Mid-Atlantic Region

[SierraFD3soccer]

Thanks for going through that. Like I said before, I'm guessing that not many of the 415 D3 programs who would not change places with F&M. May not be a NESCAC or Messiah success, but consistent.

Dislike or like, Coach Wagner and his great staff Donnie Spangler (15 yr asst and could have easily moved on) and Mark Wagner (since 2017 and 25 yr coach of Eastern) have impacted a lot of men over the years. Now over a generation. Guys in their 40's along with recent graduates helping out mentoring current players. Set the standard and the guys hold each other to it. 

Not much else you can ask for from a D3 coach and his staff. 

[SierraFD3soccer]

1-1 F&M v Dickinson Dickinson scored first midway in 1st. Before that though Dips hit the crossbar with a very nice shot. F&M scored with about 6 min left on a nice goal. Dickinson definitely had better opportunities, but F&M played some solid defense with good to great goalkeeping.

People say Dickinson is not as good which is true, but if they can finish better they are still dangerous imo.

The big picture in Cent Conf definitely as clear as block glass. Ursinus and Muhls tie while the Bullets beat Hop 1-0. Crazy conf. So wide open with 5 games a piece to go.

[Hopkins92]

So, a correction... I made the lovely backroads drive up to Gettysburg today to watch the Hopkins game. Game ended 1-1.

Bullets scored on a play where their left winger torched the Hop defender, pure speed. He then kind of punched a pass into the box and the Hop last man whiffed and their striker had the ball all alone in front of goal, 12 yards out and then slotted it in. Midway through the first half.

Somewhere around the 30 minute mark in the second half, Hop had a sub winger come on who juked a few defenders to open up a shot from outside the 18... He absolutely ripped the shot near post for a golazo. One of the nicest goals I've seen in person in a long time.

Hopkins was wearing down the Bullets with their possession, but just couldn't really put the right foot forward in the final third.

I love my boys and I respect the coaches, BUT... Even on set pieces late in the game, they've got 2 guys in the box. I was losing my mind. Put your guys in the box and lump it in, dammit.

And their main guy in the back is really good, BUT... He almost handed them 2 goals in the first half with sloppy passes. If you know Hopkins, it was when they are spreading out the back 3 and he was trying to curl the ball around a defender that was just sitting there guarding space. FFS.

I would love for that guy (Jackson) to start pillaging a bit more. They are sitting off of him, waiting for the passes into the flanks. They are giving him ACRES OF SPACE up the middle. F'ing take the space, man. I like this guy, he's going to be very good. But I hope Coach A directs him to take the 20 yards of space and direct the offense more. He's good enough to do it, but way too often they pull the ball back and reset the offense.

Kind of frustrating to watch at times. That said, they absolutely adjusted to a more direct style at halftime. Good coaching. You could see Gettysburg wasn't really ready for the switch and made for a somewhat one-sided affair at times.

[Hopkins92]

Overall, I came away much more impressed with Hopkins than from my livestream watch of them from last weekend. I think the weather was worse than I factored into my impression of them.

I really like this team. A ton of technical skill and they communicate really well. Very positive vibe.

They need a guy that's a little more gnarly in the final third, but you could say that about a lot teams like Hopkins, who place a premium on technical skill and less on straight up athleticism.

I won't go through the roster and comment -- that'd be weird -- but I was really impressed with about 10 of the guys. The guy that scored Hopkins' goal was willing to take guys on and that's where I'd say a few more guys should   be willing to take more chances.

Appleby obviously values possession... But you've gotta be ok with guys taking chances... Hard to score methodically working the ball from side-to-side.

[Kuiper]

USC Region V Rankings Sept. 29, 2026

Region V - Poll 3 - September 29, 2026
Rank   School   Prev   W-L-T
1   Catholic University   NR   7-0-1
2   University of Scranton   NR   4-1-3
3   Messiah University   NR   6-1-1
4   Johns Hopkins University   NR   6-2-1
5   Haverford College   NR   7-1-1
6   York College (Pa.)   NR   6-2-1
7   Gettysburg College   NR   6-3-0
8   Widener University   NR   5-2-1

Widener and York jump ahead of Haverford, Gettysburg drops out, and Moravian is ranked

