Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

FINAL:  Redlands 1 - CMS 1

Redlands scored early, but CMS tied it up in the 58th minute and the teams played to a stalemate.  Redlands remains in first in the SCIAC, while CMS is tied with La Verne in 5th. 

Early standings notwithstanding, if CMS can play consistently, these two teams could be battling each other for the conference AQ.  Whittier, which beat Chapman tonight 1-0, could work itself back into the mix, as could Occidental, but Redlands and CMS have just a little bit more quality right now.

[Kuiper]

FINAL:  Southwestern 3 - Austin 0

Southwestern broke open a tight 0-0 game with an explosion of goals in the 58th, 60th, and 63rd minutes, gave lots of players minutes, and raises its record to 8-1 as it heads into its SAA opener on Tuesday against Trinity.

[Kuiper]

FINAL:  UC Santa Cruz 1 - Texas Lutheran 0

UCSC finishes a fairly successful trip to South Texas with a win over Texas Lutheran, scoring the game-winning goal just after halftime and then mucking up the game with a bevy of fouls (the banana slugs had 18 in total).

FINAL:  Kean 2 - St. Thomas 1

Unlike Santa Cruz, UST ends a disappointing two loss trip.  It thought it had salvaged a tie with a goal in the 79th minute, but conceded the game winner in the 88th minute to head home with two losses.  With 28 shots and 11 on goal, coming away with only 1 goal is a bummer.  An even bigger bummer is that they scored that tying goal down a man because Roberto Sepulveda got a red card in the 76th  minute.  That's only their 2nd red card of the season, which is a far cry from their glory days, but still 2 in 7 games is probably on the high end.

[D3Navy]

Trinity's Perryman goal before half will have lasting effects for the season.

[Kuiper]

Trinity's Perryman goal before half will have lasting effects for the season.

This game seems almost cathartic for Trinity.  The floodgates broke and all of their frustrations this season were released

FINAL:  Trinity 7 - Concordia (TX) 0

Trinity wasn't exactly dominant from minute 1, but once Hodge MacDonald scored on a deflected ball in the box in the 25th minute, it was a parade of goals, with three more in the first half and three in the second half.  Trinity emptied the bench, playing 4 goalkeepers, plus 30 field players at least 14 minutes. It was a total beat down, with Concordia not recording a single shot (to 26 for Trinity) or corner kick (to 7 for Trinity).  Only area where Concordia exceeded Trinity was in fouls, but their 14 fouls didn't result in a red card, so they didn't have the excuse of playing a man down.  Concordia is not having a good season, but they only lost 1-0 to Southwestern a week ago @ Southwestern. 

I don't know if this wakes up Trinity and turns-around their season, but it sure provides them some confidence and good feelings heading into their big opening SAA conference match against Southwestern on Tuesday in Georgetown, TX.  That will be a big game for both teams, especially with Southwestern coming in on a 7 game winning streak, which is the longest for the program since 2001.

[Ron Boerger]

[Kuiper posted his summary while I was typing this, but I'll add it as it does provide a bit more detail without contradicting a thing he said]

FINAL:  @Trinity (TX) 7, Concordia (TX) 0

The host's IG providing the starting roster said "{s}ome new faces in the starting XI tonight" and the end result (against a Concordia squad that came in 2-3-1) was an offensive outburst reminiscent of the squad that ended up seconds short of a national championship less than a year ago.  That, of course, is an overreaction, but given the team's struggles to date an easy win is a welcome change.  One change was in goal, where Brandon Gongora replaced Jayden Schell to earn his first win of the season.  Three other keepers (not named Schell) preserved the clean sheet, easy enough when the opponent was unable to muster a single shot all evening.  Eduardo Parra and Hodge McDonald both recorded a brace as the Tigers held a 26-0 shot advantage. 

[Kuiper]

[Kuiper posted his summary while I was typing this, but I'll add it as it does provide a bit more detail without contradicting a thing he said]

FINAL:  @Trinity (TX) 7, Concordia (TX) 0

The host's IG providing the starting roster said "{s}ome new faces in the starting XI tonight" and the end result (against a Concordia squad that came in 2-3-1) was an offensive outburst reminiscent of the squad that ended up seconds short of a national championship less than a year ago.  That, of course, is an overreaction, but given the team's struggles to date an easy win is a welcome change.  One change was in goal, where Brandon Gongora replaced Jayden Schell to earn his first win of the season.  Three other keepers (not named Schell) preserved the clean sheet, easy enough when the opponent was unable to muster a single shot all evening.  Eduardo Parra and Hodge McDonald both recorded a brace as the Tigers held a 26-0 shot advantage. 

I noticed that some of the players who have started regularly this season - e.g., Joey Perryman, Gabriel Romanenko, Gustav Moberg - were not starting today and it was not lost on me that Perryman and Romanenko scored goals and Moberg had an assist.  So, this might have provided a little motivation.  My guess is it was more about squad rotation, though, with a game Friday v. UC Santa Cruz, Sunday v. Concordia, and Tuesday v. Southwestern, this was clearly the pre-planned rotation day.  Nevertheless, some guys definitely took their opportunity and ran with it.

One guy they are still missing is Max Salinas, who hasn't played since the La Verne game on 9/11.  He wasn't exactly tearing it up before he went out completely, but they really need him to get healthy and return to his freshman year form to be able to consistently play the way they want to play in the midfield.

