ETSU's women's team beat Lipscomb 2-0 last night. They've got the stingiest defense in the A-Sun: 0.56 goals allowed per game. Men play UNC-Asheville tonight.
ETSU bumped off UNC-Asheville tonight in another overtime tilt, again by a 2-1 score and again with Schoenfeld getting the game-winner. Box Score BBBE Recap
The A-Sun seems to have improved this year with FGCU having wins against ranked schools Ohio State and South Florida as well as the improvement of ETSU. The league has often had criticism but things look to be getting better with Stetson, Campbell and Mercer all having solid seasons..
Bucs lost both games on the Florida peninsula this weekend, dropping a 0-2 result to Stetson and a 0-5 result to Florida Gulf Coast, leaving six precious points on the table.
Bucs knock off the Jacksonville Van Bommels on a Gui Reis penalty, then picked up three more points against North Florida today with Colin Pugh scoring the difference-maker in the 1-0 win. As things stand, they're third in the conference table, but are effectively second since Florida Gulf Coast is still ineligible for the conference tournament.
Bucs pick up 6 more points on the Nashville swing to put them in second place outright for the time being, meaning they would host the conference tournament (since FGCU is ineligible for it).
I am interested to see how ETSU performs tomorrow with the Tar Heels. They are in a good position with the RPI at 40 but how good are they really considering the weakness of some of the teams in the A-Sun conference. Carolina is still winning despite missing several key players...interesting game to keep an eye on.
Well, that was tough to watch. Martinez was quiet most of the night and I kept wondering when he would pop up and burn us... lo and behold. On the flip side, Stetson drew with Jacksonville today, so we're hosting the conference tournament.
Theo Yang scored with just 7.2 seconds left in the second overtime to give ETSU a 1-0 win over Lipscomb and send them to their first-ever Atlantic Sun Championship final! Naturally, they'll play Stetson, the one team they've never beaten before...
Bucs get an overtime tally from Itode Fubara to beat the Hatters for the first time ever and claim the first conference title in program history. Named to the All-Tournament Team: Aaron Schoenfeld, Junior, Striker Guilherme "Gui" Reis, Senior, Center back (Captain) Ronnie Hreha, Sophomore, Goalkeeper Theo Yang, Junior, Winger/Striker David Geno, Freshman, Striker Itode Fubara, Freshman, Winger (Tournament MVP) That adds to the accolades the team pulled in the regular season, where Schoenfeld, Reis, and Fubara were named first-team all-conference, Geno and Blaike Woodruff were named all-freshman, Fubara was named freshman of the year, and Calabrese was named coach of the year. So now, I pose this question to those more familiar with the wider landscape of collegiate soccer and the selection process... any idea who we'll be playing?
Bucs played their first spring home game Wednesday night, beating Tusculum 4-0. Recap here (bottom of the post).
Thanks for the write up on the game. For your info Klien, Dykes and matlock were all redshirted in the fall.
Scott's done a really good job of starting this program from scratch. The first season was somewhat tough to watch. The team played basically long ball and was obviously not quite up to par. The 2nd season was a drastic improvement. They were playing good football and winning games. This 3rd season has been the best so far, and I only expect more improvement from the team. The Women's side should be a bit better for me since they are getting a new coach. The old coach for the Lady Bucs did very little good for the program from what I could tell. She seemed only interested in playing girls who were big, strong, and fast. She could care less about technique. Some of her better players sat the bench for this reason. I'm hoping the new coach will be an improvement, so they can begin to rise up the ranks along with the men's team.
