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Post by belfieldhappyhour on Aug 20, 2023 16:45:55 GMT -5
Congrats to Coach Royal for picking up his 200th victory
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Post by roaddog77 on Aug 21, 2023 22:14:32 GMT -5
Congratulation on your 200 win Coach Royal. Great win.
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Post by La Salle 08 on Aug 31, 2023 13:26:10 GMT -5
This is random but I just saw that the field hockey team is playing their home games in Conshohocken. Soccer teams are still playing at McCarthey. Any idea why FH isn't playing on the old baseball field?
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Post by hykos1045 on Sept 1, 2023 8:00:48 GMT -5
Was pleased to see Ricshya's (Walker) two goals, the first scores of her career, in a 3-1 win over The Hall last night. The goals were posted on Twitter X. From the video, it is apparent that our supporter section continues to grow in volume and number, which is fun to see. Glad she had a breakout game. The future should be bright with this team.
The men's side are unbeaten thus far and visit Manhattan tonight.
I have not seen an announcement regarding the Devincent field situation. I only know Villanova uses the Conshohocken fields as well, so surely they are adequate. Last time I was on our campus was July and there was a high school age tournament being hosted there. That's almost surely not the reason the field is not available, but I wonder how there could be maintenance issues since the turf was just reinstalled in 2019. If anyone has insights, please share.
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Post by hykos1045 on Sept 28, 2023 23:56:11 GMT -5
Sophomore forward Justyce Hollenbach scores her 6th career goal, and second in as many matches, in the Explorers' third straight shutout win. It's their first three game shutout streak since 2/28/21 and first in A10 play since 10/5/17. They're gelling nicely.
The good and the not so good:
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Post by sweat83 on Oct 11, 2023 8:15:57 GMT -5
5 Shutouts in a row. Pretty impressive. Peaking at the right time.
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louth
Mop-Up Time
Posts: 115
Likes: 284
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Post by louth on Oct 11, 2023 10:35:36 GMT -5
Congratulations on this success! Where oh where is athletics marketing this team? Agree with Hyksos about bringing back party atmosphere at these games. New AD, hello anybody home?
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Post by diehardexplorer on Oct 23, 2023 8:45:19 GMT -5
women's soccer ends the season on a 9 game unbeaten streak. clinched the two seed in the a10 tournament. congrats to coach royal, his staff and the team.
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Post by hykos1045 on Oct 23, 2023 13:06:33 GMT -5
Alright, for the uninitated, it's the time of year I like to lay out the team's schedule and hope not to jinx them.
First up is Rhode Island this Friday at 7pm. They're on the upswing this second half of the season, led by a strong defense but they don't score a ton. I don't think goals will be easy to come by, particularly if they park the bus like they did in scoreless shutouts of UCSD, VCU and St Joe's this season. Coach Royal and the stalwart Explorers should be able to put them away at home, but whoever scores first could dictate the tempo. Prediction: 1-0 Explorers
As the 2 seed, La Salle would host a second round game no matter what happens in St Louis this weekend. They reseed the field, so if 2 beats 7, they would play either the 3,4, 5, or 6th seed in the second round, depending on who else advances. The final is also at the highest remaining seed, so that means it defaults to St Louis, and if St Louis gets eliminated, the A10 final could be in Philadelphia. Getting ahead of myself, but it sure is fun to prognosticate...
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Post by hykos1045 on Oct 23, 2023 16:44:00 GMT -5
Pack the Mac is back, Jack. Tell a friend. Attachments:
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Post by roaddog77 on Oct 25, 2023 18:48:05 GMT -5
Congratulations to the women’s soccer team on a great season. Let win this A10 tournament. Let go baby.
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Post by hykos1045 on Oct 28, 2023 12:44:40 GMT -5
#2 La Salle advances to semifinal round. Will play #3 Dayton at home. There was no regular season match-up for the last two seasons, but La Salle dropped a 3-0 decision out at Dayton in 2021. Prior to all this, the Explorer program ran off the last 7 straight HOME victories at McCarthy Stadium in the series vs. Dayton, including A10 tournament victories in 2017 and 2019, plus five regular season HOME wins in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, & 2019. (Heretofore you may reference that era as "Paul Royal's decade of dominance over Dayton.")