Region V - Poll 4 - October 6, 2026
Rank   School   Prev   W-L-T
1   Catholic University   NR   7-0-3
2   University of Scranton   NR   6-1-3
3   Messiah University   NR   8-1-1
4   Johns Hopkins University   NR   7-2-2
5   Widener University   NR   7-2-1
6   York College (Pa.)   NR   6-2-2
7   Haverford College   NR   8-2-1
8   Moravian University   NR   5-2-4

[Kuiper]

USC Region IV Poll 3 Sept. 29, 2026

Rank   School   Prev   W-L-T
1   Rowan University   NR   6-0-1
2   New York University   NR   7-0-1
3   Stevens Institute of Technology   NR   4-1-1
4   Rutgers University-Newark   NR   3-1-3
5   Montclair State University   NR   7-2-0
6   Lebanon Valley College   NR   5-2-1
7   The College of New Jersey   NR   4-0-4
8   DeSales University   NR   4-3-1

Region IV - Poll 4 - October 6, 2026
Rank   School   Prev   W-L-T
1   Rowan University   NR   7-0-2
2   New York University   NR   7-1-1
3   Montclair State University   NR   10-2-0
4   The College of New Jersey   NR   5-0-5
5   Stevens Institute of Technology   NR   5-1-2
6   Rutgers University-Newark   NR   4-2-3
7   Lebanon Valley College   NR   7-2-1
8   Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham   NR   4-1-3

Montclair and TCNJ jump ahead of Stevens and Rutgers-Newark, FDU-Florham replaces DeSales

[NEPAFAN]

Scranton 1 Lycoming 0
Catholic 4 Goucher 0

[Falconer]

Messiah 2, Hood 0. This one could easily have been 4 or 5 to 1. The Falcons just missed a couple that ordinarily go in, and the Blazers had a rocket saved brilliantly, followed very soon by a scramble between a striker and the keeper in which the keeper emerged with the ball. Otherwise the Falcon keeper wasn't challenged, but he stood on his head twice to keep it scoreless.

Messiah has dominated every single game this season, including the opening 1-0 loss to Scranton and the scoreless tie in the classic Marshmallow game with Etown. In the opener, the problem was generating shots--a very common problem for Messiah teams early in a season, as the boys are just getting to know each other's strengths. As for Etown, that's always hotly contested and you never know what you're going to see until you see it.

This team is very deep, especially with FR and SO. The whole team is getting a lot of PT, but especially those two classes. No starters are FR, but they are as a class highly skilled. The incoming HS AA is still recovering from surgery last spring and two other players will miss the rest of the season (including the starting GK from last season), but even without those guys the Falcons are starting to jell at a high level. Whether it's high enough to go deep into the tournament remains to be seen, but I wouldn't want to be playing them in November.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Really, really tough night for the better teams in the Cent. Conf. Hop lost to Salisbury 2-1 and Dickinson to Leb Valley also 2-1. Obv. both dropped in their rankings.

Dickinson plays Christopher Newport next week and with a win will help with its rankings as well as against Hop on Oct. 21st. IMO, if Hop wins the CC tournament there will be only one CC team in the NCAAs. Further, if Hop loses a CC game and does not win the tournament, CC may only have one team as well. Hop is the only one in contention right now in the rankings at 32, Fords at 62 and Ursinus at 70. Dickinson has sunk to 103.

Some other interesting points - Dickinson is driving down to Leesburg, VA (neutral site west of DC) on a weeknight against CNU (ranked 32) and the Fords are going on the same day up to Purchase NY to play Manhattanville (ranked 29) at 2pm. Two possible tough games as their last out of conf. On top of that, they play each other this Saturday. If a team sweeps both, it could mean a lot as far as rankings are concerned.

[Hopkins Walk-On]

I only saw the first half of the Hopkins game but they were awful. Zero shots. Salisbury spent the half on Hopkins side of the ball and peppered the box with corner kicks and throw-ins. One throw-in got through and was headed in. Based on the box score, Hopkins ramped it up in the 2nd half but it was too little, too late. They took 10 shots but only 2 were on goal.

[SimpleCoach]

I only saw the first half of the Hopkins game but they were awful. Zero shots. Salisbury spent the half on Hopkins side of the ball and peppered the box with corner kicks and throw-ins. One throw-in got through and was headed in. Based on the box score, Hopkins ramped it up in the 2nd half but it was too little, too late. They took 10 shots but only 2 were on goal.

Dreadful.

SC.

[Falconer]

Appleby obviously values possession... But you've gotta be ok with guys taking chances... Hard to score methodically working the ball from side-to-side.

