Men's Sectional Previews: East

By Christan Shirk

Third Round - Saturday

Quarterfinals - Sunday

Sectional Final, 1:00 pm ET

How they reached the Sweet 16

2015 Statistical Overview

Haverford Season Review

Coming into the 2015 season, an up-and-coming Haverford hadn’t yet established themselves a one of the teams to beat in the Centennial conference, much less nationally. They had shown they could rise to the occasion—stealing the conference title in 2012 with two 1-0 playoff wins and handing F&M their first loss of 2014 in the conference semifinal—but they lacked consistency and conceded too many goals, two things that would need to change if they were to make the step to the next level (and maybe a little more goal scoring). After a preseason team trip to Costa Rica, the start of the season didn’t suggest any of that would happen this term as they lost three of their opening five games, four times conceding two or three goals. Considering the opposition in those three defeats—Stevens, Wesleyan, and Montclair State—drawing conclusions and writing the Fords off at that point was probably premature. In hindsight, it most definitely was premature.

5th-year coach Shane Rineer made a pair of changes to his starting eleven at that point, inserting freshman Ben Clark into the back line and freshman Michael Carr into the midfield to go with the eight repeat starters from 2014 and another freshman on the backline. The change paid dividends as Haverford posted four consecutive shutouts for the first time in fifteen years and the starting line-up hasn’t changed since. Five more wins, including 3-0 over Rutgers-Camden and 3-1 versus Dickinson, stretched their winning streak to nine as they welcomed No. 1-ranked and undefeated F&M to Walton Field. The yet untested favorites found out that the Fords were for real, suffering their first loss of the season to the upstarts for the second year running. Haverford earned the Centennial’s top seed and hosting privileges for the conference tournament and held off a surging Dickinson side in the final, 1-0, on an ever more common Will Corkery free kick goal. With 14 wins on the trot and a 0.50 GAA over that span—an even more impressive 0.30 if you remove the goalfest at Gettysburg—the Fords were playing as well as anyone in the nation and were rewarded with a first round bye in the NCAAs after which they bested a determined Washington & Lee 2-1 to reach the Sweet 16.

Line-ups changes and whatever other adjustments that were made mid-September resulted in a goal-against-average that equaled all but a couple teams from that point forward. The Fords’ offense also went up a notch from previous seasons. Most notably, senior forward Sam Yarosh (16g, 5a) significantly improved his nose for goal and junior midfielder Corkery (9g, 12a) added superb free kick goals (six total) to his arsenal that already included precise services into the box from corner kicks, crosses, and free kicks with resulted in nine goals for teammates this campaign. Led by Yarosh and fellow senior Brady Seitz (7g, 4a), a great majority of the Fords tallies came from headers off service into the area (interestingly, that also seems to be the way their defense has most often been beaten). And a 15 game winning streak suggests some level of consistency on both sides of the ball. At least for this year, Haverford seems to have made the changes to get to the next level.

Oneonta State Season Review

With two Final Four trips bookending four straight NCAA appearances prior to this year, the expectations for Oneonta State are understandable high, and all the more so given the Red Dragons had nine starters and their super-sub Santangelo back for the 2015 campaign. Spelling that out a bit further: returning from a Final Four squad that felt aggrieved to not have reached the final was their All-American midfield general, top four goal scorers (and 83% of their total goal production), and their entire starting back line and goalkeeper. That’s national title or bust material right there. And three games in and all was going to plan: 3 wins, 9 goals for, 0 against, with six different goal scorers. But that was the soft part of the schedule and another three games in and the outlook was quite different. A 2-0 road loss to Williams, a 1-1 tie away to Vassar, and a 1-0 loss at RPI left Oneonta with more losses than and as many blemishes as all of last year. Despite having almost everyone back, maybe the team was still trying to find its chemistry after sliding Anthony Passiatore and Hans Purtell into midfield roles from the back line and front line, respectively, and inserting 2014 leading scorer Cory Santangelo into the starting line-up. Whatever the reason, the Dragons were not clicking on all cylinders and fifteen minutes into their away encounter with Montclair State it looked like they were going to pay for it with another loss when their hosts scored and were banging on the door for another.

That was gut-check time. And Oneonta passed the test, getting the equalizer in the nineteenth minute, matching Montclair until halftime, and then finally finding some rhythm in the second half that, after a free kick clanged off the crossbar, was rewarded with the game-winner with 73 seconds on the clock. A turning point in their season? Maybe. In any case, in contrast to the alternative, the win certainly did their confidence a world of good heading into the SUNYAC slate which started with the two most likely challengers for the title. Lack of finishing meant a pair of narrow 1-0 victories, but things were heading in the right direction. And from there, besides their finishing again letting them down a 1-0 loss in the final minute to Plattsburgh State, the Red Dragons swept through the rest of the conference and the SUNYAC tournament with relative ease to grab their spot in the NCAA tournament and lift their record to 15-3-1. CCNY were brushed aside without a care to extend their shutout streak to six games, and they advanced to the Sweet 16 looking like title contenders when they held Rutgers-Camden—perhaps tired from back-to-back double overtime games—shot-less in the opening stanza and scoreless across 90 minutes en route to a 2-0 shutout victory.

