2025 Weekly D3 Soccer Pool

[Kuiper]

If you're looking for a crazy, off-the-beaten path, borderline sadistic, preseason game to warm-up with for EJay's pool, check out this one on on Monday night:

Lewis & Clark (DIII) at University of Portland (DI)

Monday, August 25th at 7 pm (Pacific)

I have no idea why University of Portland, which finished 7-4-7 last season, including wins against University of Washington, Oregon State, Cal, LMU, and San Diego, decided it needed to schedule a game against Lewis & Clark, which finished 0-20 last season, and has a record of 0-46-1 over the last three seasons.

To make matters more lopsided, this is a countable game for Portland, but a preseason game for Lewis & Clark.  So, Portland's stats will count and its players will get credit for any goals/assists the same as if they scored them against UCLA or Duke, while Lewis & Clark should be rotating its players and still working on getting its team into shape for the season.  On the other hand, Lewis & Clark traveled to Iceland this preseason and played three games there against local teams.  Maybe they learned a thing or two from the Icelanders about being giant killers.  At the least, their bench might be able to unsettle the Portland players by expertly performing the Icelandic "Viking Clap" or "Thunderclap" from the sidelines.

There should be no credit for predicting who wins, so it's got to be based on score or goal differential.  One issue with predicting the score in this game, though, is that I don't know for sure how high the scoreboard goes at Portland's Clive Charles Soccer Complex. Does it reach triple digits?  We may find out. Last season, Portland scored 32 goals and gave up 23.  Lewis & Clark, by contrast, scored 7 goals and gave up 70.

One additional note:  If there is an inquest after this game, there will be plenty of witnesses because the game is going to be nationally televised on ESPN+ .  I don't think this will help anyone make the argument that DIII teams can be competitive with DI teams.  We need to get Pacific Lutheran players to sneak onto Lewis & Clark's roster for one game just for the purposes of defending the Division's honor!

FINAL:  Portland 9 - Lewis & Clark 0

Portland outshot Lewis & Clark 30-0, but Portland was only up 3-0 at halftime and it was 6-0 until Portland got three goals in the last 10 minutes when their coach unleashed them. I guess it was good practice for Lewis & Clark in parking the bus! 

[Ron Boerger]

Hopefully L&C got a nice check for showing up for target practice.

[Kuiper]

Hopefully L&C got a nice check for showing up for target practice.

According to its Instagram, it looks like Portland was effectively honoring former Portland coaches/alums Bill Irwin and Jim Tursi - now at Lewis & Clark - by inviting them back (and I guess by not scoring double digits on them)

[SierraFD3soccer]

Wouldn't that be great just like FCS.

[Ejay]

Almost 30 participants, with another day left to enter.

https://forms.gle/HQNDjyo5U3FhuD1j9

[Ejay]

35 participants. Pool closing in a few hours.