Kickin’ It With Patriot League Men’s Soccer
For the complete men’s soccer schedule with links to audio, video and live stats, click here.
Several big games highlight the weekend slate, including the 76th meeting between rivals Army and Navy. Also on the schedule, preseason favorite Colgate will travel to Lehigh, Bucknell will host American and Lafayette will head to Worcester to battle Holy Cross.
Lafayette (4-2-1) at Holy Cross (1-5-0), 3 p.m.
Patriot League play will officially get underway when the Leopards and Crusaders meet in Worcester. The Leopards were the last Patriot League team to suffer a loss, but they enter Patriot League play looking to snap a two-game skid. Lafayette was outscored 7-1 by Northern Illinois and No. 25 Northwestern at the Northwestern Soccer Classic. Prior to last weekend, the Leopards had allowed just one goal in five contests.
Lafayette is unbeaten in its last eight games against Holy Cross, going 6-0-2 against the Crusaders in that span. Holy Cross last beat the Lafayette in the 2002 Patriot League Tournament, topping the Leopards 1-0. The last two regular season meeting between the teams have ended in ties, including last year’s scoreless draw.
Freshman Sean Peckham leads Lafayette offensively. Peckham has piled up three goals and one assist in his first seven collegiate contests. Despite missing three games, junior B.J. Glenn has added two goals. Senior goalkeeper Philip Nelson has recorded a League-best four shutouts in seven games. He also holds the top goals-against-average among Patriot League goalkeepers, allowing just 0.98 goals per outing.
Holy Cross scored two goals in its victory against Northeastern, but the Crusaders have managed just one goal in their other five games. Patriot League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Kyle Miller is one of three Crusaders who have recorded a goal this season. Miller and Jon Werth have combined to produce 31 of the Crusaders’ 53 shots this season.
American (3-3-0) at Bucknell (5-2-0), 4 p.m.
Bucknell enters Saturday’s contest with the best record among Patriot League teams. All seven of the Bison’s games have been decided by one goal. Just two of American’s six outings have been decided by less than two goals. The Eagles snapped a three-game losing streak with a 1-0 win over Virginia Tech on Thursday. American claimed a 3-2 win over the Bison last season. The Eagles have won three of the last four meetings between the schools.
Conor O’Brien, who was named to the Hermann Trophy watch list prior to this season, has not disappointed. The senior midfielder has five goals and three assists for a League-best 13 points. The reigning Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year has also produced a League-high three game-winning goals.
American, which entered the national rankings two weeks ago, snapped a three-game skid in style on Thursday with a 1-0 win in Blacksburg, Va. Mike Worden’s game-winner in the 51st minute was the Eagles’ first goal in a span of 328:08. Daniel Shannon, who assisted Worden’s goal against the Hokies, leads the team with five points (two goals, one assist).
American has not lost a Patriot League opener since a 1-0 loss to Navy in 2003. The Eagles have gone 3-0-2 in that span. Bucknell has won its past six League openers. The Bison’s last loss in a Patriot League debut was a 1-0 overtime loss at Holy Cross in 2002.
Colgate (4-2-0) at Lehigh (3-2-2), 7 p.m.
Preseason favorite and defending Patriot League champion Colgate will begin defense of its crown in Bethlehem, Pa. against the Mountain Hawks. The Raiders enter the weekend with four wins, but just one victory on the road. Meanwhile, Lehigh has suffered its only two setbacks at home. The Mountain Hawks are 2-2-1 at the Ulrich Sports Complex and 1-0-2 away from home. Saturday will mark the fifth time in the past seven years that the two teams have met in Bethlehem.
Lehigh has been red-hot of late, going 2-0-1 in its last three games. The Mountain Hawks played to a 1-1 tie against Penn State on Thursday. That followed a 5-1 win at Delaware and a 3-2 win over No. 24 College of Charleston. Lehigh’s win over the Cougars was the College of Charleston’s first loss of the season. Freshman Austin Decker paces the Lehigh attack. He has a team-best three goals this season.