Oneonta’s defense has gotten very stingy with 11 shutouts in their lasts 13 games to pull their season-long goals against average down to 0.42, 6th best the nation. And their attack is clicking, averaging more than 3 goals a game over their last 11 contests. Scoring is being done by committee—in the good sense—and coming from everywhere with ten players having three or more goals to their name. Even centerback and team captain Jared van Brundt has made a significant contribution at the offensive end with getting on the end of corner kicks and free kicks for six tallies. Midfielders Greg Silvestro and Purtel have done their job creating chances for others, especially when teams focus too much on All-American Dylan Williams. In short, the Red Dragons are playing like we expected all along—at the level that took them to the 104th minute of the national semifinal a year ago.

Head Coaches

Seniors' 4-year Record (through Nov. 15)

Tournament Experience

The experience edge goes to St. Lawrence and Oneonta whose squads have been to the dance each of the previous three years with their seniors now having played nine tournament games to date. MIT was one-and-done in 2012 and 2013 while Haverford went 0-1-1 in 2012. Factor in coaching experience and the advantage clearly falls to Oneonta who under Iain Bryne have been to each of the last five tournaments with runs to the Final Four in 2011 and last year.

Players to Watch

Haverford: F Sam Yarosh (Sr.) – 16g, 5a, 6 GWG (Centennial POY, 2x 1st Team All-Centennial) | F Brady Seitz – 7g, 4a (2x 1st Team All-Centennial) | M Will Corkery (Jr.) – 9g, 12a (1st Team All-Centennial) | D Colin Seitz (Sr.) (1st Team All-Centennial) | M Michael Carr (Fr.) – 2g, 6a

St. Lawrence: D Harry Copeland (Sr.) – 3g, 1a (Liberty League POY, 2x 1st Team All-Liberty, 2x D3soccer.com All-American) | GK Ryan Roethel (Sr.) – .877 Sv. Pct., 0.37 GAA, 13 ShO (1st Team All-Liberty) | M Jethro Dede (Fr.) – 4g, 1a (1st Team All-Liberty, Rookie of the Year) | D Christian Yarros (Sr.) (2nd team All-Liberty) | F Ryan Grant (Sr.) – 8g, 1a (2014 1st Team All-Liberty)

Oneonta State: M Dylan Williams (Sr.) – 5g, 4a (3x 1st Team All-SUNYAC, 2014 D3soccer.com All-American, 2014 SUNYAC POY) | F Jake Sutherland (Sr.) – 7g, 4a (2x 1st Team All-SUNYAC) | D Jared Van Brunt (Sr.) – 6g, 3a, 4 GWG (SUNYAC Def. POY, 1st Team All-SUNYAC) | M Anthony Passiatore (Jr.) – 2g, 0a (2x 1st Team All-SUNYAC) | F Cory Santangelo (So.) – 7g, 2a, 3 GWG (1st Team All-SUNYAC)

MIT: M Sean Bingham (Sr.) – 21g, 12a, 8 GWG (NEWMAC POY, 3x 1st Team All-NEWMAC) | M Austin Freel (Sr.) – 5g, 9a (3x 1st Team All-NEWMAC) | M/F Kareem Itani (Jr.) – 9g, 9a, 3 GWG (1st Team All-NEWMAC) | D Garrett Souza (Fr.) (2nd Team All-NEWMAC) | GK Jake Amereno (Sr.) – .837 Sv. Pct., 0.69 GAA, 12 ShO (2nd Team All-NEWMAC)

Tournament Re-Matches

As geography would suggest, between the four teams only Oneonta and St. Lawrence have ever met outside of the NCAA tournament, and that being just two times owing partially to Oneonta having been a Division I member for a long time prior to transitioning to Division III in the mid-2000’s. The more recent of those two encounters—opening weekend of 2011—was won by the host, St. Lawrence, 3-2. Oneonta would exact a certain measure of revenge later that fall, bouncing the Saints from the NCAA tournament in a second round overtime game, 2-1, en route to the Final Four.

MIT has met, and lost to, both St. Lawrence and Oneonta State in high-scoring first round tournament action: 3-2 losers to the former in 2008 and 4-2 losers to the latter just three years ago when this year’s seniors were freshman. That makes the Oneonta-MIT third round game the only rematch or potential rematch of the Sectional that would have involved current players. Haverford has never played any of the teams it will host this weekend, in or out of the tournament.

