Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[BTXCru18]

So odd, I wasn't tracking this game. SAA conference site had Trinity vs. Occidental today at CMS' campus. And somewhere else(can't find it again) listed the game being played at Azusa's campus.

I trust that Trinity will turn their slow start around...

UPSET Alert:

No stream for this game, but Redlands is up 1-0 on Trinity after a Bo Robertson goal in the 21st minute.  It's been a rainy day and field conditions may be difficult, but it sounds like a chippy game.  Zach Darmanyan and Cade Dougan each got yellow cards 20 seconds apart in the 13th minute.

UPDATE: 

HALF:  Redlands 1 - Trinity 0

Redlands is outshooting Trinity (although it collected some shots rebounds in a single attacking sequence), but it basically looms from the LiveStats like a game stuck in the mud.

UPDATE:  Redlands 1 - Trinity 1 (67th minute)

Trinity finally gets a goal in the 56th minute by Joey Perryman on an assist from Gabriel Romanenko to tie the game up.  Trinity's been pressing and seems to have tilted the table in its favor.

UPDATE:  Redlands 2 - Trinity 1 (87th minute)

Anders Beckton scores what could be the game-winner off a feed from Zach Darmanyan.

FINAL:  Redlands 2 - Trinity 1

Winless road trip for Trinity, which looked very different than it did against Texas Lutheran at home.  For year, Trinity has beaten up on SCIAC teams that it has invited to San Antonio, so turnabout is fair play.

I can't tell whether this means that CMS and Redlands are back, or Trinity is just is still adjusting to a post-Knutsen, post-Theiss world.

My guess is that none of these teams are true contenders at this point.

[Kuiper]

So odd, I wasn't tracking this game. SAA conference site had Trinity vs. Occidental today at CMS' campus. And somewhere else(can't find it again) listed the game being played at Azusa's campus.

I trust that Trinity will turn their slow start around...

UPSET Alert:

No stream for this game, but Redlands is up 1-0 on Trinity after a Bo Robertson goal in the 21st minute.  It's been a rainy day and field conditions may be difficult, but it sounds like a chippy game.  Zach Darmanyan and Cade Dougan each got yellow cards 20 seconds apart in the 13th minute.

UPDATE: 

HALF:  Redlands 1 - Trinity 0

Redlands is outshooting Trinity (although it collected some shots rebounds in a single attacking sequence), but it basically looms from the LiveStats like a game stuck in the mud.

UPDATE:  Redlands 1 - Trinity 1 (67th minute)

Trinity finally gets a goal in the 56th minute by Joey Perryman on an assist from Gabriel Romanenko to tie the game up.  Trinity's been pressing and seems to have tilted the table in its favor.

UPDATE:  Redlands 2 - Trinity 1 (87th minute)

Anders Beckton scores what could be the game-winner off a feed from Zach Darmanyan.

FINAL:  Redlands 2 - Trinity 1

Winless road trip for Trinity, which looked very different than it did against Texas Lutheran at home.  For year, Trinity has beaten up on SCIAC teams that it has invited to San Antonio, so turnabout is fair play.

I can't tell whether this means that CMS and Redlands are back, or Trinity is just is still adjusting to a post-Knutsen, post-Theiss world.

My guess is that none of these teams are true contenders at this point.

Trinity originally had Occidental on its schedule, with the game played at CMS' new stadium.  Instead, Oxy disappeared from the schedule and Redlands appeared.  I think the problem is that CMS women's soccer hosted Redlands women's soccer today at 11 am, the same time the Trinity-Oxy game was scheduled.  I suspect someone at CMS screwed up when they double booked their new field and since Trinity-Oxy was a game between two non-CMS teams, it got bumped. 

Oxy instead hosted Gordon from Massachusetts, which played Cal Lutheran on Friday night.  Redlands was then subbed on to Trinity's schedule, but Redlands field is unavailable the first couple weeks of the season, so they had to find an alternate field a reasonable distance from CMS and where Trinity was staying, and I guess they opted to rent Azusa Pacific's field.

As it turns out, both Oxy and Trinity might have preferred playing each other because they both lost their games today.

I do agree Trinity will probably pull it together.  Both were 1 goal games.  If CMS and Redlands had been the ones to travel to San Antonio, both of them might have easily lost by 1 goal.

This kind of reminds me of when Trinity lost to Christopher Newport last season in one of the few times they had to travel for a non-conference game against a non-Texas team (they played it at Hardin-Simmons).  This year, however, they don't have quite the depth or veteran offensive firepower they had last season.