When you keep the ball in the other team's half, nothing really bad can happen (unless a bad and unnecessary foul draws a card). Chances should be taken. Sometimes, even very chancy shots go in. The Falcons sometimes have this disease also--too much passing, not enough shooting. If a team is that good at possession, and Hopkins usually is, where's the harm in taking chances on the other team's end? You're going to get the back back pretty soon. It's not as though you're giving up on possession.

[SierraFD3soccer]

I only saw the first half of the Hopkins game but they were awful. Zero shots. Salisbury spent the half on Hopkins side of the ball and peppered the box with corner kicks and throw-ins. One throw-in got through and was headed in. Based on the box score, Hopkins ramped it up in the 2nd half but it was too little, too late. They took 10 shots but only 2 were on goal.

Dreadful.

SC.

Saw part, but I'm having problems figuring what is going on nowadays. Obv. the result speaks for itself.

While not the end of their season, the next games against Dickinson and Manhattanville will def. have a big impact on Hop. Question also how much the long (2-3 hr) bus ride to the Eastern Shore in the middle of the week impacted Hop. The ride to Purchase, NY will be over 4 hrs.

When my son played in a D1 bus league, they always travelled the day before played the next day and took the bus back home that night getting back around 3am. Obv. mid week games will not happen for D3, but can have an impact on a teams travelling.

[Kuiper]

Really, really tough night for the better teams in the Cent. Conf. Hop lost to Salisbury 2-1 and Dickinson to Leb Valley also 2-1. Obv. both dropped in their rankings.

Dickinson plays Christopher Newport next week and with a win will help with its rankings as well as against Hop on Oct. 21st. IMO, if Hop wins the CC tournament there will be only one CC team in the NCAAs. Further, if Hop loses a CC game and does not win the tournament, CC may only have one team as well. Hop is the only one in contention right now in the rankings at 32, Fords at 62 and Ursinus at 70. Dickinson has sunk to 103.

Some other interesting points - Dickinson is driving down to Leesburg, VA (neutral site west of DC) on a weeknight against CNU (ranked 32) and the Fords are going on the same day up to Purchase NY to play Manhattanville (ranked 29) at 2pm. Two possible tough games as their last out of conf. On top of that, they play each other this Saturday. If a team sweeps both, it could mean a lot as far as rankings are concerned.

If you look at the Centennial Composite Schedule, it almost feels like a deliberate move on the part of the conference for schools to schedule strong opponents this coming Tuesday/Wednesday.  It's probably just a coincidence that every conference member is playing a team higher than them on the NPI rankings, but it's pretty clear the schedule was structured to allow for this late-season non-conference game and schools may have decided they would be better prepared to play a stronger non-conference team later rather than earlier.  If every Centennial team won their mid-week game and got an NPI boost, that might help push another team into an at-large spot.

Tues 10/13

Haverford @ Manhattanville
Salisbury @ Ursinus
Gettysburg @ Carnegie Mellon
Stevens @ Swarthmore

Wed 10/14

Dickinson v. Christopher Newport
Messiah @ Muhlenberg

[Hopkins92]

Appleby obviously values possession... But you've gotta be ok with guys taking chances... Hard to score methodically working the ball from side-to-side.

When you keep the ball in the other team's half, nothing really bad can happen (unless a bad and unnecessary foul draws a card). Chances should be taken. Sometimes, even very chancy shots go in. The Falcons sometimes have this disease also--too much passing, not enough shooting. If a team is that good at possession, and Hopkins usually is, where's the harm in taking chances on the other team's end? You're going to get the back back pretty soon. It's not as though you're giving up on possession.

Absolutely. Watching them in person against Gettysburg, you can see that if they don't have a clear option to pass forward, even when they are well past the center line, their instinct is to turn back toward their own goal and hit reset on the entire thing.

And I would be sort of OK with that, if their QB (centerback) was given more leeway to take the acres of space the other team is giving him. Other teams are sitting back, waiting for the fairly predictable pass out to the flank. Hop will either play it to the outside back and work combos, or if the other team is sitting on that, they'll skip directly to the midfield.

What they very rarely do is exploit the middle of the field and attack up the gut.

They need to mix that up. They have been playing the same style for over 8 years (probably more) and you don't need to really watch game tape to scout them at this point.

They have the skill; they just need to inject some edge and daring into their approach.