Sayers wasted no time in making his mark on the program, recruiting a pair of Welsh U19 internationals in Jasmin Dutton and Ellis Parsons. Hopefully, the mass sub tactics that Henson used won't be continued under Sayers, and the cream will rise to the top and get more extensive playing time. I'm kind of eager to see what a Kerns/White partnership could do up top in a standard 4-4-2 when given a longer leash. Calabrese announced the 2011 schedule today, and it was worth the wait: 8/14 - #37 Virginia (EX) 8/27 - Presbyterian 8/31 - at #50 UNC Greensboro 9/04 - at #76 Marshall 9/09 - at #29 Old Dominion 9/17 - Davidson 9/20 - Virginia Tech 9/23 - at Winthrop 9/25 - Furman 9/29 - at Belmont* (The release says this is a road game, which surprises me since we played them there last year.) 10/02 - #85 Lipscomb* 10/07 - at North Florida* 10/09 - at Jacksonville* 10/11 - at #11 William & Mary 10/14 - #79 Stetson* 10/16 - #34 Florida Gulf Coast* 10/22 - at #94 Mercer* 10/24 - #98 Clemson 10/29 - USC Upstate* 11/01 - #72 Appalachian State (RPI numbers are finals from 2010; * denotes conference game) The gauntlet has been laid. Lots of good programs on that list, to say nothing of the fact that we scheduled a pair of home games against ACC schools.
conference format has changed with the departure of Campbell and thats why they will play Belmont away again...Interested in seeing the signing class especially considering they only lost one senior...
Gah, forgot about Campbell. They did only lose one player, but Gui was the backbone of the defense. He's going to be tough to replace. Hopefully Westbrook can step up and replace his presence on the back line, and ETSU can get someone who will provide another steady presence alongside him. And really, with all the offensive talent this team has, plus a very good keeper in Hreha, solid is all ETSU needs.
Bucs announce recruiting class for 2011. I think it was worth the wait: Calabrese pulled a kid from Cardiff City's academy and two guys from the number one high school in the country.
The Bucs played Virginia over the weekend in what essentially amounted to a 2-2 draw over 110 minutes (the game was delayed in the 36th minute by a frog-strangler of a rainstorm), the Bucs officially came away with a 1-0 loss in exhibition play. They open their season against Presbyterian in 11 days, and the ladies host their home opener against Tennessee Tech in 10 days. Freshman Ellis Parsons already got called up to the Wales U19 team for a pair of friendlies against Belgium this week. We've also got Jasmin Dutton, who has been capped by the Welsh senior team (14 times, 4 goals). A round of UEFA WU-19 qualifying (for which both should be eligible to play) is right in the middle of the season (Sept. 17-22), and we open our conference schedule the day after it ends. Could be interesting to see how that plays out.
Both teams opened their home slates this weekend. The women lost 2-1 to Tech, and the men beat Presbyterian 3-0. To be quite honest, the two teams couldn't be farther apart: the men play the beautiful game, and the women play a much more conservative, defense-first style, and the men are clearly the more talented group. Frankly, if the women keep playing like they did on Friday, they'll be lucky to win 5 games this year. Jenna Caudle was as-advertised, though. She looked like a world-beater on the ball. For the men... jeez, where to start. I guess tempering expectations considering who they were playing (PC has won 11 games since going D1 in 2007), but still, they looked absolutely class in the second half. As expected, Schoenfeld got marked, held, and everything else the defense could think of, and, as expected, he scored anyway. Theo Yang looked like he had done a lot of work in Knoxville over the summer. I don't think he made a bad read once, and even if he did, the pass was excellent. David Geno was buzzing all over the Presbyterian defense in the second half and finally hit pay dirt with about four minutes to go. Only a couple of the new guys played extensively last night, Simon Schroettle in central defense and Frank Doumbe on the wing. Doumbe has a ridiculous blonde mohawk, but he earned the right to keep it last night. He was clear and away the man of the match for me. His speed gave PC fits and it seemed like he factored into every attack. He played both flanks and looked strong on both sides. Ryan Coulter go the start in goal over Ronnie Hreha, and from what I understood had knitted a nice scarf by the end of the game. He didn't really have anything else to do. Blaike Woodruff checked out after about ten minutes and did not return. I saw him after the game and he didn't appear to be to badly hurt. Nick Dykes took his spot at right back, and I thought he looked fine. Last year's captain Gui Reis was introduced as an assistant at the game last night, which I guess shouldn't be a huge shock, because he has a great understanding of the defensive side of the game. The defense looked a little shaky at first, but held together and totally locked Presbyterian down in the second half. They never really put up much of a fight, though. They got themselves a win to start off the year and got their feet under them, now comes the real work: at UNCG, at Marshall, then off to Norfolk to play William & Mary and ODU. It's going to be a great gague of this team's ability.