NCAA Tournament 2025

[Kuiper]

Another Emory shot in a 1 v.1 that sailed over the goal.  They've given Trinity life several times.

[Kuiper]

On to OT!

[Kuiper]

Theiss scores the golden goal!  Trinity wins 1-0

[Kuiper]

Emory deserves a lot of credit.  They were outstanding and Halpern was phenomenal despite conceding the goal from what seems like an impossible angle.

Ultimately, Emory's lack of quality in front of the net and its lack of depth/subs to allow them to continue pressing as effectively as in the first half allowed Trinity to stay in the game and creep into control.  The pass from Ramirez to Mayfield and from Mayfield to Theiss to spring that goal was class and the finish was what you expect from a kid who scored as often as he did this year.

[Sandon Mibut]

Ref very heavy-handed against Tufts

Ref has been fine.

I didn't watch the entire game, so I can't reasonably comment on overall quality, but this astounds me:

7 cards on Tufts? They had 21 all season.

St Olaf's had 3 cards, so it's not like the official was card happy with all. Seems like Tufts partisans have a point.

As a Tufts partisan here's what I'll say. 5-6 of the cards were merited with one blatantly bad call. I think the bigger problem the jumbos had with the referee was a lack of consistency in what constituted a card. If both teams were held to the same standard, it probably would have finished with 5-6 cards each.

Inconsistency was the problem which I'm sure is why Dezotell got carded.

Call em or don't; just keep it even.

Congrats to St Olaf. Sounds like they'll have a lot of players returning next year.

Let's go Tufts

[SierraFD3soccer]

Golden goal was brutal way to end the game. Especially rough on the keeper. Obv. he should have done better. Feet definitely should have been set better.

Crazy tough position and one mistake gets magnified despite Emory's lack of success in front of goal. That'll everyone will remember. Keeper is a junior and only allowed .66 goals per game with only allowing 13 goals all season. Like I said, brutal way to end their season

[rdanie03]

Ref very heavy-handed against Tufts

Ref has been fine.

I didn't watch the entire game, so I can't reasonably comment on overall quality, but this astounds me:

7 cards on Tufts? They had 21 all season.

St Olaf's had 3 cards, so it's not like the official was card happy with all. Seems like Tufts partisans have a point.

As a Tufts partisan here's what I'll say. 5-6 of the cards were merited with one blatantly bad call. I think the bigger problem the jumbos had with the referee was a lack of consistency in what constituted a card. If both teams were held to the same standard, it probably would have finished with 5-6 cards each.

Inconsistency was the problem which I'm sure is why Dezotell got carded.

No. Dezotell did that as a matter of principle. He can't tell the team they haven't given their all if he isn't booked

[Ejay]

Emory deserves a lot of credit.  They were outstanding and Halpern was phenomenal despite conceding the goal from what seems like an impossible angle.

Ultimately, Emory's lack of quality in front of the net and its lack of depth/subs to allow them to continue pressing as effectively as in the first half allowed Trinity to stay in the game and creep into control.  The pass from Ramirez to Mayfield and from Mayfield to Theiss to spring that goal was class and the finish was what you expect from a kid who scored as often as he did this year.

Just watched the goal. Great build up and beautiful passing and off the ball movement. And Kudos to Theiss for the celebration. He didn't make it about himself and he didn't show up the other team. Granted it's only one moment, but I he seems like a class act, unlike many of the other players who have scored big goals recently.

[Sandon Mibut]

Some statistics and thoughts related to Tufts-Trinity:

I know others have said all the Final 4 teams are really good and have been consistent but I do think Trinity has been playing better in the tournament than what they had been prior. From late-September til the NCAA tourney they had a stretch of 11 games in which they were 9-1-1 but 5 of those wins were decided by 1 goal, they gave up 11 goals in those 11 games and only had 2 shutouts. Tufts, on the other hand, has played consistently well ever since mid-September with lots of tough opponents. They've managed to win or tie several games even when they were under significant pressure against top-20 teams such as Conn, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and St. Olaf.

It seems to me Trinity was able to win a good number of games because their offense had a lot of success. But since the tourney started their defense has been shutting down their opponents (until Emory who they managed to hold off despite offensive pressure from Emory).

Prior to the Emory game, I don't think the Trinity defense has faced any great offensive units (seems like some of their good opponents performed less good against Trinity).

I had to really dig deeper into the stats to find much of an edge one way or another. The cold weather would favor Tufts and I thought I would be writing that Tufts may have an edge if it comes down to PKs but lo and behold: both teams have over 10 PK goals this season! Trinity is 11/12 and Tufts is 10/11.

Both teams have made it to the NCAA finals without needing to go to PKs and each team has 4 wins in regulation and 1 win in OT (double-OT for Tufts).

