Quote from: Hopkins92 on June 22, 2025, 08:36:03 AM1) I was surprised SC didn't follow up on the Grad Transfer point, because Coach A specifically made a point that the new players # was strictly referring to freshmen. I'm assuming he has at least 2 or 3 because, yes, that has become a distinct part of his team-building strategy lately.

2) The mad scientist aspect included the PKs, but also that he would look at a player and put them in positions they had never been in before. He's taken CBs and put them at FWD and vice versa. So, not just the PK thing.

Agreed as to switching players. However, many coaches switch players around when first arriving and/or over the 4 years based on what they believe is best for the program.  Ex. Wagner from F&M took Oscar Horwitz, who had never been a striker and always been a back for his entire soccer career, and moved him forward in his sophomore year. I think it was because of his very nice goal against Hop that year.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 23, 2025, 01:02:37 AMSwarthmore

After starting last season on an 8 game streak without a loss (7-0-1), Swat fell short against the Centennial Conference's traditional powers (F&M, Hopkins, Washington College) and fell out of even qualifying for the conference tournament with successive losses to Muhlenberg and McDaniel.  And yet, most people acknowledged that it was a dangerous team, tying Dickinson 2-2 and playing Hopkins tight in a game Coach Appleby told Simple Coach recently was one of their toughest opponents last season.  So, I expect they will be a team primed to turn the corner in 2025, especially since they will return almost all of their regular contributors other than 2nd team all Centennial conference Forward Tejas Sarna and starting GK Christian Bignotti.  If they can fill those spots (and develop a more consistent scorer at the striker position as their top scorers were all midfielders last season), they should be a handful.  I think their 2025 schedule suggests that this is the expectation of the coaching staff as well because they've added a few more difficult early non-conference opponents.  They even start that right out of the gate with their first scrimmage against DI NJIT.  Gone from last season's schedule are Penn State Abington, Moravian, Occidental, Cal Tech, Kean, Wilkes and they've added Yeshiva, Redlands, Montclair State, Stevens, Juniata, and UMass Boston.
 

Should be an interesting for Swat with Mont. State and Stevens back to back with a day in between during the 2nd weekend of the year.  Also interesting, they play JHU then week off, F&M on Sat. and Muhls on Tues. Later they play Dickinson on Sat and travel to WC on Wed. IMO, very tough.

Quirk in the schedule maybe, but F&M goes to Swat two years in a row and they don't particularly like each other plus Swat has not beaten F&M in 10 or 11 years.

Guessing he is referring to his PK strategy last year? He's willing to do different stuff last year though.  Previous to last year, Hop seemed to be pretty predictable.

Several other things. His run down of the Cent. Conf. is pretty accurate imo with Dickinson the one coming in the strongest this season. Interesting about losing 10. Question is what sort of grad students are they going to get who in the past have definitely impacted the squad. Offense may be a challenge for Hop, but that is pretty much every team in the Cent. Conf. other than Dickinson.

Surprised that W&L is not heading to Hop this year.  Usually its a home and home series with Hop going to W&L last year, but with two travel weekends in row in the beginning of the season I guess it could not be scheduled.

Get Dickinson's coach!!!

Get the Dickinson coach for an interview!!

Quote from: Kuiper on June 17, 2025, 01:15:43 PMWashington College (MD)

Drops Lebanon Valley, Elizabethtown, Kings, and Rowan and adds Roanoke, Moravian, Mary Washington, Stockton, and Eastern.  The three game week of @Stockton (Tues), @Dickinson (Sat), and @Franklin & Marshall (Tues) seems particularly tough, especially early in conference play.

They also play two tournaments two weekends in a row. First Friday/Sunday and the next Saturday and Sunday which are against Salisbury and St. Marys (so sort of a mini Maryland Tournament with Lynchburg being the out of stater). Knock on WC was that the nonconference was not very strong, but this year it is harder with UMW and the others.

As to the Tuesday, Sat and then Tues. Most if not all Cent. Conf games are always Wednesday/Sat. However, the second Tuesday is because Yom Kippur starts Wednesday night.

Should be a really interesting year for WC. After making the NCAAs semis and losing 1-0 to St. Olafs, they had a real tough time at the end of the season which could have been injury related. They also lose 12 5th year and seniors this year who were the core of the NCAA run, but have 11 Sophomores. Anything could happen.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 16, 2025, 12:59:39 PMMiddlebury

Middlebury had a pretty strong non-conference schedule (for a NESCAC school) last season.  This one might not have a highly ranked opponent, but the schedule may be more exciting with two highlight matchups against Liberty League powers.  They drop Norwich, Keene State, Endicott, and Babson and add St. Lawrence, Thomas, and Vassar.  Vassar is a particularly interesting opponent after losing to Middlebury 2-1 at Middlebury in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament last season.  St. Lawrence is another really interesting matchup.  I think the last time the two schools played each other was in 2006, when the Saints beat Middlebury at Middlebury 2-1 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  I'm sure there are some SLU alums who remember that one.  I don't know when the two teams last played each other in the regular season, though.  It would be pretty cool if this became a regular thing.