Alex Weekes, who was named to the Hermann Trophy watch list prior to the season, has been strong in the early portion of the season for the Raiders. Weekes leads the team with eight points (three goals, two assists). His 29 shots have helped Colgate out-shoot its opponents by a 114-81 margin.
Colgate’s 2-0 win over Lehigh last season snapped a string of three straight losses to the Mountain Hawks. The past three meetings between the schools have been decided by shutout, with Lehigh winning two of them.
Army (1-6-0) at Navy (4-3-0), 8 p.m.
It has been a good year for soccer on the Navy campus. Navy’s men’s and women’s soccer teams have combined to go 12-4-1 so far this season, the best combined record in the Patriot League. Navy’s women’s unit has won a League-best eight games. Meanwhile, under the direction of new head coach Dave Brandt, the Mids’ men’s squad has already matched its win total from a year ago. Navy has also matched its goal-total (11) from last season.
Twelve different players have notched points for Navy this season, including nine different goal-scorers. Only two Mids, Michael Rakoczy and Mark Garcia, have recorded multiple goals this season. Rakoczy leads the team with seven points (two goals, three assists). Rakoczy is one of three Patriot League freshmen to lead his team in scoring. All four of Navy’s game-winning goals have been scored by Rakoczy’s freshman teammates.
Army will be looking to snap its six-game losing streak. Since winning its season-opener against NJIT, Army has been outscored 11-0 in the six games that followed. Bryan Connolly leads the Black Knights’ attack. He has scored one goal and produced a team-high 10 shots. Goalkeeper Nick Alexander leads the Patriot League with 40 saves, an average of 5.71 saves per contest.
Navy owns a 35-27-13 advantage in the series, but Army has won the last three meetings between the rivals. It is Army’s longest winning streak in the series since the Black Knights won four straight from 1950-53. Navy is 22-9-4 at home against Army, and since Navy joined the Patriot League in 1991, the Mids are 7-2-1. The series has been played continuously since 1938. The teams placed twice in 1991, 1992 and 1996, as part of the Patriot League Tournament. The top three, and four of the top six attendance marks, at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility have come against Army, including a school-record 1,751 fans for the 2001 contest.
Set and Ready to Go
The milestone mark will come in the Bison’s 32nd season and it will be against a tough opponent as Army (12-3) will travel to Davis Gym for the 7 p.m. contest Friday. Bucknell (4-8) will host Holy Cross at 5 p.m. Saturday. Check out the complete schedule with links to video, audio and live stats.
The Black Knights have won five straight matches and have collected big wins over Iowa and then-No. 19 Pepperdine. Senior setter Maureen Bannon and freshman outside hitter Ariana Mankus have led Army all season, earning three weekly League awards.
Bannon, the three-time Player of the Week, leads the League in assists with 529. Her 9.62 per set average is second in the League. Mankus, the three-time Rookie of the Week, is averaging a League-best 3.55 kills per set.
Bucknell’s Ragin Jackson will be on the other side of the net looking to block Mankus. Jackson leads the League in blocks with 35 (0.88 per set).
Both Bucknell and Army will broadcast the match live on the Internet.
Navy (3-10) at Lehigh (7-7), 7 p.m.
It was rough seas early in the 2009 campaign for Lehigh, but it has been smooth sailing ever since as the Mountain Hawks have won six of their last eight matches.
Navy, which swept Lehigh with two 3-1 wins last season, will look to slow down the Mountain Hawks.
In order to do that, Navy will have to play strong along the net to limit Lehigh’s Angelika Kopacz, who is fifth in the League with 3.06 kills per set. She, too, started slow, but in Lehigh’s last five matches, she’s average 14.8 kills per match and 3.70 per set.
Assisting her on offense is setter Brittany Dickinson is sixth in the League with 7.15 per set.
