Friday against Oregon State on a neutral site will be huge for Jerry. Should be a good indication where he has the program now after 25 years following a very rough 7 seasons. Can't wait!
Don't get too excited - it's the fourth game of the season. Lots of work still to be done after this game no matter what the result is. Playing either Oregon State or UofO in the state of Oregon is not what I would call a neutral field.
All White Kit does their WCC analysis. They pick BYU to come out on top, Portland 2nd and Santa Clara 3rd. http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=7572#more-7572
I was really impressed with the 1-1 outcome. Hopefully we will be graced with a "Rocky Co Report" every week as we move into the season.
Portland is misfiring, just lost three in a row by a combined score of 5-0. And watch out for Pepperdine ...
AWK is smoking some good stuff. BYU lucky to come in top 3. My pick is San Diego, then Santa Clara, then LMU or Pepp. Should be a great WCC year. It is wide open for the first time in years.
The recurring annual question is why can't SCU put the ball in the net? This has been an issue for years now. IMHO, Jerry needs to recruit healthy girls with a nose for goals. Even the better GKs in the nation can't cover forever over a full season.
Two games in Oregon, one goal. Sounds like Colorado, I feel right at home watching the Broncos play (I'll be in Salinas the day before, see y'all at the St. Mary's game). But is it the recruiting? Could be I suppose, but that would mean that of all the talented soccer players that have come to the program, and you have had a lot of them, none of them know how to score goals. Seems unlikely. My guess is that the TEAM doesn't know how to score, or doesn't know how to regularly create enough situations that can lead to goals. This would indicate that none of the coaching staff are goal scoring gurus. Possible solution? Hire an assistant that is.
Why the H doesn't the Santa Clara video link for the Notre Dame match not connect. Came home during my work break to try and record but can't get connected
Scoring goals is one of the hardest things in soccer. Poor Jerry, he sure knew how to coach goal scorers back when they scored 108 goals in 1999 with Mandy Clemens and Jacquie Little leading the way. Must have forgotten what he was telling the troops back then. Santa Clara is going to have to work hard for every goal this year. They have played Huerta up top the last few games, and although she hasn't put one in yet she is definitely a threat. Against Oregon she kept shooting right at the keeper, she needs to make herself look good instead of the keepers. I think she will improve as the season progresses. The lineup will progress over the course of the season. Against Notre Dame they had Johnston in the back and she looks real good up there. They also moved Aozasa to defending mid and had Shim playing higher which I think is her best spot. Santa Clara is off their 29 goal pace of a year ago, but I think they will have to continue with goal-scoring by committee because they just don't have a dominant player up top. They have played some difficult teams lately. They should have beaten Oregon but the other three games were legitimate ties. Notre Dame had more opportunities but none were that dangerous except for the one they scored upon. UC Irvine has #23 in the back and she was a woman amongst girls. Oregon State was a very windy game and each team scored with the wind in regulation. Oregon State fouls quite a bit and one of their players dropped a huge f-bomb right near the sideline which went unpunished by the ref, who had only to look into the stands at all the drop-jawed nine-year-olds to confirm that he heard what he thought he heard. Stanford looms on the horizon, and they seem to have been playing well. Jerry will probably play them fairly straight up since SCU may see them again. However, he is proud of his undefeated status, so maybe he goes for broke.
