Rearview: Taking Shape

Photo by Anna Scipione

By: E.J. Freeman | MCLA.us      

ATLANTA-  Our first weekend with an official poll had an interesting schedule, many teams that were active in the first few weeks of the season were idle this week, while many teams that started a little later got going in earnest.  The weekend provided plenty of upheaval.

On Friday night top-10 Georgia and Florida State both lost to unranked teams in Florida and Auburn respectively.  On Saturday top-10 UC-Santa Barbara found themselves down big against Cal before staging a furious comeback to win 17-16.

After the win against Florida State, Auburn will now face a murderous row of opponents in South Carolina followed by week off and then BYU, Tennessee, and Liberty in succession.  Auburn looked shaky in their opening weekend, but has proved to be a resilient bunch and has found their way.  They have a strong faceoff unit, an athletic offensive group, and a stingy defense which will make them a tough team to beat going forward.  This run of top ten teams will tell us an awful lot about the Tigers.

In Division II, 15th ranked Wake Forest hosted 12th ranked North Florida in the second game of the day for the Demon Deacons and Wake Forest got the win 19-14.  Wake Forest seems to have found their stride following a close early season loss to Georgia Southern.  The Ospreys are scoring a lot of goals, but will need to string together more stops on defense if they want to make noise late in the season.

South Carolina made a swing through Virginia and dispatched the Hokies 13-6 on Friday before falling 11-8 to Liberty on Saturday evening.  An impressive win for the Flames to be sure.  Playing a rested top-10 team the day after you played is never easy, but if you schedule the game you do not get to complain about a rest advantage.

Colorado and Colorado State made the trip to the Lone Star State.  Both took their lumps and were summarily defeated on Friday by Texas Christian and Texas respectively.  On Sunday, they swapped opponents and both lost again.   The Buffaloes lost by six against the Horned Frogs and seven against the Longhorns while the Rams lost by six against the Longhorns before falling by one against the Horned Frogs.  TCU was up by four goals in the fourth quarter before the Rams came back to tie the game.  The Horned Frogs were impressive in their ability to steady themselves and score the game winner rather than letting the Rams’ momentum push them to the win.  The Buffaloes and Rams have some work to do before the RMLC slate begins.

At the top of Division II St. Thomas continues to overwhelm opponents.  The Tommies faced #4 Montana State and took an 11-2 lead at halftime en route to a 17-10 win.  The seven-goal margin is the closest anyone has gotten to the Tommies so far this season, which is remarkable considering the Tommies’ schedule.  The stats do not jump off the page, the Tommies are just rock solid all over the field and are ruthless about making opponents pay for mistakes.

One usual Division II contender that is absent from the poll is Grand Valley State.  The Lakers opened the season with a win over Buffalo on February 21, but then went back into hibernation and do not play their second game until March 19 against Michigan State.  Two days later they will play their third game and finally become poll eligible.  It may be April before we really know much about the Lakers, but it is a safe bet that they’ll be a dangerous team.

Our top two teams in Division I coasted to victories this weekend and will likely continue the Beehive State hold on the top of the poll.  Oregon caught attention with their scorelines early in the season, but BYU took an 11-4 lead at halftime en route to their 19-9 win.  Utah Valley cruised again, sending Oregon State back to their dams to lick their wounds.  Jake Lundin is winning 87-percent (yes 87) of his faceoffs. The Wolverines are simply too good offensively for their opponents to combat that kind of possession advantage.  Teams are going to have to figure out how to be competitive at the dot against the Wolverines if they want a shot at taking down the top team.

On Friday, I asked how the somewhat untested Yotes from College of Idaho would fare against a Denver team who is better than their record.  The Yotes it seems were not amused as they  defeated the Pioneers 13-3. 

The Bison from North Dakota State took a weekend split defeating St. John’s 19-5 and falling to Montana State 16-11.  The Bison will be off for a couple weeks before playing Montana, St. Thomas, Florida Atlantic, and Grand Valley State in succession.  We will know a lot about the Bison by the end of that stretch.

We are still in the early portion of the season as the calendar just flipped to March, but teams that want to make turn arounds cannot waste much more time.  Conference and division races are beginning to take shape and if you wait much longer to start digging your way out of an early season hole it will likely be too late.  So, grab your shovel or be prepared to watch the postseason from your couch.

Picker Results

Thanks to Ryan Kerr for stepping into the hot seat this week. Ryan went 5-0 and Florida Atlantic broke the guest picker jinx by beating UNC-Charlotte!  We have a new leader.

Guest Picker Leaderboard:

Ryan Kerr 5-0

Dylan Hess, Tim Haslam 4–1

Chris Marshall 3-2

J.J. Arminio 2–3

Fan Vote Upset of the Week

The fans had high expectations for the Colorado’s swing through Texas.  70% of the voters picked the Buffaloes to beat the Longhorns in their bovine battle.  The Longhorns won 13-6 and earned the Fan Vote Upset of the Week.

Quick Sticks

Congratulations to Santa Clara head coach Manny Rapkin for earning his 100th MCLA win over the weekend.

Alabama traveled to Indiana and got  wins over both Purdue and Indiana.  The Tide look to be much improved this season.

Northeastern continued their tradition of enduring travel hiccups, but won both of their games.  They went down 7-0 against Florida before coming back to win and defeated Central Florida 12-8.

After their loss to Brigham Young, Oregon played Utah and the Utes pulled the upset winning 12-11.

Following up Friday’s story on Nick Miller and his return, Nick got in the game Sunday and the Sun Devils won 13-6 against Southern California. 

South Florida traveled to Kennesaw State and got a win over the Owls a nice cross-region SELC win for the Bulls.

Drury got off to a good start, but ran into a hot Arkansas team this weekend and lost 18-10. 

Tampa continued their early season run and remained undefeated with a sweep of Rice and Tulane in New Orleans.

As always, head coaches send your Warrior Player of the Week and PEARL Goalie of the week nominations to info@mcla.us by noon local time on Monday.

Send February Player of the Month nominations as well.