Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Gray Fox]

Wild opening night in the SCIAC. With the only win coming from Chapman on a 90th minute score against Caltech, I think it's fair to say that the conference is wide open this year.

CMS 1 - Whittier 1

Whittier scored first in the 32nd minute and almost held on the win, but CMS finally found the equalizer on a penalty kick in the 86th minute.  A bad sign for CMS is that 7 of their players played the full 90 and they only used 3 subs.  I don't know if they have tons of injuries or the coach simply doesn't trust his team, but neither is a recipe for success.

Occidental 3 - La Verne 3

Oxy was comfortably up 2-0 at the half and simply fell apart during an 8 minute stretch of the second half, allowing La Verne goals in the 73rd, 79th, and 81st minutes, before Occidental found the equalizing goal on a corner kick in the 90th minute.

"I've always said that any result against CMS is a good result."

- Richard Milhous Nixon, Whittier '34

I don't think CMS existed when Nixon was at Whittier.

[Kuiper]

Wild opening night in the SCIAC. With the only win coming from Chapman on a 90th minute score against Caltech, I think it's fair to say that the conference is wide open this year.

CMS 1 - Whittier 1

Whittier scored first in the 32nd minute and almost held on the win, but CMS finally found the equalizer on a penalty kick in the 86th minute.  A bad sign for CMS is that 7 of their players played the full 90 and they only used 3 subs.  I don't know if they have tons of injuries or the coach simply doesn't trust his team, but neither is a recipe for success.

Occidental 3 - La Verne 3

Oxy was comfortably up 2-0 at the half and simply fell apart during an 8 minute stretch of the second half, allowing La Verne goals in the 73rd, 79th, and 81st minutes, before Occidental found the equalizing goal on a corner kick in the 90th minute.

"I've always said that any result against CMS is a good result."

- Richard Milhous Nixon, Whittier '34

I don't think CMS existed when Nixon was at Whittier.

Claremont McKenna College was founded in 1946, although the Claremont Consortium and Claremont Graduate University were founded in 1925, and Scripps (the women's college that became the "S" in CMS in 1976) was founded in 1926. 

Nixon would have probably said it about Pomona, Occidental, or Redlands, all founding members of the SCIAC along with Whittier and Throop Tech (now Caltech).

[Kuiper]

Region X action on Thursday:

Redlands 3 - UC Santa Cruz 1

UCSC came in 4-1 and Redlands was 1-3-1, but you wouldn't know it by this game, except towards the end when Santa Cruz started to wake up.  It suggests the wins against NWC teams (which account for three of UCSC's wins) are akin to empty calories this year.  Redlands finally got Anders Beckton going with a goal in the 6th minute and was up 2-0 at halftime after Zach Damanyan scored in the 24th minute.  An early goal in the 2nd half in the 57th minute put the game out of reach, although Redlands probably went into a shell too early and gave up one goal and withstood some additional close calls toward the end of the game.

Mary Hardin-Baylor 3 - Concordia TX 1

Same score as the Redlands-UCSC game and similar game progression.  UMHB was up 2-0 early in the second half and appeared to have the game in hand.  Concordia then found the net in the 88th off a free kick and UMHB stormed back a little over a minute later to regain the two goal advantage.  Concordia plays a very clean possession game, but was perhaps a bit too preoccupied with possession and didn't spend enough time going forward and probing the Cru defense.  It's pretty to see only 5 fouls called the whole game, two of which resulted in goals, and 4 cards handed out.

Trinity 2 - Hardin-Simmons 0

Trinity moves to 6-0 after a frustrating first half where they went scoreless despite out-shooting H-S 11-1, before blowing the game open early in the second half with two goals a little over a minute apart, one on a busted free kick that Trinity calmly played around the box before finding another opening and the second on a well-worked counter attack.  With Trinity playing Christopher Newport tomorrow night in Abilene, it played its bench liberally, including giving what I think are the first minutes of the year to defender Luke Mayfield, who is returning from injury and should be a welcome sight heading into conference play.

Southwestern 4 - LeTourneau 1

Southwestern keeps pace with Trinity, moving to 6-0-1 with a strong performance against winless LeTourneau on its first road game of the season.

McMurry 0 - Howard Payne 0

Missed opportunity for McMurry against winless Howard Payne.  After beating East Texas Baptist in a 4-3 goal fest last week, they couldn't find the net this game despite forcing the HP keeper into 7 saves.

[Kuiper]

Trinity 1 - Christopher Newport 1

Friday night lights in Abilene, Texas tonight.  Christopher Newport scores 43 seconds into its game against Trinity.  I think this is the first time Trinity has been behind all season.  Trinity responds in the 9th minute to tie it up

UPDATE:  CNU 2 - Trinity 1

CNU goes back on top in the 15th minute. This game is a little bonkers, but if you're going to beat Trinity, a high press is the way to do it even though it can lead to goals for both sides


UPDATE: CNU 3 - Trinity 2 (84th minute)

CNU picked up where they left off on the second half, scoring a third in the 53rd minute.  While I would normally not count Trinity out with its offense, they had a big hill to climb as they also went down a man after Max Salinas got a red in the 67th minute.  Nevertheless, Trinity found a goal in the 84th off a corner kick, which makes the last 6 minutes interesting

FINAL:  CNU 3 - Trinity 2

Trinity had a chance at the very end on a long throw-in with a ball popcorning around in the box, but couldn't get the score in this neutral site contest.  Credit to CNU for a good game plan and the players who could execute it, as well as to Trinity for battling back despite being down a man.

Trinity goes to 6-1 and CNU gets a big victory to go to 5-0-2.  I expect the latter will rise in next week's standings as long as it doesn't suffer a letdown against Hardin-Simmons with the quick turnaround playing tomorrow (an issue that might have hurt Trinity in this game since they played Hardin-Simmons last night).

[Kuiper]

Amazingly, that was Trinity's first regular season loss since Oct 20, 2023, when it lost to Colorado College 3-2 in Colorado Springs.  A regular season unbeaten streak of 26 games.

Trinity hasn't lost a regular season game at home since Nov. 3, 2019 against Austin College