A great weekend for the Broncos with two shutout wins over Wash St. and Cal. Wash. St. did not look that great, frankly. Henninger was credited with two saves which surprised me that there that many. We had a lot of good looks but their keeper did a nice job protecting the goal. Finally, late in the game, Julie Johnston tackled the ball away from a defender near the top of the box. She got back up, dribbled past a player or two and rocketed the ball into the goal for the winner. Cal was a tougher opponent. They may have been thrown off their game a bit when their bus didn't show up and they had to hitch-hike about an hour south down to Santa Clara. The Broncos got on the board very early when Johnston headed in a direct kick from Aozasa. Then 20 minutes later Huerta crossed in a ball that it looked like the keeper would get, but she just pushed it away to Katie Spiedel who thighed it home for her 1st goal of the season. Early in the 2nd half Johnston headed home a corner from Meleana Shim and it was 3 - 0. Cal had a couple of good looks but Henninger came up big and 3 - 0 was the final. One regretable thing that happened was Cal player Katie Benz was dribbling up the side and a Santa Clara defender slid in and kicked the ball out of bounds. But the momentum of the kick continued until it hit Benz and she suffered a broken leg apparently. No foul called. Johnston has I think permanently moved from the back line to a more offensive positon after scoring 3 of 4 SCU goals this weekend. We now have 14 goals at the halfway point, so last year's total of 29 may be achievable or exceedable. The back line of Klei, E. Rice, Kleiner and Laponte did a great job with limited time together previously.
Agreed - a great weekend for the Broncos! It was especially heartening to see them score early in the second half against Cal - since they had experienced some issues earlier in the season of losing focus in the second half and letting teams back into the match (thus all the ties on their record). I did feel like they lost a lot of focus after the injury to the Cal player, but probably understandable - not only because of the severity of the injury in general, but because it seemed like at least Aozasa knew the injured player fairly well (we were sitting in the first row right by where they brought the player to be attended by the paramedics who came and Aozasa came over and talked to the player's mother for a bit). It seemed like a fairly devastating injury and I would think it ends her senior season (sad), so if some of the players knew her, that may have played a part in the loss of focus (although Cal seemed to have renewed focus after the injury). But all in all, it felt like the team turned a corner and become more offensive-minded this weekend. I agree - I highly doubt that Johnston goes back on defense anytime soon. Her aggressiveness seems to be just what they need on the attack.
Julie Johnston is WCC player of the week. http://www.wccsports.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/092611aaa.html Bianca Henninger is Top Drawer Soccer player of the week. http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/coll...21771/Stanford-still-#1; Henninger named POTW
2 more shutout wins and, perhaps more noteworthy, 8 goals scored. Nevada Reno is one of those teams who you don't think they will present much of a problem and sometimes they do. Not this time. 4 minutes in Julie Johnston scored her 4th goal in 3 games. 5 minutes later Sophia Huerta was awarded a pk, which was described in the recap as a trip but looked in the stands to be the result of a shirt pull. Nevada was a very shirt-pully team. Meleana Shim buried the pk. Then, a minute later, Shim hit a shot from 25 yards out into the upper v and it was 3 - 0 with 80+ minutes to go. As he did in the previous win over Cal, Jerry did a lot of subbing in this game. Most of the starters didn't finish the 1st half, and many didn't play in the 2nd half. 23 players total entered the game for the Broncos. The scoring, however, was over after the 10th minute. Nevada actually was awarded a questionable pk in the 2nd half but bounced it off the post and failed to score. San Diego State promised to be a more difficult opponent after defeating Portland earlier in the season. But it took only 17 minutes for Santa Clara to get up 3 - 0 so it didn't seem that much more difficult. Cate Parchinski got her 2nd goal of the season on a nice header. Huerta finally hit a shot that wasn't right at the keeper and we were up 2 - 0. Then Shim tried to get on the scoreboard but the keeper blocked it, and Johnston put in the rebound to score for the 4th game in a row and 3 - 0. Their keeper remained down after the goal and the San Diego coach was all over the ref for letting San Diego kick off while the keeper was still down. One big difference for Santa Clara in the San Diego State game is that Jerry took an entirely different approach to subbing than he had in the two previous 3 - 0 wins against Cal and Nevada. Instead of playing 20+ players, he played only 15 players. My thought was that he was unhappy with the lack of production by the subs in the previous two games, and wanted to see if SCU could continue to score with the starters on the field. He may have also been getting the starters ready for league play, where the rotations will be tighter. Obviously playing the starters long minutes does increase the chance of injury, but Smith must have perceived there was enough benefit to overcome that risk. It paid off with two super goals from Huerta. The finish was essentially the same for both goals, a rocket shot from the right of the goal into the far side netting. Huerta's increased scoring confidence could be a big factor during upcoming league play. She garnered Santa Clara's 1st hat trick since Leslie Osborne in 2003. Bianca Henninger did not play in either game this weekend due to nagging injuries. Molly Mettler did well in her place and earned the two clean sheets. So Santa Clara in their last 4 games scored 12 goals to none against some decent teams (and Nevada). They look ready to contest for the WCC title. Henninger's injury status would appear to be the only major concern at this point.