Plus they play 9 home games (all of the non-league games plus 5 NESCAC) and only 5 away.  That is nice for any team.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 13, 2025, 08:40:16 PMCross-posting from the 2025 schedules thread

Ursinus

Ursinus showed they could win non-conference games the last two seasons, but they've only won 1 conference game each of those past two seasons.  It looks like they're taking off the training wheels this year perhaps in an effort to prepare themselves better for the rigors of Centennial play.  They've dropped some of the weaker teams from their 2024 schedule - Medgar Evers (who they beat 8-0 in 2024 and 8-0 in 2023), Penn State Berks (who they beat 7-0 in 2024 and 9-0 in 2023), and Penn State Brandywine (who they beat 5-3 in 2024).  They also dropped Immaculata (who they beat 5-2 in 2023 and 1-0 in 2024) and Moravian.  In their place, they've added St. Mary's of Maryland and Salisbury away on opening weekend, Lycoming, Gwynedd Mercy, Stockton, and Misericordia.

Thanks for posting! That's great as to stronger schedule. They have had 3 different coaches over several years. The current coach is in his third year so maybe a different result. They generally give at least one top team a tough time in the Cent. Conf every year.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 07, 2025, 08:32:26 PMCross-posted from the 2025 Schedules through

Johns Hopkins

Not at the level of 2024, but still a pretty challenging non-conference schedule.  They aren't playing Washington & Lee, Mary Washington, or Rowan, but this season has some unique challenges, in part because of the travel given that they start the season with five straight away games, including two pretty long road trips involving overnight stays.  They go to Tennessee for opening weekend and take on Rhodes and Sewanee.  Then they travel to Ohio the next weekend to take on Denison and Kenyon and then turn around and play a midweek game at St. Mary's of MD.  They finally have two home games before opening conference play, but neither are pushovers.  Rutgers-Newark only lost to JHU 1-0 last season and Lebanon Valley tied Franklin & Marshall 2-2.

True, the first 4 away should be a real challenge. I counted 11 away games after several seasons of playing a lot of home games. Fortunately, they get to play Leb Valley at home as LVC's home field is not the greatest especially with a possession team.

As to Cent. Conf games, playing WC, F&M, Dickinson and Muhls in a row before their last game at the end of the season should be really challenging under any circumstances.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 05, 2025, 01:37:47 PMMcDaniel

Some teams view difficult non-conference games as the best preparation for conference play in a conference where many teams are traditionally very strong regionally and nationally.  I've never been convinced that is the right approach unless you already know your team is a top team that might be tempted to play down to the level of their opponent.  McDaniel seemed to subscribe to the opposite theory last season.  This is the view that it's better to play a somewhat weaker (but not non-competitive) non-conference schedule to give the team time to organize, build a winning culture (especially where there wasn't one before), and pull together in preparation for tough conference games.  You then use winnable non-conference games after games against difficult non-conference foes to rebuild confidence and perhaps to allow some starters to ease up a bit.  For example, they played Hood (3-0 W) after F&M (3-1 L) and played Stevenson (2-0 W) after Dickinson (1-0 L).  I won't say that this always works, since McDaniel has had years with winning records only because of their non-conference creampuff schedule and they have had very few conference wins.  Nevertheless, something worked last season because for the first time since 2005 they qualified for the conference tournament and they did not have a losing record in conference.

In 2025, McDaniel is following the same formula that led them to their historic season in 2024.  Very similar non-conference schedule except they replaced Eastern Mennonite with Albright and Penn State Altoona.  Plus, they have Shenandoah and Albright - their only two non-wins out of conference last year other than Eastern Mennonite - at home instead of away this season.  They end conference play with Dickinson and F&M this season, though, so if they haven't sewed up a conference tourney spot before that point, they may have an uphill climb without any relatively easier non-conference games between those games to give them a chance to regroup.

McDaniels has been doing this for years. They generally go into Cent. Conf. play with a winning record. They actually made it to the CC playoffs as the 6th seed for the first time in years last year. I think it also could be a budget thing.  Pretty much all non-conf are less than 100 miles away in MD, northern VA and southern PA. 

Ursinus does this as well.

W&L Year 2 Schedule

https://generalssports.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule

Solid schedule with Emory, Oglethorpe back to back to open in Atlanta. 

Then Covenant which had a very good season last year.  Two days later they travel to play Univ. of Mary Wash which is the first time since 2019 (maybe they can get Wash College as well to cover the Wash colleges minus Wash and Jefferson next year).

Catholic next who beat W&L 2-1 last year. Regent which is another VA school and pretty new to sports.

Quirk of the ODAC, W&L plays Roanoke in a non-ODAC game and later plays them again which counts for ODAC.

