Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

Game of the Day in the SCIAC:

Occidental @ UMass Boston @9 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern

Oxy is coming off a big win against MIT (3-0) and a close loss to Babson (2-1).  Hard to know what to make of UMass Boston.  They tied Salve Regina 0-0, which seems like a team below Babson, but then they also tied Babson 1-1.  I guess if you go by last season's UMass Boston record of 10-1-6 with only 9 goals conceded all season, two ties and only 1 goal conceded in the first two games is playing to form.  Sounds like a good test of where Oxy stands.  They capitalized on mistakes against MIT, but it doesn't sound like UMass Boston makes as many of those.  From an NPI perspective, Oxy really needs a win because, while a 2-1 loss @ Babson is nothing to hang your head about, this is the last chance for a non-SCIAC win that might constitute a "quality" win. They don't even play UC Santa Cruz this season.  With CMS losing both games in Texas and Redlands losing to Swarthmore yesterday, the chance that the SCIAC games are going to provide an NPI boost is diminishing.

UPDATE:  UMB 1 - Oxy 0

UMB came off the kickoff flying and throwing a midfield press that Oxy wasn't prepared to handle.  After a couple of chances in the first two minutes that bothered Oxy's GK, UMB scores on a cross in the 3rd minute.

UPDATE:  UMB 2 - Oxy 0

Oxy looks like a team that flew across the country and is playing its third straight game and is still on pacific time at 9 am in the morning.  Mentally, they may already be on the plane ride home.  They are getting blitzed.  UMB's Arruda scored despite being surrounded by 4 Oxy defenders in the box.

UPDATE:  UMB 3 - Oxy 0

PK in the 25th minute.  Emergency defending.  Oxy may need to bring in the bench and see if fresh legs make a difference

UPDATE: UMB 4 - Oxy 0

This is a warning against scheduling 3 games on your east coast trip. UMB
Scores another in the 60th minute.  If the benches haven't been fully emptied before, they will be now

FINALLY:  UMB 4 - Oxy 0

[Kuiper]

Pretty bleak performance by NWC on opening weekend.  Only two wins out of 14 games.

Whitworth 1-0-1 (beat Hawaii Pacific (D2); Tied Chaminade (D2))
Puget Sound 1-0-0 (beat Evergreen State)
Willamette 0-1-1 (lost to UC Santa Cruz; tied La Verne)
Pacific 0-1-1 (tied La Verne; lost to UC Santa Cruz)
George Fox 0-0-1 (tied Oregon Tech (NAIA))
Wihtman 0-0-1 (tied Eastern Oregon (NAIA))
Lewis & Clark 0-1-0 (lost to Bushnell (NAIA)
Linfield 0-2-0 (lost to Macalester and Augsburg)
Pacific Lutheran 0-2-0 (lost to St. Olaf and Gustavus Adolphus)

[Kuiper]

Missed opportunities for the SCIAC to grab some NPI points on opening weekend:

Pomona-Pitzer 2-0-0 (beat Cal State San Marcos (D2) and Park University Gilbert (NAIA))
Cal Lutheran 1-0-0 (beat Soka (NAIA))
Whittier 1-0-0 (beat Nobel (NCCAA))
Caltech 1-0-0 (beat Park University Gilbert (NAIA))
Redlands 1-1-0 (beat Rutgers-Newark and lost to Swarthmore)
La Verne 0-0-2 (tied Pacific and Willamette)
Occidental 1-2-0 (lost to Babson, beat MIT, lost to UMass Boston)
Chapman 0-1-1 (lost to Wheaton, tied DePauw)
Claremont MS 0-2-0 (lost to Trinity and Southwestern)

[Kuiper]

ASC did pretty well this weekend, although primarily against the lower half of the SCAC (not sure where TLU will fall this season)

East Texas Baptist 2-0-0 (beat University of Dallas and Ozarks)
Mary Hardin-Baylor 2-0-0 (beat Schreiner and Texas Lutheran)
Hardin-Simmons 1-1-0 (lost to Texas Lutheran and beat Schreiner)
Howard Payne 0-2-0 (lost to Ozarks and Austin College)

[Kuiper]

The SCAC without Trinity and Southwestern just looks meh.  Only 6 wins in 17 games and the wins were against middling to weak opponents and that's about it.  Best results were Colorado College's win against DePauw and Texas Lutheran's win against Hardin-Simmons

