In what may or may not be a regular feature this season, we will run down a variety of results from across the nation, "flybys" if you will, with comments that hopefully are informative, insightful, and interesting. The intent is to give snapshots of the D-III soccer landscape, covering top teams and important high profile matches but also going off the beaten path as much as possible as we criss-cross the country.
• Susquehanna (6-1-0) was so close to
moving to 7-0 when they outshot Penn St.-Altoona 12-5 through
regulation and the first overtime. They also put more shots
on frame (6-2) and had all the corner kicks (14-0), but they
couldn't find that important lone goal and paid the price when they
tired in the second overtime period. The home team grabbed
the upperhand and sent the Crusaders home empty-handed after
scoring the sudden-victory goal in the 108th minute.
• After missing the Centennial Conference playoffs last
season, the same was predicted for Swarthmore this
year by the conference coaches whose preseason vote landed the
Garnet just a sixth-place tie. But four decent non-conference
wins and a road win over flavor-of-the-month, Franklin &
Marshall, to open conference play suggests that Garnet (5-0-0) will
be more formidable than expected. We'll know very soon; they now
face Stevens, Dickinson, and Muhlenberg in their next three
matches.
• Tufts (3-0-0) has gotten off to a 2-0
start in NESCAC play after earning a 2-1 road victory at Wesleyan
Saturday. The Jumbos twice beat a Wesleyan defense that was
expected to be very stingy again in 2012.
• At the least, it won't be an undefeated run to the NJAC
title this time around for Rutgers-Camden.
Saturday, in the battle of the Rutgers, Newark
came out on top, defending their early goal against the second-half
pressure (12 shots, 6 on frame, 8 corner kicks) from the Scarlet
Raptors.
• Penn State-Behrend (5-1-0), who grabbed
the AMCC title away from regular season champions Medaille in 2011,
might be ready to fight it out again for the conference
championship. The have won five straight after a
season-opening loss, picking up a pair of 3-0 shutout wins this
week.
• Baldwin-Wallace has also recovered from a
loss in their season-opener to win five straight. The Yellow
Jackets downed Case Western and Grove City this week to add to
their wild 5-3 win at Carnegie Mellon the previous weekend.
• The American Southwest Conference (ASC)
race might be as open as ever. Texas-Tyler has not coped well
with the loss of two All-Americans, falling at East Texas Baptist
Thursday and to 3-3-0 overall with Sunday's loss at Hendrix.
East Texas Baptist, who has never factored in the
ASC championship race, are surprise co-leaders with Texas-Dallas
two games into conference play. Texas-Tyler was the coaches'
preseason pick for the conference title; East Texas Baptist only
placed 9th.
• After a two-week cakewalk spotted Montclair
State a 4-0-0 start to the season, the Red Hawks finally
had to start proving themselves this past week and their perfect
record survived. First they slipped past Rowan 2-1 in NJAC
opening action and then put in an efficient if not dominate
performance (outshot 18 to 10, but put 7 of 10 on frame) at Mary
Washington for the 2-0 win.
• Two Empire 8 teams have jumped out to perfect starts, and
neither is named Stevens. Elmira (6-0-0) has
played no one of note (Cazenovia was the toughest it got) and
Nazareth's (5-0-0) 4-2 opening weekend victory
over Brockport does little for their resume now that Brockport has
slid to an unexpected 1-5 mark. So no reason yet to doubt that
Stevens (4-2-0) will collect yet another
conference title. They steadied themselves somewhat this week
with a pair 1-0 wins.
• With their only loss coming against fellow Top 25 team
Carnegie Mellow, Ohio Northern has quickly racked
up seven wins. They go to Ohio Wesleyan this Wednesday aiming
to defeat the Bishops for the first time since the 2008 season that
saw the Polar Bears reach the Elite 8.
• Early indications are that the Old Dominion
Athletic Conference (ODAC) continues to be in a
downcycle. Lynchburg's surprising run to the title game in
2010 and Randolph's opening round upset of Christopher Newport
notwithstanding, even the conference's better teams have struggled
with their non-conference schedule in recent years and it's been a
while since the ODAC has had multiple Top 25 quality teams.
Only one of the conferences twelve teams is over .500 after three
weeks.
• Bridgewater (5-1-0) is the lone bright
spot so far in 2012 for the ODAC. The Eagles stole a game
from Salisbury the previous weekend and this Saturday responded
with three unanswered goals after going down by two early against
ODAC-upstarts Randolph.
• Trinity (Tx.) (6-0-1) might have loosened
their grip on the No. 1 ranking with their tie at Redlands, but
returning from California with a win and a tie is a job well
done. The Tigers now enter the SCAC home-and-home schedule
with just two out-of-conference dates yet on tap in October.
An undefeated regular season could be in the cards.
• It will be interesting to see how the new conference on the
block, Southern Atletic Association (SAA), shapes
up both internally and relative to other conferences. Both
SCAC tournament finalists from last year,
Oglethorpe (4-1-0) and Centre
(4-2-0), are off to decent starts. Former independent
Berry is 6-0-0 after another 2-win week.
Hendrix (6-0-1), who typically finished in the
middle to bottom-half of the SCAC, edged Texas-Tyler with a
3rd-minute goal to sweep the four ASC schools on their
non-conference slate.
• What's up with the SUNYAC? Brockport
(1-5-0) has already lost more games in three weeks this year than
all of last season. Oneonta State (3-2-1) is struggling the
pick-up where they left off in 2011. Eight of the ten teams
are on pace to do worse this year than last. Removing the
perfect Plattsburgh State (7-0-0), the SUNYAC is a
combined 15-37-3 in non-conference play and given the rather soft
schedule the Cardinals have played to date, it's difficult to say
if they are really that much better than than their closest
rivals.
• Luther (4-1-2) was unable to stay
undefeated against MIAC schools when they were done in by the
accurate shooting of Carleton on Sunday. The
Norse followed up an opening weekend tie at St. John's with wins
over St. Olaf, Macalester, and St. Thomas before Carleton netted 5
of 13 total shots (6 on goal) for the 5-2 win in an otherwise
fairly even match. The IIAC outfit gets a sixth go at an MIAC
opponent this week when St. Mary's (Minn.) visits Decorah.
• There are still many perfect (20) and undefeated (14) teams
out there to list them all. Among some of the big names from
the Top 25 are teams like Hood (2-0-2),
Thomas (3-0-1), Penn
State-Abington (3-0-0), Illinois Wesleyan
(6-0-0), and Beuna Vista (4-0-1).
Brandeis (7-0-0) have bettered their 6-0 start to
the 2010 season playing a similar slate of non-conference
opponents, but the UAA gauntlet did them in that year as they
eneded with just a 12-7-1 mark.
Comments or feedback for the author? Email Christan Shirk.