NESCAC

[nescac1]

Williams had a rough end to the regular season / NESCAC playoffs but great to see them make their third Sweet 16 in the past four years.  Not really sure what happened down the stretch to the Ephs' defense, the Ephs had some untimely late-season injuries to key players Zach Greer, Lorcan Mitchell, and Henry Kirkman, which I imagine didn't help. Kirkman is back now, but Mitchell appears to be out for the year.  One interesting very late addition to the roster is Cole Moriello, who starred for the Ephs as a FY, and didn't play the last 2.5 years, only to join the roster for the last three games, all of which he has seen significant minutes in. 

Alex Bethencourt, who has been dangerous all year, has been on fire of late, scoring five of the Ephs' seven goals over their last three games and helping to replace the finishing lost from Mitchell's absence; he will surely get a lot of defensive attention next weekend.  JJ Ruehlmann has been quiet of late, with no goals and only two shots on goal over the past five games, and I think the Ephs will need something from him to upset St. Olaf on the road.  Henry Kirkman has had a flare for the dramatic in the past and hopefully has rounded back into shape after a month away from the pitch, he's another guy to watch on offense. 

[laker4141]

Another year without a trophy for Middlebury, what a disappointing team

They ended well given the start they had!

They got hosed by the ref on a clear goal on a corner and trip in the box by Wheaton GK.  2 PKs for Wheaton (both saved by Midd GK) - lots of home cooking.  I dont see Wheaton getting past sweet 16. 

Whether they got "hosed" or not, it still does not excuse the behavior post game. In case anyone missed it, the Middlebury player ran at a Wheaton player after the final whistle and ended up pushing the 4th official to the ground. The player was red carded.

A shocking and grotesque display of behavior and something I have only seen one other time at the Division 3 level (Umass Boston several years ago). I am surprised no one has commented on this!

[kevdog]

Another year without a trophy for Middlebury, what a disappointing team

They ended well given the start they had!

They got hosed by the ref on a clear goal on a corner and trip in the box by Wheaton GK.  2 PKs for Wheaton (both saved by Midd GK) - lots of home cooking.  I dont see Wheaton getting past sweet 16. 

Whether they got "hosed" or not, it still does not excuse the behavior post game. In case anyone missed it, the Middlebury player ran at a Wheaton player after the final whistle and ended up pushing the 4th official to the ground. The player was red carded.

A shocking and grotesque display of behavior and something I have only seen one other time at the Division 3 level (Umass Boston several years ago). I am surprised no one has commented on this!

Did not see the game but the actions of the Middlebury player running at a opposing player and then pushing the 4th official is uncalled for if it is true.  I understand that it is emotional game but character and how one conducts himself when one is face with adversity is more important than any game.

[Sandon Mibut]

Good lord that is lame. I'm going to check in with some of my Midd (alum) friends to see if they have any additional info.

The team also had something like 50 cards this season.

[Kuiper]

Good lord that is lame. I'm going to check in with some of my Midd (alum) friends to see if they have any additional info.

The team also had something like 50 cards this season.

According to the NCAA, Middlebury "only" had 41 yellows and 3 reds.  Amherst had the most yellows in the NESCAC this year - 43 - but only 1 red.

I've found, however, that cards are often a function of the league/area of the country, each of which have different ref pools.

For example, Amherst was tied for #24 in the country for yellow cards with 43 and Middlebury was tied for #38 with 41, but check out the cards and national rankings for yellow cards among New Jersey schools:

#1 Drew 58 Yellows
#3 William Paterson 55
#4 FDU-Florham 53
   Kean 53
#13 Montclair State 48
#15 Rutgers-Camden 46
#24 Rutgers-Newark 43
#44 Stockton 40
#52 New Jersey City 39
#114 Stevens 34
#149 Rowan 31

[Sandon Mibut]

Kuiper I had looked at NESCAC stats at the end of regular season and they had 37 YC and 2 RC (tied w Amherst for "league lead" in YC). Then Midd had 5 YC in each of their 2 NESCAC playoff games. So 47+2 entering the NCAA tourney. I don't remember how many cards in those 2 games but I'd assume 3-5 total.

I'll probably waste the time and go through their game-by-game tomorrow to verify cuz I'm a dork.

[GKForverr1]

Been sitting on this data since the end of last season didn't seem relevant but this discussion reminded me I compiled it....had too much time on my hands....

Using the data available on ncaa soccer stats archive plotting fouls per game and yellow cards in a season I have a list with every D1-D3 school. The data is from 2017-end of last season. The list has just over 1000 teams.

