Scheibler who provided an immediate boost to the defense.  They were feeling the pressure in the first half but a great tactical adjustment by the coach resulted in a win.

Didn't get to watch the match and just saw the box score. Says RIT outshot SLU 10-4. Was the game pretty even or more in line with the total shots? It's a good time of the year to be able to get results in any type of game though, so well done.

RIT took it to them a decent bit in the first half, they had a good game plan to play wide while SLU was narrow and high. Halftime SLU widened a bit to adjust and while RIT had a chance or 2 there wasn't much in the 2nd half. If RIT plays like they did in the 1st half they would get more results, they looked quality.

Scranton with 5 consecutive 1-0 league wins.  Opponents probably going out of their minds playing them.

RPI gave up a last minute goal against Skidmore earlier in the week to lose, and looked like they were going to drop more points again today against Clarkson by giving up the lead on a late goal by Clarkson, but an even later goal from RPI gets them the win.  Good turnaround for RPI this year currently sitting in 3rd place.

Clarkson has once again put themselves behind the 8 ball.  Every year they do this, always living dangerously the last 2 weeks of the season to jeopardize their playoff spot.

SLU had to play against a desperate RIT, and although they were without 2nd leading scorer Sammy Bothwell today they got back Gustav Scheibler who provided an immediate boost to the defense.  They were feeling the pressure in the first half but a great tactical adjustment by the coach resulted in a win.

Hobart and Vassar had plenty of fireworks for a 1-1 game. Standings could have a lot of changes these next 2 weeks, hopefully a fun finish for all of us degenerate spectators.

Quote from: NYHoopsGuru on October 16, 2026, 10:55:27 PMWith a strong senior class across the league, this could finally be the year the LL returns to multiple bids.

Maybe.  Hasn't been the case post covid.  Coaching is too good these days and everyone adjusts. There have been senior classes that came off strong seasons that significantly underperformed in the past 5 years. A lot harder playing with a target on your back compared to how it used to be.

Quote from: Titan Q on October 15, 2026, 05:48:04 PMHi, all.

For Top 25 voting purposes, any thoughts on the top 4 NESCAC teams (in order) coming into the season?

I'm not one of the resident NESCAC experts, but I have some inkling of what goes on, I think I'd have 1) Trinity, 2) Wesleyan, 3) Tufts, 4) Amherst.  There are plenty of arguments to switch Tufts and Wesleyan, but personally that's what I'd go with. Trinity reloads and they're Trinity, so them at 1 to start.  Wesleyan and Tufts both lose an impact player, but still bring a lot back.  Amherst made the tournament with a young team last year.

Quote from: olepoops on October 15, 2026, 12:45:17 PMUW-Superior is the top UMAC team and has taken on good WIAC teams (tied Eau Claire) and a host of MIAC teams, so this result is perhaps not a huge surprise.

Quote from: SimpleCoach on October 15, 2026, 06:41:37 AM

Quote from: stlawus on October 14, 2026, 09:56:36 PM#3 SLU ties Ithaca
#4 Rowan ties #13 Montclair, albeit a come from behind tie late, against a good team.
#8 W&L loses to Randolph Macon
Yesterday #5 St. Olaf tied Wisconsin-Superior

I would have picked none of these results the day before.

Which is why I am terrible at picking results.  The only one that I give a little grace to is Rowan.  Montclair is really coming into it's own and has been playing well.  But St. Olaf?  W&L? 

SC.

Superior's best win is against the 180th ranked team on Massey. There are few easy games, but it's definitely more than a little surprise.

Just shows how playing as a top ranked NPI team affects everyone.

#3 SLU ties Ithaca
#4 Rowan ties #13 Montclair, albeit a come from behind tie late, against a good team.
#8 W&L loses to Randolph Macon
Yesterday #5 St. Olaf tied Wisconsin-Superior

Hard being top 10, everyone's gunning for you. Just so difficult for anyone to really pull away in terms of NPI value.

Various roster notes I've observed so far:

RIT's second leading scorer from last year Muhsin Muhammad transferred to Neumann. Neumann was in the NCAA tournament last year.

Clarkson's center position solidified with the addition of graduate student transfer Aidan Maguire from Plattsburgh.

Bard's second leading scorer from last year Angelos Bratakos has transferred up to Siena.

Rambling to myself a bit here, but been running some numbers on NPI. It sounds extremely obvious but LL tournament is going to prove massive for SLU and Hobart.  Hobart winning it all should lock in a top 8 protected seed.  If SLU doesn't drop a lot of points going forward they will be very close to top 8 if they don't win the LL tournament.  Hard to imagine saying that after last year. A win today would have done more heavy lifting, but ultimately a draw is still a fair result as Ithaca could have scored more.  Just hard not to get greedy as a fan after the season they've had so far! If Ithaca wins 3 more games in the league, they will be hovering above the cut line like they are now, but a bad loss could cost them.  League can definitely get 3 teams in, just have to see how it all turns out.

