Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[D3Navy]

Anyone who has watched Knutson over his career knows how dangerous he is.  Honoring his ability to score opens up opportunities for others (Sam Theiss principally) and Knutson makes the most of it.  He is sticky with the ball and has eyes in the back of his head.  He also has an uncanny ability to recognize when a foul is coming.

An incredibly fun player to watch who should play a huge role through the NCAA tournament.

[Kuiper]

Anyone who has watched Knutson over his career knows how dangerous he is.  Honoring his ability to score opens up opportunities for others (Sam Theiss principally) and Knutson makes the most of it.  He is sticky with the ball and has eyes in the back of his head.  He also has an uncanny ability to recognize when a foul is coming.

An incredibly fun player to watch who should play a huge role through the NCAA tournament.

Totally agree and that wasn't meant to be a knock on Knutsen.  I was just noting that it was odd to see that in a press release.  If anything, my comment was prompted by the fact that Sharma's Defensive Player of the Year award might have been more for his offensive production than for his defensive play exclusively.  Really, it would probably be more accurate to call Knutsen and Sharma co-MVPs in the league because of their impact on the game as a whole.

[Kuiper]

SCIAC preview of Thursday night games

Pomona-Pitzer @ Redlands 7 pm

The two teams played twice already this season, on Sept. 13 and Oct. 8, and tied 2-2 both games, which is telling since the first game they played P-P was 4-0-1 and Redlands was 1-3 after its long road trip, while the second game Redlands was in the midst of a 5 game winless streak.  The first game was also at Redlands at night, while the second game was at Pomona during the day on a slower grass field where Redlands often doesn't play as well.  So, the bottom line is the two teams match up pretty well regardless of the circumstances.  Right now, though, Redlands is probably the hotter team.  Zach Darmanyan is back and has been a difference maker and opened up space for Anders Beckton and others.  They are on a 7 game unbeaten streak and a 5 game winning streak.  They aren't as dominant as years past and they haven't had a single shutout all season, but they have played just enough defense to limit teams to a goal.  Pomona-Pitzer has been a little more up and down this year, but has won the last two games by identical 2-0 scores.  An interesting stat is that Pomona-Pitzer has scored first in both games the teams have played.  Redlands seems to play with more energy coming from behind and P-P has had trouble holding onto leads.

La Verne @ Occidental

Oxy is coming into this game on a three game winning streak, but the one loss before that streak began was a 1-0 loss to La Verne at Oxy on Oxy's Senior Night.  In the one other time the two teams played, they tied 3-3 after Oxy held a 2-0 lead from the 36th until the 73rd minutes, before allowing three ULV goals over an 8 minute stretch.  Oxy was bailed out by a Devin Bening tying goal with 13 seconds left in the game.  The key for Occidental is corner kicks.  They have both a height advantage and get strong service.  The problem is that when they don't hit on their offensive corners, they are vulnerable to counter attacks with their bigs in the opponent's box.  As in the Chapman game, La Verne's GK, Hector Duenas-Pena could be the deciding factor.  Oxy has had some good goalkeeping, but they've played four different keepers, with three of them starting at least three games as they searched for the right player.  Carlos Abram has taken the starting spot during Oxy's run to 1st in the SCIAC, but he doesn't have a ton of experience as he has only played 9 games over two years.