Since October 1st:

• Tufts 13-0-1; Trinity 13-0-1
• Trinity 39 GF 7 GA; Tufts 33 GF 6 GA
• Tufts 9 shutouts; Trinity 7 shutouts

Season:

• (preface to point out dramatically different SOS. Tufts only faced 4 teams outside the top-63 NPI prior to the tournament while Trinity only face 5 teams inside the top-74 NPI before the tourney {3-1-1})
• Tufts 14 shutouts; Trinity 12 shutouts
• Trinity 60 GF 12 GA; Tufts 55 GF 12 GA
• Trinity has never been shutout; Tufts has been twice (both 0-0 ties)
• Trinity 4 games with 1 goal (3-0-1); Tufts 7 games w 1 goal (5-1-1)
• Vs Top 100 Teams: Tufts 10-1-3 (19 GF 7 GA); Trinity 5-1-1 (15 GF 8 GA)
• Trinity 1 Multi-GA games; Tufts 2 Multi-GA games
• Tufts 7-1-2 against teams that made NCAA (16 GF 7 GA); Trinity 3-1-1 (10 GF 5 GA)
• Trinity 8 games won by 1 goal; Tufts 9 games won by 1 goal

Stats seem to indicate Trinity has no problem playing against physical teams in games with a lot of fouls so that appears to be a wash with Tufts being used to playing lots of games in the generally physical NESCAC.

Size-wise the teams appear similar.

The edge I see, again, is Tufts experience against strong offensive opponents. Their D/GK have been tested repeatedly.

Can Trinity's defense keep up with the Tufts offense? For whatever reason, Trinity's opponents rarely get more than 2-3 corner kicks per game (only once in last 14 games have they conceded > 3 corners - to Emory (6) in the semi). Whereas Tufts routinely has 5-8 corners in 10 of the last 14 games. Similarly, Trinity has only conceded > 3 SOG in only 2 of their last 14 games. While Tufts has managed 7+ SOG in 10 of their last 14 games.

Trinity corners to opponents' 162-48
Tufts corners to opponents' 152-78

Trinity margin 2.2 (2.73 - 0.55)
Tufts margin 1.9 (2.39 - 0.52)

Assists Trinity 51; Tufts 48

Shots/shots faced
Trinity 367-146
Tufts 397-205

Saves Tufts 48; Trinity 35

Fouls committed/opponents:
Trinity 246-289
Tufts 247-277

Cards/ opponents
Trinity 38-54
Tufts 28-38

As I mentioned earlier I had to dig deep in the stats to find differences.

I'm sure it will be a great game but my gut says it will be over in regulation.

[Kuiper]

Emory deserves a lot of credit.  They were outstanding and Halpern was phenomenal despite conceding the goal from what seems like an impossible angle.

Ultimately, Emory's lack of quality in front of the net and its lack of depth/subs to allow them to continue pressing as effectively as in the first half allowed Trinity to stay in the game and creep into control.  The pass from Ramirez to Mayfield and from Mayfield to Theiss to spring that goal was class and the finish was what you expect from a kid who scored as often as he did this year.

Just watched the goal. Great build up and beautiful passing and off the ball movement. And Kudos to Theiss for the celebration. He didn't make it about himself and he didn't show up the other team. Granted it's only one moment, but I he seems like a class act, unlike many of the other players who have scored big goals recently.

Here's a link to an Instagram post with the video of the Trinity goal

[Hopkins92]

Ooof. That goal reminds me of my worst let up... Happened in high school against our rival in the Regionals. (winner goes to the F4.)

Feel bad for the kid.

[Kuiper]

Following up on Sandon Milbut's preview of the Tufts-Trinity matchup, here are some thoughts that may only be of interest to me:

1.  Shutout streak

Trinity has pitched a shutout in 5 games in a row in the NCAA tournament after beating Emory 1-0.  Perhaps the closest it has come to conceding was when Emory's Jake Breitegan hit the post in the second half.

2.  Slow starts

By contrast, after beating St. Olaf 2-1, Tufts has now conceded a goal in three straight matches in the tournament.  To put that in context, that is 30% of the matches where it has conceded any goal all season and the first time it has conceded a goal in more than two games in a row all season.  Is that because it has been facing stronger offenses or more offensive-minded teams in the NCAA tournament?  Maybe, but it faced Bowdoin in the regular season and they tied 0-0.  Plus, it has only conceded 1 goal in each of the last 3 games and it won all three, so it's not like the Tufts defense has been playing poorly. 

The common denominator is that all three NCAA tournament goals were conceded in the first half and in 2 out of the 3 games (Messiah and St. Olaf) Tufts conceded the first goal.  In fact, when you go back to the games where they conceded any goal this season, they have now conceded the first goal in more than half of them, including their one loss (1-3 to Williams in the second game of the season, which jumped out to a goal in the 25th minute and then scored two more), their one scare against a weaker opponent (a 2-1 win over Trinity (CT) in the middle of conference season, where they conceded in the 35th minute and rallied for the win with goals in the 77th and 81st minutes), and their OT win over Middlebury in the NESCAC semifinals (where Middlebury jumped out to a 2-0 lead and Tufts rallied for goals in the 72nd and 79th minutes to force OT where it got the winning goal).