Austin College 1-0-0 (beat Howard Payne)
Centenary (LA) 1-0-1 (beat Texas College (NAIA) and tied Dallas Christian (NCCAA))
Colorado College 1-0-1 (beat DePauw and tied Wheaton (IL))
McMurry 1-1-0 (beat Arlington Baptist (NCCAA) and lost to Lyon)
Ozarks 1-1-0 (beat Howard Payne and lost to East Texas Baptist)
Texas Lutheran 1-1-0 (Beat Hardin-Simmons and lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor)
Hendrix 0-0-1 (tied Lyon)
Concordia 0-0-0
LeTourneau 0-0-0
St. Thomas 0-1-0 (lost to Southwestern; game against Trinity suspended/cancelled with UST down 2-0)
Dallas 0-2-0 (lost to East Texas Baptist and Arlington Baptist (NCCAA))
Schreiner 0-2-0 (lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor and Hardin-Simmons)

[BTXCru18]

McMurry

McMurry finished 4-13-1 in the SCAC in 2024, their first since moving from the ASC, where they will return in 2026.  A poor record, but double the win total of the year prior and tied for the second most wins since the pandemic.  In other words, expectations for men's soccer are all relative for McMurry.  The 2025 roster suggests things are particularly bleak though.  They had 32 on the roster in 2024 and currently only have 18 on the roster for 2025.  I thought maybe it was just a spring returners roster, but they have incoming freshman on it. If it is the complete roster for 2025, they'll have trouble just making it through the season with subs on the bench, so I'm guessing this is incomplete and they will at least have some more freshman joining the team.  Even then, they only have 9 sophomores listed, and 14 freshman were listed in the 2024 roster, so they clearly have had some roster melt.  Not very healthy for the team considering the university claimed to have record enrollment for the second year in a row last fall, with a 25% increase and topping 3,000 students.  Perhaps the fact that they lost their head coach and replaced him with the women's head coach taking over both teams led players to leave and hurt recruiting. 

Key Departures:

They didn't have a lot of "key" contributors last season, but they did lose some frequent senior starters such as midfielders Trey Castillo and Danny Chavez and defender Preston Stal.  More disturbing is they lost frequent starters who were freshman, such as GK Brandon Walker, D D'Mari Washington, and midfielder Landyn Snider.  They also apparently lost leading scorer, sophomore defender Anthony Licea

Key Returners:

They have a few regular starters returning.  Julian Trevino was a regular starter at defense and comes back for his sophomore year.  Dylan Christian also comes back as a senior midfielder and Jovanni Burnett as a sophomore midfielder.

Freshman:

They only have 3 listed on the roster right now.

Hearing that McMurry got their turf redone at Wilford Moore Stadium over the summer and shrunk their already tiny soccer field even further; quite a bit under NCAA minimums. So much so, there was a directive(unclear from where) that teams will not be forced to play there. Which must be true given that the only SCAC home games are Centenary and Austin College and they only have 5 total at home this season.

[Kuiper]

Colorado College is hosting an interesting Region X showdown this weekend.  All four Region X conferences are represented (ASC, SCAC, NWC, SCIAC).  All four teams come in undefeated (although not untied).  All games on FloCollege (only the ASC is not a FloCollege conference).

Whitman v. Colorado College on Thursday 9/4 at 4:30 pm MT
Whitman v. Mary Hardin-Baylor on Friday 9/5 at 4:30 pm MT
Cal Lutheran v. Colorado College on Friday 9/5 at 7 pm MT
Whitman v. Cal Lutheran on Sunday 9/7 at 10 am MT
Mary Hardin-Baylor v. Colorado College on Sunday 9/7 at 12:30 pm

This could be a preview or partial preview of the NCAA auto-bids from Region X (I would be surprised if Cal Lutheran won the SCIAC, but it wouldn't surprise me if the others were champs of their conferences this year, although Whitman would be more surprising than the others).
 

[Kuiper]

HALF:  Colorado College 1 - Whitman 1

Colorado College scored in the 3rd minute and looked to be coasting, but Whitman slowly but surely found their way back into the game and scored on a beautiful cross and chip of the GK in the 39th minute.  Overall, CC looks to be the stronger and more technical team, but Whitman has a couple of very skilled players, including the goal scorer, Miranda-Ortiz, a freshman from Las Vegas who played with a strong MLS Next program out there.

Incidentally, Colorado College's field looks gorgeous.  I may be mistaken, but the camera looks to be set a little bit higher this year, which offers a better view of the whole field.  If so, perhaps that's an example where Colorado College invested the Flo money in improvements to the stream.

