Two streaks end while another one continues

By Christan Shirk

Franklin and Marshall refuse to concede

With Wednesday's 1-0 home win over Stevenson, Franklin and Marshall men's soccer team not only remained undefeated in 2013, but remained unscored upon.  With a 7-0-1 record and 12 goals scored without conceding, the Diplomats have opened the campaign with eight straight shutouts which matches the second longest shutout streak to begin a season in men's Division III history.  They have won their last three games by a slim 1-0 margin preceded by a 0-0 overtime stalemate and another 1-0 victory.  The F&M defense has only allowed more than two shots on target in two of their eight games to date.  Following their 110-minute marathon with Elizabethtown two weeks ago, the streak needed to survive extra time and an overtime shot on goal by host Alvernia.  This Wednesday overtime was avoided when they netted with just 17 ticks on the second half clock.

In 2012 F&M conceded an average of 1.15 goals from 11 shots per game allowed, 4.3 on goal.  So far in 2013 they are permitting just 6.6 shots per game of which only 1.8 have been on target.  In goal for the Diplomats is junior Ti White who has been starting since mid-October of his freshman year.  Last season White posted a 1.15 GAA and .734 save pct. while playing every single minute.  The co-captains David Rosenfeld and Chris Scott, both juniors, anchor the backline along with senior Patrick Kilgore.   Overall, the Diplomats returned eleven starters from last season's squad that went 12-6-0 and lost in the Centennial Conference play-in game as the #5 seed.

F&M is currently tied with Macalester for the third longest shutout streak to open a season.   Macalester started the 1998 season with eight straight wins, outscoring opponents 22-0 before being losing both the shutout and unbeaten streak in a 1-0 loss at Luther.  The longest streak belongs to another MIAC team, Augsburg who shutout their first 10 adversaries in 2006, picking up eight wins and two scoreless ties before Macalester breached their goalmouth twice in a game the Auggies lost 2-1.  In 2002 Messiah opened with nine straight shutouts for the longest such streak at that time.

F&M's streak in on the line tonight at conference rival Muhlenberg (4-4-0).  The Mules are averaging a modest 6 shots on goal per outing leading to a 1.32 goal scoring average.  On Tuesday they were shutout for the first time this season, 0-1 at DeSales.  Follow the game live at 7:00 p.m. ET via live states or streaming video, courtesy of Muhlenberg College.

Dominican unbeaten no more in NACC play

On October 10, 2004, Dominican dominated Clarke for a 6-0 road win in Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference play.  The Stars' win came on the heels of a mid-week 2-1 double-overtime road loss to conference rival Aurora on October 6, 2004.  Little did anyone know at the time the significance of those two results, but in time the former would represent the last time Dominican had lost in conference play--regular season or playoffs--and the later would mark the start of the longest conference unbeaten streak.

Fast-forward nine seasons, through two conference changes, to Wednesday, September 25, 2013.  Benedictine came to River Forest, IL in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play and battled to a 1-0 win by converting their only shot on target in the 25th minute of the match.  The Eagles accomplished what no other conference opponent had managed in the previous 104 attempts: beat Dominican.  And thus comes to an end the longest streak of conference games without a loss in men's collegiate soccer history.  In fact it's twice as long as all but one other such streak, that being Claremont-Mudd-Scripps' 57 game streak.  It also ends a 32-game win streak in conference games which ties them for fifth in Division III men's history.  They had already claimed the third spot on that list earlier in the unbeaten stretch when they won 37 consecutive conference games from October 2007 to October 2010.

During their historic unbeaten streak, Dominican won all seven NACC tournament championships since the league formed and eight consecutive regular season championships which includes the Lake Michigan Conference in 2004.  The entire streak has come under the direction of head coach Erick Baumann who is now 314-73-22 (.794) in his 19th season at the helm.  That makes him the fourth winningest active Division III men's soccer coach by percentage and 20th by total wins.

Messiah's unbeaten streak eneded by rivals York (Pa.)

Tuesday night York (Pa.) (7-1-0) handed Messiah (8-0-1) their first loss of the season in what has evolved into a huge rivalry match over the past 10 years. In fact, York is responsible for four of Messiah's last eight losses dating back to 2007. The loss also halted the Falcons unbeaten run at 33 games, a streak which included the unbeaten 2012 campaign and the first eight games this year. The streak ranks ninth in Division III men's soccer history and third in Messiah's history. Messiah has also had unbeaten streaks of 46 games, 42 games, and 31 games in the past thirteen years giving them four entries in the top ten list.

Interestingly enough, one of the unbeaten streaks that exceeds any of the Falcons' is York's 49-game unbeaten streak that spanned from 2005 to 2007, but only included one match with Messiah, a 1-1 tie.  That draw was also part of Messiah's 46-game unbeaten streak.  Their two overlapping streaks rank third and fourth all-time behind 66- and 60-game unbeaten streaks by Wheaton (Ill.) and St. Lawrence, respectively.

Comments or feedback for the author?  Email Christan Shirk.