The positive is that Tufts has proven resilient and capable of rallying for wins and it is good at making the necessary defensive adjustments at half to seal up their defense.  The negative is that it becomes increasingly harder to do so against better defensive teams and against teams that are also capable of generating offensive attacks while Tufts is pressing forward for an equalizer.  Does it mean anything that conceding first, which only happened three times before the tournament in games separated by a month each, has now happened three games in a row?  Probably not, but I don't think Tufts wants to press its luck by allowing it to happen again in the finals.

3.  Set plays

Tufts is strong on set plays and has generated quite a bit of its offense through corners, free kicks, and lobs into the box that are effectively set plays.  It's not just that they often have a size advantage with 6'5" Ben Brown, but they are very physical and crafty on those plays, probably from the experience they get with them on the offensive and defensive end in the NESCAC.  In the semifinals, that was St. Olaf's undoing.  Tufts also beat Middlebury in the NESCAC semifinals off a free kick.

Can Trinity handle those better than St. Olaf?  They do have a bit more size on the defensive line (although more in height than in muscle mass) and if Brown became too much to handle, they could always bring on 6'7" center back Ethan Cowdrey as a counter.  The big difference between St. Olaf and Trinity might be at goalkeeper.  Jayden Schell is listed at 6'3" and he's pretty aggressive coming off his line and commanding the box.  He'll have to be better than St. Olaf's keeper to keep Tufts off the board because they have proven that they can punish a team if they are given a chance in the box.

On the other hand, Trinity has scored its fair share of goals of its own on corners and set pieces.  Antic is a fantastic shot-stopper, but in the game against St. Olaf, he had his own problems with coming off his line to deal with balls in the air and bouncing around in the box.  As a shorter keeper, I can understand why he has a different style of game, but he'll have to be a bit more decisive on these types of balls against Trinity.

4.  Familiar faces

There is barely any overlap between the Tufts and Trinity rosters, but the schools do share a couple of kids from Highland Park in Dallas.  Tufts' D William Cornog was a senior at Highland Park HS when Tufts GK Jack Madsen was a sophomore.  I'm not sure either of them is on their respective travel rosters for this tournament, but if they are they should make sure to take a photo together for the Highland Park HS boys soccer Instagram page.

5.  Injuries

Trinity's Max Salinas went down with an injury after going down in the 8th minute on a breakaway.  If he's out for this game, that would be a big loss for the Tigers.  He was the SAA Rookie of the Year this season.  His 3 goals and 3 assists understates his contribution to the team as a player who routinely can dribble through tight spaces and unlock and unbalance the most organized of defenses. Perhaps the day off between the semifinals and final and the warmer predicted temperatures on Sunday may help him recover in time to contribute.  If not, they have the depth to cover for his spot (Salinas was never a full 90 type of player), but I'm not sure they have anyone who offers quite the same skill set as he does.

On the Tufts' side, the St. Olaf game was the first time defender Tyler Feinberg started and went the full 90 since Sept. 10th against UMass Boston.  He played 21 minutes the next game against Colby on 9/13 and then didn't play at all until 10/18 against Middlebury when he went 34 minutes.  He's been on limited minutes ever since and only went more than a half against Conn College (78 minutes) in the NESCAC finals.  The question will be how much he can go after going the full 90 in the cold weather yesterday in Salem.  His goal against St. Olaf was an obvious contribution, but he was very strong as a defender as well and his leadership as a three year co-captain was likely important on the field when the team went down a goal.  Tufts can adapt if he can't go as many minutes since they've been doing it much of the season anyway, but I'm sure they would rather have him out there than on the bench.

6.  Records

If Tufts wins, they can make the claim to having the most successful season in program history.  While they've won 4 national championships, finishing with a 20-1-3 record would best the 2019 record of 20-2-2 and, at least on wins, the 2018 record of 18-0-3.  Plus, Tufts won the NESCAC conference tournament this season and lost on PKs in the quarters in 2018.

If Trinity wins, it will still fall short of its magical 2003 national championship run.  A 21-1-1 record would be mighty impressive, but not as impressive as the 24-0-0 record of the 2003 squad.

[Ejay]

If Trinity wins, it will still fall short of its magical 2003 national championship run.  A 21-1-1 record would be mighty impressive, but not as impressive as the 24-0-0 record of the 2003 squad.

I was at that 2003 championship game in which Trinity held on for dear life to claim the title over Drew (20-2-3). If I remember correctly, Trinity was up 2-1 but Drew was peppering them in the final 15 minutes and even hit the crossbar.

I've mentioned this before, but that Drew team was unreal. They only gave up 6 goals all season and went 17 games in a row without giving up a goal. The semi-final victory vs. Wheaton was perhaps the greatest D3 game I've ever seen considering the circumstances. IMHO, Drew deserved a Natty that year plain and simple, but that's why you play the game.