FINAL: Whitman 2 - Colorado College 2

Kind of similar to the first half.  Colorado College scored first in the 67th, but then the players got involved in extra curricular activities while the players were awaiting a corner kick and a player from each were sent off with red cards in the 73rd minute after a lengthy Video Review by the referees (new this year).  At altitude, I would have thought CC would have the advantage late in the game with the extra space to cover, but Whitman got the tying goal in the 88th minute off a free kick play. 

[Kuiper]

Region X action tonight

Millsaps 1 - East Texas Baptist 0

Big win for Millsaps, which was 3-12-1 last season.  Broke through with a goal in the 84th minute to take down ETBU.  East Texas Baptist scored 9 goals in its first two games - wins against Dallas and Ozarks - but couldn't even muster a single shot on goal this game.

Belhaven 1 - LeTourneau 1

This is a pretty good result for LeTourneau.  Belhaven was 12-4-4 last season, including a win against Emory, and won the auto bid in the CCS, before losing to Trinity in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  Nevertheless, LeTourneau tied Belhaven last season 0-0 in Jackson, so it may just be a situation where LeTourneau has Belhaven's number. We soon shall see as this was LeTourneau's first game of the season under new coach TJ Milby.

Concordia TX 3 - Howard Payne 1

The only surprise in this game was that it was this close.  Concordia scored in the 8th and 24th minutes and looked to be running away with it until HP scored in the 26th minute to cut the lead in half.  Concordia regrouped and scored a third in the 33rd minute despite forcing HP's keeper into 6 saves in the second half.  Concordia did empty the bench, playing 12 subs, so it might have been saving some of its energy for the next game against Hardin-Simmons.  Howard Payne goes to 0-3 on the season and looks destined for the ASC cellar again.

Hardin-Simmons 7 - McMurry 1

Speaking of H-S, they did not hold back in their game against a SCAC cellar dweller.  After losing its opener 2-1 to Texas Lutheran, Hardin-Simmons has scored 11 goals against Schreiner and McMurry.  That's one of the problems for the SCAC.  It's a haves and have-not league and H-S has thus far only played the SCAC have-nots.  This game, however, McMurry was even worse than a have-not because they lost a player to a straight red in the 29th minute, after already being down 2-0.  It would have been even worse, but McMurry's keeper made 8 saves in the first half alone and 10 in the game.

Whittier 4 - Lewis & Clark 0

A familiar outcome for L&C, which is 0-2 in 2025 and 0-48-1 since it restarted in 2021.  The losing streak extends to 25 in a row.  Whittier was up 3-0 in the first 13 minutes and took its foot off the gas.  It didn't add a 4th until the 83rd minute.  Whittier played 29 players on the first game of a three game swing in the Pacific Northwest.

La Verne 2 - Park University Gilbert 0

After two ties on its trip to the Pacific Northwest on opening weekend, La Verne scored early (8th minute) and late (87th minute) to become the third SCIAC team to beat Park (NAIA), which lost a player to a red card in the 85th minute.

[Kuiper]

Some interesting Region X games:

Pomona Pitzer 3 - Willamette 2

Willamette isn't what it used to be, but Pomona-Pitzer, which finished last in the SCIAC last season, isn't either under new coach Clint Moore.  This is a pretty big statement win for P-P in terms of their resilience.  Down 2-0 in the 63rd minute, the Sagehens score 3 goals, including the game-winner in the 83rd, to complete the comeback.  Pomona-Pitzer is now 3-0, which is a pretty big deal for a team that only had 4 wins in each of the 2024 and 2023 seasons.

Illinois Tech 3 - Caltech 2

IIT has started the season strongly, beating Hope 5-3 in its most recent game.  So, although Caltech's rally fell short, it's a good sign that it was able to stay close in a 3-2away loss.  Even better sign is that Etienne Casanova came to life, scoring a brace for his first goals of the season.  He only played 42 minutes in CIT's first game against Park and needs to be in top form if Caltech has any hope of making noise in the SCIAC this year.

CMS 4 - Messiah 3

Others have written reviews of this game on the National Perspective thread, so I'll add that CMS really needed this win.  After losing both games on its Texas trip (albeit against strong opposition in Southwestern and Trinity TX), CMS needed at least one non-conference win and Gettysburg doesn't look like a gimme in CMS' next game.  No one wants to go into conference play 0-4 regardless of the strength of opposition.  A late winner in the 87th minute against a historic power in their stadium before 300-400 fans will do wonders for the players' confidence.  Plus, getting Laidlaw and Gomez going on the offensive end was critical.  Lots of work to do, however, for CMS' young center back pairing of sophomores.