The reason it starts in 2017 is that is the first year all fouls per game and yellow cards are available on the ncaa website. To go back farther id need to manually dig up numbers for each team and I'm not that crazy....

Amherst was 35th with 45.33 yellows per season with a high of 65 in the 2023.

Amherst was 2nd with 15.69 fouls per game average with a high of 16.33 in 2022

They had 17+ in 2016 but that's outside the data set I was able to easily work with.

For the record I did go back to 2014 manually for top ranked teams in these categories....Rowan has the highest D3 fouls per game average with just over 16. Amherst is second with 15.5. Again that's 2014-end of last year

The next closest NESCAC team was Middlebury at 368th with 32.5 yellows per season with a high of 43 in 2024. Obviously they have passed that this season.

Middlebury was 18th in fouls per game with 14.53 average with a high of 16.05 in 2019

Rowan was 10th in fouls per game at 14.96 and 7th in yellow cards with an average of 51.67 per season.

The national average across the data set was 11.35 fouls per game and 30.18 yellows per season.

Fun bonus stat...The team with the lowest yellows per season of any team in the whole data set (7.67) is still in the D3 tournament

[Kuiper]

Kuiper I had looked at NESCAC stats at the end of regular season and they had 37 YC and 2 RC (tied w Amherst for "league lead" in YC). Then Midd had 5 YC in each of their 2 NESCAC playoff games. So 47+2 entering the NCAA tourney. I don't remember how many cards in those 2 games but I'd assume 3-5 total.

I'll probably waste the time and go through their game-by-game tomorrow to verify cuz I'm a dork.

I'm just going off the NCAA stats, which may not include conference and NCAA tournament games.  If there's a discrepancy, it's probably that.

[Bucket]

Another year without a trophy for Middlebury, what a disappointing team

Another year without a trophy for Middlebury, what a disappointing team

They ended well given the start they had!

They got hosed by the ref on a clear goal on a corner and trip in the box by Wheaton GK.  2 PKs for Wheaton (both saved by Midd GK) - lots of home cooking.  I dont see Wheaton getting past sweet 16. 

Whether they got "hosed" or not, it still does not excuse the behavior post game. In case anyone missed it, the Middlebury player ran at a Wheaton player after the final whistle and ended up pushing the 4th official to the ground. The player was red carded.

A shocking and grotesque display of behavior and something I have only seen one other time at the Division 3 level (Umass Boston several years ago). I am surprised no one has commented on this!

Did not see the game but the actions of the Middlebury player running at a opposing player and then pushing the 4th official is uncalled for if it is true.  I understand that it is emotional game but character and how one conducts himself when one is face with adversity is more important than any game.

They ended well given the start they had!

They got hosed by the ref on a clear goal on a corner and trip in the box by Wheaton GK.  2 PKs for Wheaton (both saved by Midd GK) - lots of home cooking.  I dont see Wheaton getting past sweet 16. 

Whether they got "hosed" or not, it still does not excuse the behavior post game. In case anyone missed it, the Middlebury player ran at a Wheaton player after the final whistle and ended up pushing the 4th official to the ground. The player was red carded.

A shocking and grotesque display of behavior and something I have only seen one other time at the Division 3 level (Umass Boston several years ago). I am surprised no one has commented on this!

Did not see the game but the actions of the Middlebury player running at a opposing player and then pushing the 4th official is uncalled for if it is true.  I understand that it is emotional game but character and how one conducts himself when one is face with adversity is more important than any game.

FWIW, the announcer on the stream described it differently. Go watch/listen if you'd like. He described a Wheaton player as going after Midd players and jawing after the final whistle, described it as unfortunate. According to his account, the 4th official attempted to step between the two; the Midd player made contact and the official went down. (Thus the red card.) I'm not excusing the Midd player (though I know him to be an upstanding individual) and the card very well could have been warranted. But it was not this one-sided affair that some have given. And I am relying on the account of the Wheaton play-by-play announcer who saw this first hand.

[paclassic89]

Here's a clip from the end of the game

https://streamable.com/4d2zhj

Vera is running down the sideline and plays the ball towards the Middlebury goal to kill time.  Dugan from Middlebury  barges through his back (intentionally) sending him to the turf well after the play.  I'm sure Vera had some words for the Middlebury bench on his way back as the clock ran out and they lost their cool. Seems to me like Middlebury kicked things off with some dirty play.  Better luck next year Panthers

[Sandon Mibut]

I'm just going off the NCAA stats, which may not include conference and NCAA tournament games.  If there's a discrepancy, it's probably that.