My buddy at the game spoke with one of the SCU assistants who said Sunday was, along with cal, the best game they played. He said it wasn't a 5-0 game, as sdsu wasn't played off the field, but things are (finally) clicking right for the Broncos. The reason for the lack o subs was twofold: it's time to play your main people as wcc is here and in the second half sdsu was quite dangerous, and it would've been a blow to go up 3-0 and have a team get one or two back. Even with starters in, sdsu had the ball and the shots so they were reticent to make changes with wcc coming up. Pleased with teams development, ready for conference. Feel like they can win it. As a budding sdsu fan, he complemented my young team and was impressed with their play after a rough early first half. Which is classy to say even if he didnt believe it. just thought I'd share as it pertains to you all. It will be fun to see how the wcc shakes out this year. Interesting results all over the place.
Going into league play, we have the following: Pepperdine 8 - 0 - 4 St Marys 9 - 2 - 1 Santa Clara 7 - 1 - 2 Gonzaga 7 - 4 - 0 BYU 6 - 3 - 2 Loyola Marymount 6 - 4 - 1 Portland 5 - 5 - 1 San Diego 5 - 6 - 0 San Francisco 3 - 8 - 0 Pepperdine is undefeated, with their tie with UCLA being the most prominent game on the schedule. Other than UCLA they have victories over Cal, Michigan and Illinois. Recent ties against Fresno State and Cal Poly do not look good for the Waves. Anisa Guajardo leads them with 8 goals. They start out the season against San Diego at home then on the road v. BYU, and the later game could go a long way in determining how the Waves do in conference this year. St Marys most significant win was against UC Irvine on the road. They have lost to Texas Tech and then recently 6 - 0 to Long Beach State. That margin of defeat makes one wonder if the Gaels non-conference record is illusory. Jordon Marada leads the team with 7 goals. They play Santa Clara and then Portland in 2 of their 1st three conference games, and they need to get a result if they want to make any noise in the WCC. Santa Clara has been on a roll their last 4 games, outscoring opponents 12 - 0. Fluke, or has Jerry found the lineup he needs to do some damage in conference? 1st two games are against St Marys and BYU, both at home, and these early games should be enough to answer the fluke or not question. Julie Johnston leads the team with 7 goals. Bianca Henninger didn't play last weekend and her ability to get onto the pitch will be a big factor in the Broncos continued success. Gonzaga plays a weaker schedule and every time they have played a team with an RPI under 100 they have lost. The did have a nice recent win over Seattle who beat Portland and USF earlier in the season. Emma Dolcetti leads the team with 4 goals. BYU has not had a real significant win. They did tie Rice and only lost to 14 - 0 - 0 OK State by 2 - 1. They open with Portland and Pepperdine at home and then Santa Clara on the road. Their conference success or failure could be determined in those games. BYU's has three players with 3 goals each. Loyola Marymount enters conference play on a down note, having lost their last three games to UCLA, Cal St Northridge and UNLV. their conference play starts with USF, Gonzaga and St Marys but stiffens up quite a bit thereafter. Their leading scorer is Tawni Martino with 4 goals. Portland opened their season with a great win over Florida State but have been up and down since then. They have conceded 14 goals and only scored 10. Neither of those totals appear to bode well for success in conference. Danielle Foxhoven leads the team with 5 goals. They open on the road this Thursday against BYU, a huge game for both teams. San Diego plays a very tough non-conference schedule, but they have done that in years past and had more success than they are having this year. They have lost 5 of their last 6 games. Stephanie Ochs leads the team with 6 goals. The Torreros play Pepperdine and Portland 2 of their first 3 games and need some kind of result if they want to challenge for the league title. USF has a win over Kent State but otherwise their non conference season has been lackluster. Hard to see them doing much damage. Can't find stats on their web site so I don't know who their leading scorer is.