Colorado College 2 - Cal Lutheran 0

Colorado College has stumbled a bit in the early going this season as it adjusts to the loss of some top players.  They are still undefeated at 2-0-2, but a tie against Wheaton (IL) where they were behind until the 78th minute and a tie at home, which has historically be a fortress, to Whitman where it looked like they were seeing out the game for a win before Whitman got a later goal in the 88th minute makes the Tigers look like they might be vulnerable.  So, Colorado College really needed a convincing win with a complete performance and they more or less got it in this game.  They were up 2-0 on an early and late goal by halftime and then saw the game out in the second half, holding Cal Lu to only two shots on goal.  Only blemish is that CC probably should have scored more.  I'm curious what is going in with Oliver Ramirez, who has yet to play this season, but was among the team leaders last season in games played, starts, and minutes, as well as finishing tied for second in points with 6 goals and 3 assists and being named 2nd team All SCAC in 2024 and 2023 and 3rd team All Region X in 2023.  Freshman Ewan Robertson has helped fill the scoring gap, but they could use Ramirez as another scoring threat to give the offense more bite.

Wheaton (IL) 2 - Pacific Lutheran 1

Notwithstanding national expectations that Pacific Lutheran would once again reign in the NWC, I know there were a lot of open questions about this team.  Replacing 34 goals and 23 assist from Trevor Thompson and Craig Johnson as well as replacing Nicholas Gaston in goal, was going to be a tall order.  It was made taller by a schedule that saw the Lutes start the season with a tough road trip to Minnesota.  Unfortunately, the 0-3 start to the season suggest PLU's transition to its new normal is going to take some time.  In this game, things looked promising in the first half with Pacific Lutheran going into halftime up 1-0.  Unfortunately, a nightmare start to the second half did PLU in, as Wheaton scored in the 46th and 50th minutes and held firm against a barrage of PLU shots.  Two goals in three games won't get it down, even in the weak NWC.

[Ron Boerger]

Region X adjacent teams:

Southwestern 2 Kalamazoo 1

The Pirates (3-0-0) dealt the visiting Hornets their first loss of the season (2-1-0) on an 82nd minute goal by sophomore Danny Wasserman, who scored on a free kick from 35 yards out.  Kalamazoo led 1-0 at half.

Trinity 6 Schreiner 0

Trinity (2-0-0) toyed with the hapless Mountaineers (0-3-0) with six different players scoring goals including two freshmen getting on the score sheet with goals for the first time.  Schreiner did not place a shot on target and was outshot 29-2 as Trinity substituted liberally with 27 players seeing the pitch.

Kalamazoo will try to get back on the winning track in San Antonio on Sunday while Schreiner will try to score their second goal of the season in Georgetown the same day. 

[Kuiper]

More results from Friday:

Occidental 5 - Masters 2

Nothing like thrashing Masters (NAIA), a middling NAIA squad, to remove the bad taste from a 4-0 loss to UMass Boston at the end of an East Coast road trip. Oxy was up 3-0 in this one by the 25th minute.  Perhaps the best part was that forwards Justin Nishimoto and Devin Benning each got a brace, which might help jump-start their SCIAC seasons.  It was interesting that Cooper Gersch did not start at centerback.  Perhaps they wanted to give him a bit of a rest after the trip.

Whittier 5 - George Fox 1

Last season, George Fox was a real contender in the NWC, finishing 14-5-1.  Not sure if this result is a sign that George Fox won't be this season or that Whittier is much improved.  What made this game a hard one to use as a measure of either team is that Whittier went up 3-0 on a hat trick by Rowan Slater over a 2 minute period in the first half that included TWO PK goals.  That's got to be one of the fastest hat tricks I've ever seen and the closest I've seen two PKs get called together.  Even more odd, George Fox scored its goal one minute after the third Whittier goal and Whittier scored again a little more than a minute later, resulting in a 4-1 game by the 27th minute.  Whittier is now 3-0 and has scored 15 goals and conceded just 1 in the three games. Regardless of opponent quality, Whittier has shown the ability to put the ball in the back of the net.