I was wrong. Midd's 37 YC included the 10 in NESCAC playoffs.

So their season tally was 41 YC + 3 RC as you mentioned.

15 different players received cards including 7 players with at least 3 apiece:

Dugan: 7
Cavaceppi: 5
Casanova: 3 + 1 RC
Cosentino: 3 + 1 RC
Johnson: 4
Gonzalez: 3
Sawin: 3

[Sandon Mibut]

Been sitting on this data since the end of last season didn't seem relevant but this discussion reminded me I compiled it....had too much time on my hands....

Using the data available on ncaa soccer stats archive plotting fouls per game and yellow cards in a season I have a list with every D1-D3 school. The data is from 2017-end of last season. The list has just over 1000 teams.

The reason it starts in 2017 is that is the first year all fouls per game and yellow cards are available on the ncaa website. To go back farther id need to manually dig up numbers for each team and I'm not that crazy....

Amherst was 35th with 45.33 yellows per season with a high of 65 in the 2023.

Amherst was 2nd with 15.69 fouls per game average with a high of 16.33 in 2022

They had 17+ in 2016 but that's outside the data set I was able to easily work with.

For the record I did go back to 2014 manually for top ranked teams in these categories....Rowan has the highest D3 fouls per game average with just over 16. Amherst is second with 15.5. Again that's 2014-end of last year

The next closest NESCAC team was Middlebury at 368th with 32.5 yellows per season with a high of 43 in 2024. Obviously they have passed that this season.

Middlebury was 18th in fouls per game with 14.53 average with a high of 16.05 in 2019

Rowan was 10th in fouls per game at 14.96 and 7th in yellow cards with an average of 51.67 per season.

The national average across the data set was 11.35 fouls per game and 30.18 yellows per season.

Fun bonus stat...The team with the lowest yellows per season of any team in the whole data set (7.67) is still in the D3 tournament

I'd be interested to know where all the NESCAC teams rank amongst D3 only particularly since Covid. Amherst has been notoriously aggressive for a while but I think Midd has really climbed the rankings more recently. Sounds like both teams have bad reputations at least amongst the NESCAC.

[Newenglander]

Been sitting on this data since the end of last season didn't seem relevant but this discussion reminded me I compiled it....had too much time on my hands....

Using the data available on ncaa soccer stats archive plotting fouls per game and yellow cards in a season I have a list with every D1-D3 school. The data is from 2017-end of last season. The list has just over 1000 teams.

The reason it starts in 2017 is that is the first year all fouls per game and yellow cards are available on the ncaa website. To go back farther id need to manually dig up numbers for each team and I'm not that crazy....

Amherst was 35th with 45.33 yellows per season with a high of 65 in the 2023.

Amherst was 2nd with 15.69 fouls per game average with a high of 16.33 in 2022

They had 17+ in 2016 but that's outside the data set I was able to easily work with.

For the record I did go back to 2014 manually for top ranked teams in these categories....Rowan has the highest D3 fouls per game average with just over 16. Amherst is second with 15.5. Again that's 2014-end of last year

The next closest NESCAC team was Middlebury at 368th with 32.5 yellows per season with a high of 43 in 2024. Obviously they have passed that this season.

Middlebury was 18th in fouls per game with 14.53 average with a high of 16.05 in 2019

Rowan was 10th in fouls per game at 14.96 and 7th in yellow cards with an average of 51.67 per season.

The national average across the data set was 11.35 fouls per game and 30.18 yellows per season.

Fun bonus stat...The team with the lowest yellows per season of any team in the whole data set (7.67) is still in the D3 tournament

I'd be interested to know where all the NESCAC teams rank amongst D3 only particularly since Covid. Amherst has been notoriously aggressive for a while but I think Midd has really climbed the rankings more recently. Sounds like both teams have bad reputations at least amongst the NESCAC.

I can tell you NESCAC cards by year - Amherst and Middlebury have led the categories since 2021:

21 - A 39 M 37 Next 35 (Conn)
22 - A 55 M 35 Next 24 (Bates)
23 - A 67 M 36 Next 28 (Trinity)
24 - A 49 M 43 Next 38 (Conn)
25 - A 43 M 41 Next 28 (Williams)

[camosfan]

Let us remember that fouls are not all senseless!

[Newenglander]

Let us remember that fouls are not all senseless!

agreed - but certainly a trend in data.