[Kuiper]

Action from around Region X today

Redlands 2 - Trinity 1

(see above for the in-game commentary)

Gordon 1 - Occidental 0

Gordon came out west and grabbed two 1-0 wins against Cal Lu and Oxy.  Today's game was in a driving rain, which may have been an advantage for the team from Massachusetts that has seen rain more often.  Gordon got a goal in the 37th and held on for the win.  Oxy had a decent amount of offense, but Gordon has a speedy counter attack that helped to neutralize Oxy's possession.  I still don't see where Oxy is getting its offense from this year.  Elijah Edelman and, to a lesser extent, Andrew Lee, were the most dangerous players in attack, but they are midfielders/wings and the team needs some threat from its forwards.

UC Santa Cruz 3 - Caltech 0

Caltech won its first two games against weaker opposition, but Santa Cruz is a higher level than Bethesda and George Fox.  they only led 1-0 at half, but they scored another in the 54th and an insurance goal in the 71st to put the game away.  Despite scoring 12 goals in its first two games, Caltech only took 1 shot all game and none on frame, while UCSC had 18 shots and 9 on goal.

Pomona-Pitzer 1 - Willamette 0

Pomona starts the season 3-0 after scoring in the 61st minute and holding on despite enduring 18 fouls from Willamette.  In past years, that would have knocked P-P and its more cerebral players off their games, but they've developed some grit in recent years.  Beating Linfield and Willamette just means Pomona is better than the bottom half of the NWC, but it's still encouraging play from the Sagehens.

Cal Lutheran 4 - Linfield 2

The bottom of the SCIAC had its way with the near bottom of the NWC. Most exciting for Cal Lu was that they got goals from Pacific Lutheran transfer Liam Stoner and from Maxi Schelotto, who was one of their strongest attackers a couple of years ago.  Allowing two goals to Linfield, however, especially the first one in the 8th minute, is not going to be good enough for their next two games when Colorado College and Emory come to Thousand Oaks to play them.

The top of the NWC did much better today

Pacific Lutheran 3 - Lake Forest 1

After losing to Chapman in its previous game, PLU came back and salvaged the weekend with a strong performance against Lake Forest.  I might temper too much enthusiasm for PLU, though, because Lake Forest, which lost 3-0 to Puget Sound on Friday, doesn't look like the NCAA tournament team it was last season.

Whitman 2 - Marymount 0

Whitman secured a fun flight home after losing its first game to Mary Washington.

Chapman 1 - Puget Sound 1

Both teams came off big wins on Friday - Chapman beating Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound beating Lake Forest, so these teams came in with lots of confidence.  They say the beginning and ends of each half are the most dangerous because there is a tendency to ease up or come out flat.  If so, then Puget Sound eased up at the end of the first half and allowed Chapman to open up a lead, but Chapman got overconfident and was flat coming out of the half, allowing Puget Sound to equalize.  Chapman was fairly active, so I think they have a chance to make some noise in the SCIAC if they can cut out defensive lapses.  Once again, however, their aggressiveness led to 16 fouls.  We'll see if the SCIAC refs will let them get away with 18 and 16 fouls a game without handing out some cards.  They only saw one today.

Whitworth 3 - Austin 1

Whitworth was dominated by Colorado College 3-0 on Friday, but came back to do the same to Austin (at least in the 2nd half), which beat Wheaton (IL) on Friday.  All 4 goals were scored in the 2nd half after a tight 1st half.  The game was very physical, with almost 30 fouls called between the two teams and 6 cards handed out in the last 3+ minutes.

Southwestern 3 - Lynchburg 1

In the surprise of the day, Southwestern came off a loss to East Texas Baptist to beat 14th ranked Lynchburg. The game was tied 1-1 at half and stayed that way until Southwestern scored in the 72nd and 85th minutes to run away with the game, but Southwestern was pushing really the entire second half, earning almost double the shots.  Grey Richards, who had 6 goals last season as a freshman, scored the brace.

Whittier 1 - Russell Sage 1

I have to give credit to Russell Sage, which came out West and frustrated teams.  They scored in the 14th minute and tried to bunker in and hold on the rest of the game, but Whittier eventually broke through with the tying goal in the 75th minute.