UC Santa Cruz 2 - Puget Sound 0

UCSC won its third straight game against NWC opposition, scoring goals in the third minutes and the 23rd minute, before going down a man due to a straight red card in the 42nd minute and holding Puget Sound off the scoreboard the rest of the way. Indeed, Santa Cruz has not conceded a game in any of the three wins thus far.  Perhaps more impressive, the Banana Slugs actually outshot Puget Sound 7-3 in the second half while down a man. They go for the clean sweep of the NWC Sunday against Pacific Lutheran.

Whitman 2 - Mary Hardin-Baylor 2

In an odd stat, Whitman has tied its first three games of the season, all by a 2-2 score.  Just like in the Colorado College tie, Whitman snatched a tie from the jaws of defeat with a goal in the 80th minute.  Mary Hardin-Baylor is now 2-0-1 and has a bi game against Colorado College on Sunday.

 

[Kuiper]

Some results from Saturday:

Puget Sound 2 - Wheaton (IL) 2

Puget Sound followed up a toothless game against UC Santa Cruz with a stronger performance against Wheaton (IL), a team that has already beaten Pacific Lutheran and Chapman.  It used goals in the 39th and 44th minutes to secure a 2-1 lead, but it still lacked a complete performance as it let Wheaton tie things up with a goal in the 66th minute.

Lewis & Clark 2 - Northwest (WA) 2

The losing streak ends at 25!!!!  Lewis & Clark secured its first non-loss since Oct of 2023 (and first home non-loss) against a middling NAIA side.  It got on the board first with a PK.  After conceding the tying goal in the 23rd minute, it regained the lead just before halftime in the 43rd minute.  Northwest came out of halftime fast and scored the equalizer in the 48th minute, but Lewis & Clark held them off in a rough game (with 10 cards) to secure the tie.

Virginia Wesleyan 2 - Redlands 1

After losing 2-1 to Swarthmore in its last game, Redlands started out its Virginia roadtrip on the wrong foot, giving up a goal in the 2nd minute.  It a goal of its own in the 11th to tie it up at 1-1 going into halftime.  It started out the second half the same way it did the first half, though, conceding the winning goal just 23 seconds into the half. At 1-2 going into a game Sunday against Christopher Newport, it's going to be tough to go into SCIAC play without a losing record.

St. Thomas 1 - Hardin-Simmons 0

Big win for St. Thomas, which has lost to Southwestern and was down to Trinity before the game was called on account of weather.  In a tight 0-0 game, St. Thomas found the game winner in the 85th minute.  Interestingly, St. Thomas, which was once the bad boys of the SCAC, only committed 9 fouls all game, compared to 18 by Hardin-Simmons.  Hardin-Simmons is 2-2, but it's two wins have come against the weaker teams in the SCAC and it has lost to Texas Lutheran and St. Thomas.

Millsaps 2 - LeTourneau 2

LeTourneau was up 2-0 at half, but broke down in the second half, conceding a goal in the 65th and the tying goal in the 85th.  Still, starting with ties against Belhaven and Millsaps isn't a bad start for LeTourneau, especially with Millsaps coming off a victory against East Texas Baptist.

Belhaven 3 - East Texas Baptist 2

Belhaven salvages a split of its Texas road trip after tying Letourneau on Thursday.  A game that was roughly even in the first half leaned heavily toward Belhaven in the second half. As with LeTourneau in its game against Millsaps, ETBU conceded a late goal in the 85th minute to lose this game. 

[Kuiper]

One more result from Saturday:

Pomona-Pitzer 3 - Linfield 1

Don't look now, but Pomona-Pitzer is 4-0 going into SCIAC play after defeating both Willamette and Linfield from the NWC.  Neither of their opponents look like top-half teams in the NWC, but for P-P, which finished last in the SCIAC last year, confidence has to be pretty high.  The team set the tone early, scoring in the 7th minute and late, securing the cushion it needed to breath easier in the 88th minute.  It also got a chance to play some non-regulars, such as starting the backup GK and playing all six subs a full half or more.  Linfield has to be disappointed.  After tying the game in the 23rd and going into the half 1-1, it let the game slip away in the second half.  With Linfield 0-3, it really needs to beat NAIA side Warner Pacific on Monday to have a chance of equaling its three wins from last season and that assumes it can beat Lewis & Clark twice, which has already secured its first point in almost two seasons and might be up for the challenge.

[Ron Boerger]

It is going to be a sloppy game in San Antonio tonight between Kalamazoo and Trinity.  We've had rain most of the day (remnants of a hurricane that hit the Pacific coast of Mexico) and the weather stations in that area have already reported 1-2" of rain with more on the way.