They still play the powers of the ODAC (Roanoke, Lynchburg and VA Wes.) which is good for its SOS. They have to go to VWU, but later play Chris Newport at home in the middle of the week.

IMO, they will definitely need to do well in non conf. games if they don't win the ODACs. W&L have a great goal scorer and 3 backs graduating while a small rising senior class along with a big junior class.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 03, 2025, 05:11:42 PMA couple of Centennial conference schedules (cross-posted from the 2025 schedules thread)

Franklin & Marshall

I thought F&M's non-conference schedule last season was tough, but you could make an argument that every single game before Centennial play starts is going to be tricky:

8/29 v. Stockton (9-6-6; tied Christopher Newport away 0-0, beat Montclair twice; lost in NJAC finals to Rowan))
8/31 @ Rowan (12-5-5; tied F&M 2-2 in Lancaster, NCAA tournament 1st round))
9/5 @ Denison (15-2-6; NCAA Elite 8)
9/7 @ Kenyon (13-3-5; tied F&M 1-1 in Lancaster, NCAA 3rd round)
9/13 Elizabethtown (7-9-3, but tied F&M at home and won the Smith-Herr Boot in a PK shootout)
9/17 @ York (14-2-5; lost in MAC Commonwealth Final to Messiah 2-1)

Plus, they got to ease into conference play against Haverford last season, whereas this season they host Muhlenberg, which knocked them out of the Centennial Conference tournament last season in the semifinals

Thanks for posting! F&M will definitely have to step it up to be successful this year. A lot of good teams (assuming that they play as well as last year).

IMO, F&M may struggle especially since it lost two AAs as well as a midfielder and defender who pretty much started every game since freshman year.  I guess we'll see whether the underclassmen can rise especially as to goal scoring. Fortunately, F&M has a lot of players with significant playing time.

As to the Muhls, F&M dominated them during the season which may have been a glitch. 4 years in row losing in the semis though.

Preseason picks I would put F&M 3rd or 4th in the Cent. Conf. with Dickinson and JHU ahead (though JHU also lost a lot of very good players). IMO, it would be fair to put F&M or Muhl (Muhls lost three or four long terms starters) 3rd.

Quirk maybe, F&M plays some of the weakest CC teams at the end of its season which is something new. Before, it played JHU or WC at the end.

Quote from: Kuiper on May 28, 2025, 04:53:54 PMYork

After a tie against Washington College last season, York decides to load up on Centennial opponents, playing Franklin & Marshall and Gettysburg, in addition to hosting Washington College. Also adds Rochester instead of Carnegie Mellon from the UAA, and St. Mary's (MD) instead of Penn State Abington frmo the United East.  After not qualifying for the NCAA's last season with a 14-2-5 record, they'll have to hope these additions are enough to push them up the ladder if they can't get by Messiah.

Maybe so, definitely more successful teams with F&M, WC and Rochester (WC and R made it to the tournament 2 years ago).  Pretty amazing that they will only have to leave PA twice (play opening weekend in Salisbury, MD and Hood in Fredrick, MD). However, it will still take a lot to make it to the tournament. So much D3 soccer in PA. As to qual and not beating Messiah, looks like for years only the team that wins the MACC Commonwealth makes it. So we will see.

As to playing F&M, they are about 45 min apart and I was surprised that they had not played more often. F&M generally plays Leb Valley and Lancaster Bible every year which are very near. 

Quote from: BigSoccerFan on May 22, 2025, 11:36:52 PMRowan s schedule is on instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ7SSVAxMB4/?img_index=2

Muhlenberg

https://muhlenbergsports.com/sports/mens-soccer/schedule/2025

I think the first Cent. Conf. team to post.  They appear to not play any particularly tough out of conf. teams.

Quote from: Ejay on May 22, 2025, 07:41:35 AM

QuoteInteresting that Elizabethtown is playing F&M on a Saturday. For many years, the Boot Game was on a Wednesday and the same week in Sept. 46 years in a row.

Not that it matters, but I'm confused by the above statement.
2024 - Wed 9/11
2023 - Sat 9/8
2022 - Sat 9/10
2021 - Sat 9/11

You are right. My mistake.

Quote from: Kuiper on May 20, 2025, 06:28:24 PMElizabethtown

Replaces Alfred and Washington College with an opening game @Ithaca and then home v. Penn State Berks and then replaces Lebanon Valley (who it lost to 6-0 last season) with Hood.  The Franklin & Marshall and Messiah games back-to-back, with both being away, sounds like a killer.

Interesting that Elizabethtown is playing F&M on a Saturday. For many years, the Boot Game was on a Wednesday and the same week in Sept. 46 years in a row. Usually a great turnout at both places.

Bonus - you can watch the game free unlike last year at E-Town!

Like LVC, hopefully, E-Town has a better grass field this year after several rough years.