Extremely cynical game by SLU. Exceptionally poor game plan, which has come to be a typical thing whenever they play on the road at Ithaca which is already a difficult place to play.  Giving up a horrible goal with a 90 seconds left that would have all but solidified their spot in the standings.  The bad habits are creeping back in, and they need to desperately change their tactics on goal kicks and set pieces. When you're playing with a target on your back you cannot put pressure on yourself by giving in to a high press when you play every goal kick short. Well deserved equalizer in the end all things considered, but Ithaca still needs to get wins as 5 draws aren't going to get you a home game.  Ithaca also will lose their top scorer for their next game due to a 5th yellow card picked up today. They played desperate today needing a result and showed their quality, but they have to do that in every game.  Schedule eases up for them a bit, but there are no easy games in the Liberty League.

SLU have exceeded the 10 win threshold for NPI purposes now (ties count as half a win) so now they can start dropping games that do not help their NPI which will be a boost.  But every team is going to be gunning for them like today and they have to make adjustments.

Quote from: Hopkins92 on October 14, 2026, 04:51:37 PMThis board would've been very boring over the years without the opinions poured into thoughts/observations about negative or controversial behavior seen in grainy/shaky livestream recordings.

Go check out the NESCAC thread for prime examples of this, most recently retreading the aftermath of the Middlebury-Amherst elite 8 game from 2023 (or 24).

Yeah, we're going to see different opinions and it can get heated. But self-censoring due to legal concerns... I don't think I've ever heard of someone suing something over their opinion/observations on a message board.

Coordinated and targeted character assassination, sure.

I'm paranoid, so sue me! (heh)  Well in any case, it looked like to me the RIT head coach shoved a UR player.  There was a scuffle after the game ended, so the very charitable reading of the situation was that he was trying to break something up, but to me it looked like he went right after a player not involved in anything and gave him a pretty good shove.  Maybe the UR player said something, but a coach that's been there as long as he has shouldn't be doing that to say the least.

Quote from: VASoccerDad on October 14, 2026, 04:15:28 PM

Quote from: stlawus on October 07, 2026, 09:15:45 PMUgly scene at the end of the RIT-UR game.  With how litigious today's society is I won't yet publicly say what I think I saw happen, so I would recommend watching what happened after the whistle for yourself.

Curious to know if there any updates regarding this?

Seems like nothing, though I haven't paid attention much. From what I saw, it involved coaching staff from RIT.

Noticed that former Union guard Mike Manley will be on the bench at Union as an assistant this year. Very good player for the Garnet, should be a good addition to their coaching staff.

Quote from: SierraFD3soccer on October 13, 2026, 05:38:19 PM

Quote from: blue_jays on October 13, 2026, 03:16:46 PMAmherst admin obviously does not care, or this would have been nipped in the bud years ago. I'm sure it's the usual "us against the world" mentality where "everyone hates Amherst" and they circle the wagons. People have been justifiably grousing on these boards about this for years and years.

As to Amherst caring or not, I'm going with they don't. Check out this video from Amherst v. Middlebury in 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg9YX_NSIFE

Notice also the Asst. Coach, Alex Ortega, now HC at Redlands. Among the disturbing behavior, a coach appears to be joining in the taunting, see :49 of the video where it appears that he is waving to the Middlebury crowd and not making any effort to correct the behavior of his players.

I sent this in an email to Amherst's pres. and he responded with -

Thank you for your note.  I am indeed aware of this deeply troubling behavior, and you are absolutely correct that it does not represent the standard of conduct that we expect of Amherst athletes.  I assure you that we will take appropriate action, and I hope that we will be able to earn back your respect for Amherst soccer.

So that was 2023. I'm guessing that Amherst admin either doesn't care or just doesn't want to know.

IMO, Amherst could play maybe even better with the talent they have. They just chose that way.

It's been basically 20 years of the same.  Back in '08 when they hosted the first and second round in Serpone's 2nd year there was an issue that weekend. I have plenty of stories from things I've seen in person that I have documented on here throughout the years.  Seems like it's all been tolerable from the admin point of view as long as they were winning. One has to wonder what happens if the results don't continue for a stretch.  If social media was more of a thing in the early 2010s along with better livestreams, this might have been addressed a while ago.  What really gets me is the professional pedigree of their coaching staff related to the program's behavior.  Serpone has like 5 master's degrees and has taught courses I believe. They have an assistant coach that was an elementary school administrator.  If kids in school behaved the way some of their players have they would have been punished, yet apparently the standards are lower for collegiate athletes at one of the most prestigious colleges in the world.  My own high school principal threatened to throw out the entire crowd in a playoff game once because of a couple parents mouthing off, yet at Amherst that kind of behavior is embraced by seemingly professional educators.

And as mentioned, the worst part about all of it is that it's a program that has elite talent and can play like a respectable program.  There is absolutely no need for it (anywhere for that matter), as all they have to do is play and let the results speak for themselves.  Unfortunately, it will take a very long time for the program to lose their reputation among the d3 crowd. Which I guess doesn't count for much since it's a niche thing, but still.

Maybe one year it will work, but I just do not understand why Rochester is doing with their roster and recruiting all this height. These players are ending up in d3 for a reason.