Dayton is unbeaten in A10 play this year but has squandered points with some ties, earning them the THREE seed at 7-0-3 in conference, and 13-1-5 overall. The Explorers are 8-1-1 in conference, and 11-5-3 overall. Dayton's strength in the RPI category is much more pronounced than their difference in records. The Flyers are entering postseason play as a #57, whereas La Salle came into the A10 Tournament at #134. Thus, Dayton will be favored in the match, but hopefully La Salle playing in the comforts of home with good momentum, with senior-laden talent will be the difference maker on Wednesday.
Last, but certainly not least, MAJOR KUDOS to the Atlantic 10 for abandoning its so-called "neutral site" tournaments after a failed experiment with them. The 2014 match which sent the top seed and undefeated Explorers to #2 Dayton, where ultimately the Explorers would lose on a late Flyers rally, was considered by many to be a criminal offense. But fortunately, the league heeded coaches' concerns about this, and sent the tournament after that to Davidson in 2015 (a true neutral location) and then allowed St. Louis to host the championship if they earned the top bid as opposed to automatically granting them the favor of hosting. It's worked incredibly well, even by my standard. The matches seem to have become much more competitive too because of the extra rest days built in between travel and matches. The 3 matches in 4 days format had to go! The league has learned much from its earlier mistakes.
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Post by roaddog77 on Oct 28, 2023 21:36:30 GMT -5
Two more win to win the A10 women’s soccer tournament and qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Let get it baby.
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Post by hykos1045 on Oct 31, 2023 6:21:40 GMT -5
Two more win to win the A10 women’s soccer tournament and qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Let get it baby. The #2 La Salle vs. #3 Dayton Game is on Wednesday at 7pm. Although La Salle men's soccer was once a 2 seed, and La Salle women have been as high as the 1 seed, this is nevertheless the first time that an A10 semifinal has been hosted on La Salle's campus! (The rule that rewards teams for regular season placement with rights to host all playoff rounds had not yet been in effect back in 2017.) La Salle's 10-game unbeaten streak is on the line, as well as a 7-0 stretch at home against this Dayton opponent ever since Renee Washington "reversed the curse" and hit this game winner. In 2023, the squad hasn't lost since their trip to St Louis, all the way back at the first match of the regular season. The winner of this semifinal match travels TO St Louis to face the winner of Saint Louis vs. Duquesne! |
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Post by blueandgold on Nov 1, 2023 20:50:18 GMT -5
Watched last few minutes. La Salle advances! Go Explorers!
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Post by hykos1045 on Nov 2, 2023 5:11:32 GMT -5
Watched last few minutes. La Salle advances! Go Explorers! Rewind to 96:41 on the clock (3:19 min left in first OT) for Gschrey's breakthru goal! No more sudden death in NCAA which is fine, but it just means La Salle had to defend that lead for 13 extra min to avoid tiebreaker PK's. They did survive and it was grand! Kudos to this team, they really never quit on themselves but seemingly got a little stronger as the season wore on and night wore on. And Dayton started strong but faded a bit, then got furiously attacking at the end. Memories of 2014 finals where they attacked and got the very late equalizer. but LSU had the strongest keeper in the end, with 12+ saves to Dayton's one, LSU survived the onslaught!! In addition to Aguadro's clean sheet, La Salle's defender Courtney Gaston cleared a would-be scoring ball off the back line to preserve the shutout. They'll go to one more game. Dayton will miss an at large bid by a shred because they're like a 66 RPI. and they probably only needed 2 or 3 more wins to perhaps lock up a bid. Their year ends 13-2-5. La Salle is in rare company. Even SLU tied them in St Louis. Don't even see any other losses on Dayton's schedule since SEPTEMBER 7 against IUPUI! SLU has an 11 to 14 national ranking, and the at large locked up, but is jockeying here for their 6th straight cup, and playing for a 3 seed in NCAA. La Salle is playing with house money, for respectability will hopefully keep it closer than last meeting, won 4-0 by the Billiken hosts. Paul Royal now has 8 wins in a row at McCarthy over Dayton since the famous Renee OT goal in 2011 ('11, '13, '15, '17, '17, '19,'19, '23). Each one gets successively sweeter for me. I don't know how Dayton couldn't scrounge up even one goal in 110' on 19 shots, but that's been their struggle all season, having been previously shut out by Fordham and St Bonaventure. Dayton has several 5th year seniors departing and will be in rebuilding mode. And La Salle is also very heavy on veteran leadership with as many as 7 or 8 letterwinners graduating, though the freshman and sophs have also stepped up huge and will be key pieces in the rebuild. Congratulations to the Explorers on a terrific season and good luck in all future endeavors. |
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Post by sweat83 on Nov 2, 2023 9:24:34 GMT -5
Great job by the WSOC!