[Kuiper]

Some NWC games that caught my eye

Linfield 2 - George Fox 1

Before today, Linfield has had only one win against a non-Lewis & Clark NWC opponent since 2023.  So, while Lewis & Clark beating Whitworth this season is big news, Linfield getting a win against George Fox qualifies as special too.  This is especially true since Linfield's Beckham Poirot (which, by the way, is an All-D3 name for those Man U Agatha Christie fans) scored the game winning goal in the 71st minute after George Fox had tied it up just over 10 minutes earlier.  George Fox tried to foul their way to an equalizer, earning 19 fouls this game and a straight red card in the 85th minute, but Linfield held firm.

Whitman 2 - Pacific 2

Pacific has quietly been playing everyone tightly this season, including losing to Pacific Lutheran 1-0 and tying Willamette and Puget Sound 2-2 each, so this shouldn't have been considered an upset.  Nevertheless, Whitman came into the game 5-1-1 and 3-0 in the NWC, so even earning a tie was a big deal for Pacific, especially after Whitman went up 2-1 just after the start of the second half.  Pacific kept plugging away, though, and got the equalizer in the 69th minute.

[Ron Boerger]

I noticed that some of the players who have started regularly this season - e.g., Joey Perryman, Gabriel Romanenko, Gustav Moberg - were not starting today and it was not lost on me that Perryman and Romanenko scored goals and Moberg had an assist.  So, this might have provided a little motivation.  My guess is it was more about squad rotation, though, with a game Friday v. UC Santa Cruz, Sunday v. Concordia, and Tuesday v. Southwestern, this was clearly the pre-planned rotation day.  Nevertheless, some guys definitely took their opportunity and ran with it.

One guy they are still missing is Max Salinas, who hasn't played since the La Verne game on 9/11.  He wasn't exactly tearing it up before he went out completely, but they really need him to get healthy and return to his freshman year form to be able to consistently play the way they want to play in the midfield.

The recap mentioned Trinity was also dealing with a "formation change" to start the match, which could have contributed to the end result.  But Concordia's back line and keeper made some really horrendous mistakes which directly resulted in several easy goals. 

Forecast heavy rains starting mid-week into the weekend will impact practice before the big match at Southwestern next Tuesday (Oct 6); Trinity has a turf field normally used for intramurals they can practice on and Southwestern may be able to use the new turf surface at their new multipurpose stadium that's supposed to open next month, though it is normally not scheduled to be used for soccer.

[Kuiper]

I think the first three make sense.  After that, it's a lot of inconsistency, but maybe that's just growing parity among D3 programs.

USC Region X Rankings Sept. 29, 2026

Region X - Poll 3 - September 29, 2026
Rank   School   Prev   W-L-T
1   Southwestern University   NR   8-1-0
2   University of Redlands   NR   5-1-3
3   Colorado College   NR   5-2-1
4   Pacific Lutheran University   NR   5-1-2
5   Whittier College   NR   2-0-2
6   Claremont-McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges   NR   4-2-3
7   Whitman College   NR   5-1-2
8   Occidental College   NR   3-2-2

[Kuiper]

St. Olaf and Saint John's keeps motoring along, but Grinnell is also worth keeping an eye on

USC Region IX Poll 3 Sept. 29, 2026

Rank   School   Prev   W-L-T
1   St. Olaf College   NR   9-0-0
2   Saint John's University   NR   9-1-0
3   University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire   NR   5-1-2
4   Macalester College   NR   3-1-3
5   Gustavus Adolphus College   NR   4-2-1
6   Loras College   NR   6-1-0
7   Luther College   NR   2-2-2
8   Grinnell College   NR   8-1-0

Also receiving votes: Augsburg, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, University of Wisconsin-Superior

[Kuiper]

A few interesting results from Region X yesterday

Chapman 2 - CMS 1

I don't know if this result illustrates the parity of the SCIAC or the inconsistency of these two teams.  Chapman was up 2-0 until CMS got one back in the 79th minute. 

Occidental 6 - Caltech 0

It's not surprising to see Oxy beat Caltech, but it's been awhile since Caltech was routinely manhandled like in this game.  Oxy hasn't really developed a consistent offensive attack, so it was interesting to see six different scorers in this game.  I don't know why Caltech was so flat, but Oxy was physical and that's usually the way to stymie Caltech's skill players.

Redlands 4 - Cal Lutheran 2

Redlands remains on top of the SCIAC standings, ahead of Occidental, going to 3-0-1, but it wasn't as easy as the score suggests.  Cal Lu was up 2-0 with goals in the 23 and 38th minutes before Redlands' Anders Beckton scored right before halftime.  Redlands then scored 3 goals in the first ten minutes of the second half on a brace + an assist by Zach Darmanyan.  Redlands game @ Occidental on Saturday will be for the SCIAC lead.  With Whittier losing, those are the two remaining undefeated teams.

La Verne 3 - Whittier 1

Another game where I can't figure out if it illustrates SCIAC parity or both teams' inconsistency.  Whittier was up 1-0 at half, but La Verne scored 3 in the second half to run away with the game.  La Verne has the talent to do that, but not every game for some reason.

Hendrix 1 - East Texas Baptist 0

Hendrix scored a bit against the run of the play in the 77th minute to get the game winner.  East Texas Baptist continues to regress to the mean from its hot start.

[Ron Boerger]

Lot of rain in Texas between now and the weekend gonna make for some ugly pitches during SCAC and ASC matches.  Fortunately nothing going on in the two Texas SAA schools.