Mr.Rights Thoughts

[Corazon]

I was really hoping Calichman would return to Williams. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. I've heard the AD has narrowed it down to 4 candidates, all of whom are British. .

[Mr.Right]

Haha....Yes Calichman would have been a strong candidate with Sullivan to get it. One of those races where it would have been so close that one little thing during the interview process would have decided it. Also, interesting to me is Calichman maybe not considering the fact that his predecessor was a former D3 coach lasting 1 1/2 years before getting fired and is now currently looking for jobs. MLS is a volatile league but Calichman must be around 45 and figures he could get another coaching gig and maybe wanted to pursue his dream job. Also, he is a former MLS All-Star and will have more respect from pro players than O'Leary. O'Leary left a cushy secure Bowdoin job at age 53 in a move that is looking worse and worse as usually coaches have a hard time getting jobs after they hit 55.

[stlawus]

Yes, we hosted in 2002.  Snow storm came in and they had to move the games to the North Country Field, which is the turf field mainly used for lacrosse and field hockey.  We lost to Messiah in the semifinal and they ended up beating Otterbein in the championship.

[lastguyoffthebench]

The front 6 of Messiah 2013 might have been the best I have seen at the d3 level...  as far as the overall team... it would be 2013, 2003, 2005, 2010...

[Mr.Right]

Hmm not 2006? I thought that JD Binger kid could have been one of the best defenders I have ever seen at this level. Also, the GK of that team in the game I saw at Williams made 2 saves that most GK's at any level would not have made

[lastguyoffthebench]

Tough lists, but that 03 team that had bills was phenomenal...  the 04 team ran through the tourney without conceding a goal and I didn't put them in top 4... 05 was unbeaten untied... 

[Mr.Right]

your right it is almost ridiculous. I am by know means a Messiah expert but we heard a lot about this 2014 team this year being the best. I stated the 2013 team was better because of Wood but I will change my tune and agree with you that the 2013 teams front 6 was incredible.

[Corazon]

That is too bad about O'Leary as Bowdoin indeed is a cushy job. Relatively easy school to recruit for located in a nice town without too much pressure to win.

[1970s NESCAC Player]

After taking a peak at Amherst roster they lose one solid player- Wirz. One long throw decent player-VanWie. One mainstay since 2008-Heo.

Wirz is a big loss but Amherst has shown year in and year out that they can replace central defenders consistently. I really would like Aoyama to move back to wingback but there is no way Serpone moves him back there after a year in the middle. They really bring back a VERY STRONG team next year and with a year more experience for the underclassman it is looking good.

Aoyama played outside back this year on one side, with Sood on the other.  Wirz and Bean played in the middle.

[Flying Weasel]

As much as we all thought Messiah's 2014 was their best team I really feel now that 2013 could have been. Josh Wood was a legit D3 / mid-major D1 striker. That kid could finish and I feel that Messiah did not miss his presence until the weather got colder and their opponents got tougher.

Not sure the basis for the part of your statement that I indicated.

No argument that Josh Wood was a goal machine in 2013 that made all Messiah's excellent build-up play pay off.  And no argument that he provided something a little different from anything this year's edition had.  Payne's best position is in the hole behind the striker but so is Danny Brandt's.  Obviously the coaching staff decided that to maximize the combined contributions of the two was for both to start with Brandt in the hole and Payne up top.  It sacrificed Payne's best to gain Brandt's inclusion in the starting line-up.  But Payne was certainly no slouch as a striker and his 21 goals matched Wood's 21 goals last year, and in three less games played than Wood.  So looking at the season as a whole, the problem wasn't so much the loss of Wood directly, but the removal of Payne from the midfield to fill Wood's spot.  The midfield did not produce at the same level this year as it did in 2013. 

So indirectly they did miss Wood this year, but that was a season-long thing that resulted in a little less dynamic of an attack producing .30 goals less per game.  Not sure the basis for trying connect it with cold weather and tougher competition down the stretch.  They seemed to do fine against Cortland St. in the cold without Wood.  Losing to a very good Tufts team in the cold (wasn't really that cold Sunday, actually) does not make for a trend.  Not to mention that Wood only scored one goal total in the four Sectional and Final Four games last year.

[Mr.Right]

Well I am no Messiah expert but I just felt that in games where some of the best teams were clamping down on the middle of the field where Messiah likes to move the ball thru that the ball was not getting to the strikers in good positions. This led me to believe that Wood was a different kind of striker that could finish no matter where he received the ball inside the 18 or around the 18. My argument was that no matter how tough the conditions(cold weather, 1950's varsity field) or opponents I felt Wood would finish or indirectly take the opponents best defenders away from others to allow them to finish. Maybe that is why he only had one goal in 4 playoff games last year.

[Mr.Right]

After taking a peak at Amherst roster they lose one solid player- Wirz. One long throw decent player-VanWie. One mainstay since 2008-Heo.

Wirz is a big loss but Amherst has shown year in and year out that they can replace central defenders consistently. I really would like Aoyama to move back to wingback but there is no way Serpone moves him back there after a year in the middle. They really bring back a VERY STRONG team next year and with a year more experience for the underclassman it is looking good.

Aoyama played outside back this year on one side, with Sood on the other.  Wirz and Bean played in the middle.

