Week Eight and one immutable fact has emerged.... I am real bad at picking winners....

SC

Week Eight Registration Page

Current Leaderboard as of 14 October 2024

Friday Games

Colorado Col. (9-1-2) @ Southwestern (TX) (8-1-2)

Ejay’s View - Colorado travels to Texas to take on a Southwestern team that just lost their first game of the season to Trinity 2-1. Only once in the last 10 meetings has either team won by more than 1 goal, and 3 of them have gone to OT. On paper, they’re evenly matched.

SimpleCoach Ramble – Colorado is at an interesting point this season.  Clearly a team with national aspirations.  But … played Concordia and really looked uninspired.  Now, they managed to pull off a 3-0 win, scoring in the 77^th minute and getting the job done, but Southwestern is a better team.  They just lost to Trinity 2-1 earlier today and will be looking to bounce back with a win.

Saturday Games

Augsburg (8-2-4) @ St. Olaf (9-4-1)

Ejay’s View - Augsburg appear to have wrapped up a conference tournament bid, so this is an important game for seeding purposes. Olaf lost mid-week to Platteville, but otherwise have been rolling recent opponents. 

SimpleCoach Ramble – St. Olaf’s loss to Platteville, followed by a battle of the Oliver brothers (Justin @ St. Olaf and Tyler @ Hamline) where St. Olaf won 4-1.  They could/should get another result against 6-6-1 St. Mary’s U.  Am a fan of Augsburg who just tied Gustavus a week ago, and lost to WI Eau Claire two weeks ago, 2-1.

W&L (8-3-1) @ Lynchburg (6-2-3)

Ejay’s View - A resurgent W&L travels to Lynchburg for a big ODAC game. W&L may be the least talked about 8-3-1 team in the country, but they haven’t lost since 9/7. Lynchburg has only given up 6 goals all season and has 4 straight shutouts. 

SimpleCoach Ramble – Washington & Lee is much improved and on a roll defeating both with Christopher Newport and Ferrum by 3-0 each.  They do play Shenandoah midweek which could be a bit of a trap game followed by Roanoke and VA Wesleyan.  Lynchburg just tied Eastern Mennonite 0-0, but have been unscored on in the las 4 games.

Middlebury (8-0-2) @ Tufts (8-0-2)

Ejay’s View - The last two undefeated NESCAC teams square off for bragging rights, and possible home field advantage.  For whatever it’s worth, Massey has Tufts #2 and Middlebury #3 while the coaches have Tufts #3 and Middlebury #4. Tufts has a big game on Tue @ Amherst while Middlebury has the week off.

SimpleCoach Ramble – Consequential week for Tufts who goes to Amherst on Tuesday then Middlebury.  Expect this game to be full of fireworks as they do not like each other.

Franklin & Marshall (7-0-6) @ Johns Hopkins (7-3-3)

Ejay’s View - F&M are still undefeated after easily dispatching Muhlenburg. Hopkins is doing its Hopkins thing after putting two shots on goal in a 1-0 loss to Gettysburg. Is F&M finally deserving of some respect?

SimpleCoach Ramble –  I’ve come around to the idea that this version of Johns Hopkins is not as good as I thought they were, and F&M is not as bad as I thought there were.  Hopkins will do what it does which is look to control the ball and keep it on the deck (6:1 Pass Ratio).  F&M will contest every ball and waste zero time hoofing the ball up (4:1 Pass Ratio).  Yes.  Breaking out my passing spreadsheet….

Swarthmore (9-3-1) @ Dickinson (11-1-1)

Ejay’s View - Swarthmore are 9-3-1 and sit in 6th place in the conference thanks to all 3 of those loses coming in-conference. Their only good win was 3-1 at Occidental. Is this team pretending to be good? Dickinson are 11-1-1 but who have they beat? A .500 Messiah team? Are they the beneficiaries of weak scheduling?

SimpleCoach Ramble –  I just don’t see Dickinson losing this game.  Don’t see how Swarthmore can pull off anything.

Buffalo State (12-0-1) @ New Paltz (8-4-1)

Ejay’s View - The SUNYAC is about to get real interesting. Buffalo State and New Paltz currently sit 1-2 with conference records of 5-0 and 4-0-1 respectively. Oneonta, Cortland & Plattsburg are close behind, so this game will influence seedings. Buff State just beat Plattsburg and get Oneonta mid-week. NP already tied Cortland and get Plattsburg mid-week. 

SimpleCoach Ramble – Working on a video about teams I find interesting right now that don’t get the love of rankings, etc..  And #8 is Buffalo State.  New Paltz is always a team that can do damage on the right day.

Rowan (5-4-5) @ Montclair St. (10-2-1)

Ejay’s View - Week 1 I said Rowan could enter the NJAC with 8 loses given how tough their schedule was.  They’ve only got 4, including last week’s 1-0 loss to Washington when they outshot the Shoremen 18-1. Montclair's at 10-2-1 and have won 10 straight. They’ve replaced Lukovic’s production with 14 different goal scorers.

SimpleCoach Ramble – This is the Bill the Butcher Classic.  Chains, knives, no guns.  Rowan has stumbled as the season has progress.  Thought they had a bit more of a backbone.  On the flip side, Montclair only looks better as the season progressed.  Think they have some more wins in their pocket.

York (PA) (10-0-4) @ Messiah (7-5-1)

Ejay’s View - York are 10-0-4 and sit atop the MAC Commonwealth. They’ve got 16 seniors or 5th year seniors. Should we be paying more attention? Messiah are 7-5-1 and winners of 3 straight, but they don’t scare anyone this year. There’s a good chance this will be a preview of the Commonwealth final.

SimpleCoach Ramble – I am conflicted on this one.  If there is a year that York will take Messiah it’s this year.

Catholic (5-5-2) @ Lycoming (7-3-3)

Ejay’s View - Catholic are on a 5 game unbeaten streak which finally gets them to .500 on the season.  Lycoming just recorded their 6th shutout and are 7-3-3. This is another game with big conference seeding implications. 

SimpleCoach Ramble – If Catholic wants to make the Landmark Champion to have to pass through DC to win it, this is a must win for them.  Lycoming, under 1^st year head coach John Schwein has quite the pedigree (2 year Assistant to Dave Brandt at Bucknell) and have some good results last month, although having recently stumbled against Scranton (1-0 Loss) and Moravian (0-0 Draw).