Lehigh is 16th in the nation in service aces per set with 1.97. Kopacz and Jessica Kudirka are Nos. 2 and 3 in the League with .46 and .44 averages, respectively.
Navy has been led by Carolyn Ewert, who is eighth in the League in hitting percentage at .236.
American (5-7) at Lafayette (7-3), 7 p.m.
The Leopards opened the season on fire, winning seven of their first eight games, but after back-to-back losses at the College of Charleston Tournament, Lafayette will open the League slate with a match against the defending champs.
American, which has won the last eight League titles, started the season 0-5, but has since gone 4-2. The second win of the season was head coach Barry Goldberg’s 500th career win.
Overall, the Eagles are 109-3 in the Patriot League under Goldberg and they’ll look to continue their dominance Friday.
Lafayette, however, has played strong, led by Alana Taylor, Kayly Elmer, Cara Mulholland and Ashton Rossi.
Taylor, Mulholland and Elmer have combined for 294 kills and Rossi has 324 assists (9.26 per set), which is third in the League.
Lafayette also is ninth in the nation in service aces with 2.03 per set.
American has been led by Claire Recht, Angelina Waterman and Krysta Cicala.
Recht leads the League in hitting percentage (.318) and blocks per set (0.88), while Waterman is first in kills per set (3.60) and Cicala is first in assists per set (9.75).
Holy Cross (1-12) at Colgate (3-7), 7 p.m.
In the only League opener taking place outside of Pennsylvania, Holy Cross travels to Colgate to face the Raiders, who have one of the League’s top freshmen in Kaleigh Durket.
Durket is fifth in hitting percentage (.247) and third in kills per set with 3.24. She’s also fifth in service aces per set (.42) and ninth in digs per set (2.66).
Setting Durket up to succeed is the school’s all-time leader in assists, senior Meghan Fanta. She has 3,487 assists, which ranks 10th on the League’s all-time list.
Fanta has 245 assists this season and ranks seventh in the League with 6.45 per set.
Junior Chelsey O’Donnell leads the Crusaders in assists with 359 and is fifth in the League with 7.98 per set.
Ranked Opponents Highlight Football Saturday
To read the Patriot League preview release for the weekend, go here. As always, game notes, live stat, audio and video links are included in the preview, with the coverage links also available at the Patriot League composite schedule. We’ll have updates following both the afternoon and evening contests here at the blog, and score updates at the Patriot League Twitter page throughout the day. Go to www.patriotleague.org at the end of the night for a full League recap as well as institutional recaps and box scores from all of the games.
With two ranked oppponents on the schedule, the Patriot League is receiving its fair share of attention from national outlets going into the weekend. Chuck Burton, a good friend and reporter for the League and all of the Football Championship Subdivision, selects No. 23 Holy Cross hosting No. 25 Harvard as the FCS game of the week in his College Sporting News article. The contest in Worcester is the only matchup between ranked opponents on the FCS schedule this weekend. However, Chuck does pick the Crusaders to go down, 34-31, and also thinks Lafyette and Fordham will lose at home. Guess we’ll have to prove him wrong! The predictions by Brett Kahn of The Sports Network are more to our liking: he thinks Holy Cross and Lafayette will both win at home. Interestingly enough, he has the Crusaders winning by the 34-31 final.
Lafayette beat then-No. 14 Liberty last season for the Patriot League’s first win over a non-League ranked opponent since 2005, so getting two such victories would obviously be huge this week. Along with the ranked games, the matchups with the Ivy League highlight the schedule. In addition to Holy Cross’ matchup with Harvard, Fordham hosts Columbia, Georgetown hosts Yale, Bucknell goes to Cornell and Colgate visits Dartmouth. Patriot League teams have gone 9-9 each of the last two seasons against the Ancient Eight, so this series between like-minded conferences bears watching again.