Sunday Barring disaster, I'll be at the game Sunday. Look for the old kind-of-fat guy in the Colorado soccer shirt (probably the only person there who fits that description), stop by and say Hi.
The St. Mary's game Copied to here from the Colorado Buffaloes thread: Quote: Originally Posted by SCUFANTASTIC Heh, if a Santa Clara Bronco game is available to you, you're in the right place! It was, I went, I enjoyed. Wonder how that goes in Latin. Hadn't seen the stadium since it became home for the Earthquakes. Many of the 2001 national championship team were there along with quite a few other former players. None from my class of 1968. I think soccer had been invented by then. I've seen SCU three times since 2009, all were won in the first overtime. The first was my conflict game, my adopted Buffaloes and my alma mater. The other two were St. Mary's. I'll post this here, then see if I can get it over to the Santa Clara thread. I enjoyed watching teams that advanced the ball on the ground (St. Mary's often, SCU just about all the time). Why didn't I get in line behind all the kids and get a signed poster ???
It was a frustrating, then exciting game. SH is on an amazing run - five goals in 2 games! Very impressive. The halftime ceremonies were fun, but it was disappointing that my daughter's coach from last year (Devvyn Hawkins) was missing from the festivities. But another coach from her club, Jessica Perkin, was there - so it was nice to see her honored.
A good win for SCU. St Marys came out strong in the first half and Santa Clara seemed a step behind. Jenny Laponte went out with an injury late in the half, status for the future unknown at this point. Then, early in the 2nd St Marys got a breakaway goal and the Broncos were down 1 - 0. Fortunately, Sophia Huerta stepped it up and got two nice goals. The first was a rocket from outside the box that appeared to beat the keeper high. On the 2nd, Huerta collected a weak goal kick and took the ball up into the box before firing an unstoppable bullet into the back netting. In the WCC, Pepperdine picked up a huge W at BYU on Saturday and are currently in the lead at 2 - 0. Santa Clara is also undefeated (1 - 0) and play BYU at home on Thursday. St Marys has the next best overall record but their tie against Gonzaga is going to hurt their chances to make the tournament. BYU took 1 in their tough opening weekend, they need a result against Santa Clara to get back into the WCC race. Traditional powers Portland and San Diego have losing records overall and in conference and need to go undefeated from hereon to have any chance of postseason play. LMU had a somewhat promising beginning torpedoed by a loss and tie v. USF and Gonzaga.
It's not that dire for either of those teams. Currently, Portland is at #50 in the ARPI rankings and San Diego is #60. Portland is helped a lot by its strength of schedule, which is #11 among all teams. San Diego is #23, if I recall correctly. (Santa Clara is around #35.) Both teams need to have at least 0.500 records to be considered for at large selections for the Tournament, if they don't win the conference, but at this point Portland almost certainly would not need to win all its remaining games to get a selection and it's highly likely San Diego wouldn't either. Interestingly, this year, the West Coast Conference will be helping a number of teams with their strengths of schedule and, in particular, will be helping Portland and San Diego (and San Francisco). This is because a number of the conference teams -- Pepperdine, Santa Clara, BYU, St. Mary's, and even Gonzaga -- have excellent to good non-conference records, with those records making up the main portion of the strength of schedule they contribute to the other WCC teams. In fact, the WCC teams presently are contributing more to their fellow WCC teams' strengths of schedule, on average, than the Pac 12 and Big East are contributing to theirs.