Why they will advance to the Final Four

Haverford: The Fords have hardly put a foot wrong in the past two months and their only home loss came prior to the line-up changes that coincided with the start of their 15-game winning streak. They have the momentum and home field advantage. And maybe more importantly, they simple don’t fear anyone which has carried them to some big wins in past years when there weren’t as good as they are now. The Saints got the wins last weekend, but didn’t really impress given the level of competition and won’t be carrying any momentum into Haverford. As good as the Saints’ defense is, inevitably Haverford is going to win some corners and free kicks, and get crosses off and no team has been as good at converting such chances as Haverford due largely to Corkery’s masterful services and shots. His hot streak will continue while in the other direction St. Lawrence is going to struggle away from the friendly, and expansive, confines of Sandy Macallaster field. They’ve only played six of their 21 games on the road, going just 3-2-1 against pretty modest opposition (combined 49-42-10 record, or .535 win pct.), being shutout in the three games against teams with winning records, none of which were playing at Haverford’s level. That trend continues in Haverford and the Saints are sent packing. Buoyed by the biggest win in program history and energized by the home crowd, Haverford is on fire against their Elite 8 adversary and storms their way into the Final Four.

St. Lawrence: A couple things. (1) St. Lawrence’s defense is much better than anything Haverford has faced this season and if it took a penalty kick in the 45th minute against Washington & Lee to get the Fords on the scoreboard before halftime, don’t expect them to bag a goal in the opening stanza against the Saints. (2) Carrying the weight of expectations is old hat for the Saints, but it’s new territory for Haverford who will feel the pressure. So while St. Lawrence is patient and composed in waiting for their chances to come, Haverford will play tight and anxious and start pressing as the game drags on scoreless, all keeping them from their best when that’s exactly what’s required to unlock the Saints’ defense. On the other hand, while Haverford’s defense has been pretty good, its weakness seems to be defending corners and crosses into the box, and guess what St. Lawrence has? A pair of 6’-5” and 6’-1” center backs who like to get on the end set piece services. One such goal will be enough for the Saints’ stingy defense that will shutout the hosts. If MIT is able to pull the upset over Oneonta State, don’t expect them to duplicate the feat against St. Lawrence. If Oneonta State advances, a defensive stalemate is in the cards and penalty kicks beckon. St. Lawrence, with the bad taste of last years’ PK elimination still in their mouths, have been intentional in coming better prepared for the eventuality of a shootout and it pays off.

Oneonta State: Simply put, this is a complete team that is firing on all cylinders after that shaky mid-September spell. MIT, even though they are more than just Sean Bingham, doesn’t have the personnel to match the Red Dragons man for man. And while MIT’s offensive and defensive numbers are pretty good, it came against a rather modest schedule. When faced with a defense of the quality of Oneonta, they were shutout by Brandeis. Credit to the Engineers: they returned the favor to the Judges, but Brandeis (1.33 GSA), despite accumulating a lot of wins, hasn’t put many teams away. Keeping Oneonta (2.36 GSA overall, but over 3 down the stretch) off the scoreboard will be a taller task. And MIT won’t be able to count on coming back on the Red Dragon defense (.42 GAA) like they did from three down against Stevens (.92 GAA). Quality and quantity wins out. Oneonta has too much and moves on. Against the battle-weary survivor of the other Sweet 16 match, the Red Dragons have more left in the tank which makes a difference with the 24-hour turn-around. Moreover, they have a clear experience edge if it’s Haverford and while there’s numerous similarities with St. Lawrence (talent level, veteran squad, Top 10 defense, strong stretch run after some struggles) Oneonta is the more well-oiled machine at the moment having had a more stable, injury-free line-up than the injury plagued Saints. It showed in the ease/non-ease of advancement last weekend and will again in an Elite 8 clash. They still have to earn it, but that’s exactly what the Red Dragons will do.

MIT: Assuming that Oneonta doesn’t come into this game looking past MIT and thinking more about a Final Four return to finish what they came to do last year—very unlikely given the quality coaching of Iain Bryne and the fact this is a mature junior and senior laden squad that knows better—MIT’s best chance might be to sit deep with numbers behind the ball and try to frustrate Oneonta while judiciously picking their spots to try to sucker punch the Dragons against the run of play. If they can keep the game scoreless late into the game, they have just the man to deliver the knock-out punch—Sean Bingham who has 8 game winning goals and has delivered when most needed (lone goal to eliminate Bowdoin last weekend, started and finished 4-goal comeback against Stevens, overtime goal to save their blushes versus Clark, lone goal in regular season defeat of Babson). In the quarterfinal match the Engineers, having perserved energy the day before, reverse course and catch either potential opponent by surprise by going all out for the early goal when another “park the bus” approach was expected. The trio of Bingham, Itani, and Freel deliver and swelling with confidence, the Engineers let is all out on the field in a gutsy and ultimately triumphant performance.

Comments or feedback for the author?  E-mail Christan Shirk.