As always, enjoy the games and come here to the blog and the other Patriot League media outlets for wall-to-wall coverage throughout the weekend. And since every game is a non-League affair, we can really say “Go Patriot League!” for the entire weekend!
Catching Up, Looking Forward in Patriot League Football
* – Nice day in non-League games for the Patriot League on Saturday. Colgate, Bucknell and Holy Cross all scored home victories to give the Patriot League a 3-1 record, with the only loss by Lehigh at No. 3 Villanova. Especially impressive win by the Raiders, who knocked off a Stony Brook team that is expected to contend for the Big South title despite running back Nate Eachus sitting out the game due to injury.
* – There are some really, really good quarterbacks in the Patriot League. More than some, how about five or six really good quarterbacks. We all know about Dominic Randolph, who is now tracking FCS records after breaking just about every League mark. Fordham’s John Skelton is probably going to finish his career in the top five in League history in most passing categories, and already owns a League title and All-League spot. Lehigh’s J.B. Clark has the big arm to put up major numbers for the Mountain Hawks despite a slow start to the 2009 season, and excelled in the 2008 campaign for the Mountain Hawks. Colgate’s Greg Sullivan and Lafayette’s Rob Curley might not have the monster statistics, but they are both proven winners and give their run first, dominate on defense teams exactly what they want. Sullivan has led Colgate to 10 straight regular-season wins, and is an amazing 11-2 as a starter. He will likely go down as one of the top dual threat quarterbacks in League annals, and is already over 1,000 rushing yards for his career. Curley has led Lafayette to a 10-3 record as a starter, and just put up a career-high 259 passing yards and three touchdowns in Saturday’s 28-3 win over Georgetown. Bucknell’s Marcello Trigg has plenty of talent as well, while Georgetown searches for the next big Patriot League quarterback among a group of freshman and sophomores.
* – The League schedule has pretty much played out as expected, with Holy Cross and Lafayette each notching a victory over Georgetown. No League games this week, but the first “swing” game in the standings comes next Saturday as the last two Patriot League champions match up when Fordham visits Colgate.
* – This weekend’s games present a great opportunity for two Patriot League teams. No. 23 Holy Cross plays host to No. 25/25 Harvard, while Lafayette hosts No. 24 Liberty. Lafayette’s victory over then No. 14 Liberty last season was the first win for a Patriot League team against a non-League ranked opponent since 2005. It’s also been that long since the League recorded two victories against ranked teams in a season, but there’s certainly an opportunity on Saturday, especially with both teams playing at home.
Signing off for now…..still trying to recover from last night’s Bills game. Only they could lose a game like that!
Patriot League Media Relations Director Matt Dougherty
Some Final Football Pre-game Thoughts
Some very interesting storylines in the first week. The biggest of course comes in Worcester, where a “championship” game, as our head coaches like to say, will be played in the first week. The pressure is on Holy Cross in this one playing at home as the preseason favorite, as the Crusaders have come agonizingly close to the PL title in each of the last three years. Holy Cross QB Dominic Randolph enters his final season, and presents another great storyline. He is just 80yards away from the PL total offense record, and 140 from the passing yardage mark. He is also two TDs away from the TDs responsible for mark. He would add all three marks to his passing completions and touchdowns records, and has a chance to shatter all career PL passing marks by the time he is done.
There is plenty of intrigue in all of the non-League games as well, as all four Patriot League teams have winnable, yet also tough, games. The three matchups with the Northeast Conference teams are especially intriguing, as the matchups each pit teams that finished in the same position in their respective preseason conference polls. Monmouth and Colgate were both second, Lehigh and CCSU were third, and Bucknell and Duquesne were sixth. It will give a good gauge for where each team is at in the early going.
Come back here for a full update after the three afternoon games, and visit the Patriot League Twitter Page for in-game updates throughout the day and night. Also, take a look at the post below and the Patriot League Composite Schedule for audio, video and live stat links to all of the action.
Now let’s go win some games!
