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[Kuiper]

FINAL:  DePauw 3 - Kenyon 2

That surely ends Kenyon's season, which is disappointing for them, but also for us because I kind of hoped @PaulNewman would make a few more appearances on the board if his Owls made the NCAA tournament.

Wooster 1 - Denison 1 in the 95th minute

Wooster and Denison ended regulation tied 1-1 and are currently in OT.  I don't think Denison is in trouble if it loses, but at #27 in the NPI, they can't be entirely comfortable either.  Wooster needs the NCAC tournament to advance, although they would move up the NPI with a win in OT.

FINAL:  Denison 2 - Wooster 1

Denison scores a golden goal in the 97th minute, ending Wooster's season and likely sealing Denison's place in the NCAAs

Denison went from being down 1-0 in the 86th minute to scoring goals in the 87th minute and 97th minute to pull out the win.

[Kuiper]

The transfer portal is in high gear and Kenyon starting GK Dominic Pratt just announced on his Instagram page that he is transferring to D1 St. John's University.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DR-swn3DvGy/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==


He was 2nd team All Conference in the NCAC this past season.  Interesting move that runs counter to the narrative that the path from D3 to D1 may not be possible with roster limits and int'l players.

[Kuiper]

As I said, the transfer portal is in high gear, even in D3.  Kenyon GK Dominic Pratt is transferring to D1 St. John's and now Colby GK Matthew Kayser announced his transfer to Kenyon.

Kayser was a freshman this season at Colby and didn't see any action.

[Kuiper]

More portal action involving Kenyon.

Neumann Men's Soccer announced that Kenyon Sophomore MF Ronny Riberra is transferring to Neumann

Trinity (TX) Men's Soccer announced that Kenyon Sophomore D Gabriel Romanenko is transferring to Trinity

Not sure what is going on in Gambier, but counting GK Dominic Pratt's transfer to St. John's, that's three sophomore Kenyon men's soccer players announcing transfers since the season ended.  Three players departing isn't that unusual, but all of them played and started games to varying degrees, so this doesn't look like the typical end of the bench deciding to leave.  My guess is that some of this might be about groupthink in the sense that once one of the friends left, the others didn't want to get left behind (or they all had gripes and decided to act upon them).  Plus, the transfer portal now makes it easier than ever to put your name out there. 

Nevertheless, it does make me wonder if all is not happy there after a season in which Kenyon had its fewest wins since 2011 and I think its first season not qualifying for the NCAA tournament since 2012.  I probably should have put Kenyon alongside Franklin & Marshall in my Biggest Stories of 2025 post.

 

[SKUD]

They say, "are you going to heaven or are you going to Ohio."

Maybe the Cali boy didn't like the Ohio climate and opted for the horrible heat of San Antonio.

As for Jersey, you can take the boy out of jersey but you can't take the jersey out of the boy. Maybe the super-crunchy megalopolis of Gambier Ohio (population 2,200) wasn't for him and he wanted to be closer to home.

3 transfers doesn't strike me the way it struck you.

[Kuiper]

They say, "are you going to heaven or are you going to Ohio."

Maybe the Cali boy didn't like the Ohio climate and opted for the horrible heat of San Antonio.

As for Jersey, you can take the boy out of jersey but you can't take the jersey out of the boy. Maybe the super-crunchy megalopolis of Gambier Ohio (population 2,200) wasn't for him and he wanted to be closer to home.

3 transfers doesn't strike me the way it struck you.

You're probably right.  We just haven't seen many transfers away from one team in D3 in a short period very often, although that may be because I wasn't paying attention.  Given Kenyon's down year last year, it raised my eyebrows a bit, but it is certainly true that students transfer for all sorts of reasons all the time.  In fact, it may be that they're coming from Coach Wall's team because he helps to facilitate the moves when he knows a player wants to go, whereas other coaches are territorial and players unhappy in those programs end up quitting soccer altogether.

[Kuiper]

OVC 2026 Men's Soccer Preseason Poll

1. Ohio Northern (5)
2. Otterbein (3)
3. Mount Union (1)
4. Wilmington
5. Capital
6. Baldwin Wallace
7. Marietta
8. Heidelberg
9. Muskingum

[Kuiper]

HCAC 2026 Men's Preseason Poll

1. Transylvania (7)
2. Hanover (3)
3. Rose-Hulman
4. Bluffton
5. Anderson
6. Mt. St. Joseph
7. Berea
8. Manchester
9. Franklin
10. Earlham

[Kuiper]

PAC Preseason Poll

1. Grove City (11)
2. Franciscan (2)
3. Allegheny
4. Geneva
5. St. Vincent
6. Waynesburg
7. W&J
8. Chatham
9. Hiram
10. Bethany
11. Westminster
12. Thiel
X. Saint Francis

Saint Francis is moving from DI to DIII and wasn't voted on by the coaches.  Nevertheless, they are playing a full PAC schedule.  It could be brutal.  They currently have 15 players listed on the roster.  Every single player but one is a freshman.  The one non-freshman is senior Alvaro Planas, who started 16 games last year and was named first team all NEC last year (4g/2a) when they were playing D1.  Planas is a product of the Real Valladolid Youth Academy, where he played for 9 years.  He's got the #10 jersey and I expect that will mean something on this team. 

St. Francis lists Planas, Japhy McGuiness (who was raised in Saudi Arabia and has played the past few years in Spain), and Lorenzo Plaza (who is from the Phillipines, but played for Western Reserve Academy outside of Cleveland) as their players to watch for 2026