Not until Serpone realized Forrest Sisk was not the answer at right back

[Flying Weasel]

The front 6 of Messiah 2013 might have been the best I have seen at the d3 level...  as far as the overall team... it would be 2013, 2003, 2005, 2010...

Tough lists, but that 03 team that had bills was phenomenal...  the 04 team ran through the tourney without conceding a goal and I didn't put them in top 4... 05 was unbeaten untied...

Are you sure you mean 2003?  Bills best season was 2002 when the class of Woodworth, Sauer, Faro, Snavely, et. al. were seniors and Bills scored 29 goals including the game-winners against Hopkins, Salisbury, Greensboro, and Drew in the tournament to reach the Final Four.  2003 seemed like an inbetween year. Still a very good team and after a month to adapt to life without Woodworth and company they hit their stride winning 13 straight before the PK shutout elimination to Salisbury in the Regional Final (Sweet 16).  By that point, perhaps that squad was playing as well as the previous year, but with the September road bumps, reduced scoring, and early tournament exit, it will always be the year between the 2000-2002 editions that won the first two titles and the 2004-2006 editions that made Messiah a dynasty.  2002 was the pinnacle for goal scoring with a program high 3.93 GSA that has never been threatened since.  And defensively it is within a few hundreths of the program's other best GAA's making for the program's best ever +3.55 goal difference.  Few players (maybe seniors Sam Casey and Aaron Casper) were at their peak in 2003--Bills in his senior year dealing with injuries wasn't as effective, and the underclassmen would get even better in subsequent years.  It was over the course of the 2003 season the squad grew into team that would take the 2004 and 2005 titles in very impressive fashion with Dave McClellan exploding for goals and Kai Kasiguran's talents being added to the mix. No list of greatest Messiah squads is complete without the 2002 edition, in my opinion.

[Flying Weasel]

Hmm not 2006? I thought that JD Binger kid could have been one of the best defenders I have ever seen at this level. Also, the GK of that team in the game I saw at Williams made 2 saves that most GK's at any level would not have made

I think one reason 2006 doesn't stack up is the offense was down that year by Messiah standards.  Defensively, despite the outside back positions being in flux, it measured up with any other Messiah edition with the centerback pairing of sophomore J.D. Binger and 5th-year senior Rosamilia in front of senior goalkeeper Dustin Shambach (probably Messiah's best ever).  And junior Dan Visser was the defensive mid.  But the attack produced the lowest GSA and only GSA below 3.00 from 1998 to 2006 (twice since Messiah has had lower GSA's).  I think two first-year transfers were battling for the center forward position with neither really settling in and convincing (maybe even Patrick Lenehan was being tried there, I'm not sure as I wasn't around to see that season first-hand).  Anyway, the attack didn't seem to click as well that year despite having some great weapons in Danny Wagner on the wing, Lenehan and Kai Kasiguran.

BTW, that Sectional at Williams was better than the Final Four.  Hopkins and Williams were better than NYU and Wheaton who both were riding waves of emotion to reach the Final Four and were no match for Messiah.  It was nice having three of the most storied D-III programs in the Final Four (OWU, Wheaton, Messiah), but it certainly didn't make for the best Final Four.

[Flying Weasel]

Well I am no Messiah expert but I just felt that in games where some of the best teams were clamping down on the middle of the field where Messiah likes to move the ball thru that the ball was not getting to the strikers in good positions. This led me to believe that Wood was a different kind of striker that could finish no matter where he received the ball inside the 18 or around the 18. My argument was that no matter how tough the conditions(cold weather, 1950's varsity field) or opponents I felt Wood would finish or indirectly take the opponents best defenders away from others to allow them to finish. Maybe that is why he only had one goal in 4 playoff games last year.

We'll never know if Wood would have made a difference in the Tufts game, but the most similar game (though far from identical) for Messiah was the Kenyon game in last year's Sweet 16 when they took away the middle of the fields and "forced" the Falcons wide basically conceding the wings.  In that game, both Messiah goals came form midfielders taking shots from outside the box, neither involving the ball ever being passed into the box to Wood or space he created for a teammate.  Wood was largely kept in check by Kenyon's size and collapsed defense only managing 3 shots, none on goal, and when Wood subbed out late in the game, Payne moved to the target position for the remainder of the game as Messiah searched for the winning goal to avoid OT.  I don't say that to criticize Wood.  Far from it.  He was awesome that year and despite the multiple injuries and surgeries robbing him of the speed and mobility he had when he arrived at Messiah, he was the perfect target man for that attack.  And you are right, beyond his goal-scoring and even his hold-up play and lay-offs, he also helped in ways that never get onto the score sheet by dragging multiple defenders with him and opening up space for others to exploit.  I point out the Kenyon game simply to illustrate that Wood could be rendered (somewhat) ineffective by the right team executing the right game plan on a given day, and as such I'm not so sure the missing ingredient versus Tufts that would have made them victorious was Wood.  I think Messiah had what it took to win and if you play that Tufts game ten times, I'm feeling good about Messiah taking home more wins than Tufts.  But that's not how sports work, or at least not in single elimination tournaments.  Both team played very well, but Tufts had that one moment of goal-scoring quality that just eluded Messiah by inches several times.  Credit to Tufts.