[Kuiper]

Region X Game to Watch on Labor Day:

Lewis & Clark @ Azusa Pacific 11 am Pacific

In theory, this Azusa Pacific game was probably scheduled because AP is brand new to DIII and lost a ton of players from its D2 squad, while L&C is on a historic winless streak (68 games without a win, and counting).  Each is trying to secure a win early in the season to relieve some pressure.  The reality, however, is that Azusa Pacific carried over just enough D2 players to be competitive.  They played Oxy close, losing 2-0.  They beat D2 Hope Int'l 5-2 on Friday, but that was a scrimmage (at least for Hope Int'l) and Hope Int'l had a a real game earlier in the day against College of Idaho, so this was Hope Int'l's reserves.  My experience is that D2 reserves are often not even at the level of D3, at least when not surrounded by some difference makers.  Moreover, L&C has been getting better tying 3 games last season and playing CMS players close, but Lewis & Clark lost that game 2-0 and CMS ended up playing a highly rotated squad from its victory over Trinity on Friday, although it notably played the team's principal attackers, James Gomez and Collin Ross, for long stretches.  So, I don't know how competitive either team is right now.  This might be a good gauge for both.

[Kuiper]

Region X Game to Watch on Labor Day:

Lewis & Clark @ Azusa Pacific 11 am Pacific

In theory, this Azusa Pacific game was probably scheduled because AP is brand new to DIII and lost a ton of players from its D2 squad, while L&C is on a historic winless streak (68 games without a win, and counting).  Each is trying to secure a win early in the season to relieve some pressure.  The reality, however, is that Azusa Pacific carried over just enough D2 players to be competitive.  They played Oxy close, losing 2-0.  They beat D2 Hope Int'l 5-2 on Friday, but that was a scrimmage (at least for Hope Int'l) and Hope Int'l had a a real game earlier in the day against College of Idaho, so this was Hope Int'l's reserves.  My experience is that D2 reserves are often not even at the level of D3, at least when not surrounded by some difference makers.  Moreover, L&C has been getting better tying 3 games last season and playing CMS players close, but Lewis & Clark lost that game 2-0 and CMS ended up playing a highly rotated squad from its victory over Trinity on Friday, although it notably played the team's principal attackers, James Gomez and Collin Ross, for long stretches.  So, I don't know how competitive either team is right now.  This might be a good gauge for both.

Not sure this will be the day Lewis & Clark breaks its 68 game winless streak

Azusa Pacific 1 - Lewis & Clark 0 (15th minute)

UPDATE:  Azusa 2 - Lewis & Clark 0 (16th minute)

AP scores on a great flick to set up a cross that the L&C GK parries into the path of his teammate who scuffs the clearance right to an attacker in the box and he hammers it into the top of the goal

UPDATE:  Azusa 3 - Lewis & Clark 0 (24th minute)

Azusa tries to play it out of the back on a GK and the left center back receives it and hits it off a pressing AP attacker.  The ball deflects to the other AP attacked at the center of the box who slots it past the keeper.

HALF:  Azusa Pacific 4 - Lewis & Clark 0

Leke Ademola with a first half hat trick.  He's one of the holdovers from when Azusa played in D2 and is a grad student who led the team in goals last season.  Lewis & Clark has no answers for him.

Azusa Pacific has outshot Lewis & Clark 18-0 in the first half.

UPDATE:  Azusa Pacific 5 - Lewis & Clark 0 (85th minute)

Azusa has outshot L&C 28-1

FINAL:  Azusa Pacific 5 - Lewis & Clark 0

L&C's winless streak extends to 69 games.

[Kuiper]

A couple of games in Region X today that caught my eye:

East Texas Baptist 3 - Concordia (TX) 2

ETBU was up 1-0 at the half on a 13th minute goal and then Concordia came roaring back in the second half to take the lead on goals in the 63rd and 76th minutes.  ETBU then secured the tie with a goal in the 78th and got the game winner in the 90th minute.  Concordia may not be as strong as in past years, but that kind of comeback can reveal a lot about a team's belief in themselves. I don't know for sure if ETBU is for real as a national contender, but I'm starting to feel like they are at least a legit contender in the ASC, and perhaps the only contender for the conference AQ besides Mary Hardin-Baylor.  They are now 3-0 after beating Austin College, Southwestern, and Concordia TX. 

Corban 1 - Lewis & Clark 0

L&C's winless streak extends to 70 games.  They were tied 0-0 at half, but a 54th minute own goal sunk their hopes.  Since L&C scored Corban's lone goal, though, shouldn't L&C get credit for beating themselves?  Maybe their first win will come next game when they host Pacific in NWC play.  Pacific also lost 1-0 to Corban, so the teams may be relatively evenly matched.