But ANY goal in OT should be walk off. Why bother with the remaining 4 minutes, let alone an ADDITIONAL 10 minutes in 2OT??? Makes no sense at all.
And while we're at it...get rid of the offsides rule. I see no purpose in it, many times its too close to call. So why have it? It may even generate more scoring and more excitement. At least experiment with it for a year and see what results from it.
Just my 2 cents...
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Post by blueandgold on Nov 2, 2023 10:46:10 GMT -5
I did see one player (maybe two?) get carried off field those last few minutes but I was on mute. Any word? Hope nothing serious but being carried obviously concerning. Good luck to the team in the championship!
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Nov 2, 2023 10:46:50 GMT -5
Was it just soccer stuff?
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MisterD
The Baptist Himself
Voted Most Popular Poster 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023
Posts: 8,527
Likes: 6,407
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Post by MisterD on Nov 2, 2023 10:54:53 GMT -5
Yeah, sometimes the ref will read the situation and mandate anyone down either get up or get shuttled off quickly to discourage the time manipulation.
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Post by belfieldhappyhour on Nov 2, 2023 17:11:02 GMT -5
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Post by roaddog77 on Nov 3, 2023 10:49:04 GMT -5
Congratulations to Coach Royal on winning the A10 coach of the year and the 4 women that made A10 second team and rookies of the year. One more win for the big dance in women soccer. Let go baby.
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Post by 23won on Nov 6, 2023 17:32:39 GMT -5
Congrats on a fantastic season. Much to be proud of!
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Post by hykos1045 on Nov 16, 2023 15:16:44 GMT -5
I did see one player (maybe two?) get carried off field those last few minutes but I was on mute. Any word? Hope nothing serious but being carried obviously concerning. Good luck to the team in the championship! The individual who was limping off the field in the win over Dayton, I believe was Senior defender, C. Gaston (Absegami HS, NJ). Fortunately, it looked like this may have been effects of playing on a rather cold night for 110 minutes of high intensity soccer on turf. The defense really worked HARD to keep Dayton at bay. I didn't see whether there had been a collision but it looked like pretty soon afterward she was able to walk it off, and fortunately, she did start in the Championship game at STL. I also love to point out, as I have on the other socials, that this was Paul's 8th consecutive home win over Dayton, including THREE playoff matches, all dating back to the now infamous 2011 game in which Renee Washington struck paydirt with her long distance, gamewinning golazo. Having lost the top Explorer striker to the transfer portal (McGroarty -> Iowa) La Salle had been unproven this year, picked 8th by the coaches, and as low as 14th out of 15 by prominent NCAA WSoccer tweeter/blogger Chris Henderson and 10th by @a10ws. They got beat up a bit in the non-con, including a lopsided loss at Princeton early. As the season wore on, the team really started to believe in themselves and rallied around each other. Here are my observations from the championship game. The team just played a valiant effort in Saint Louis against incredible odds, they put forth a tremendous effort to keep shots close (11 To 6) but the penalties really killed our momentum at key intervals of the match. The only two losses this A10 season were bookends in St Louis, by scores of 4-0 and 3-0. La Salle played two great halves out of the four periods in those games, but could not find the back of the net against the consensus #15 team in the country. Neither could most of the league! SLU outscored its conf. opponents by 10-0 in the A10 tournament plus 32-1 in the regular season, with the lone goal given up being against Dayton at home. They only gave up 9 goals in their brutal non-conf schedule, as well. That's an all-time conference record for Goals Against defense! |
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Post by La Salle 08 on Nov 17, 2023 11:38:38 GMT -5
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Post by hykos1045 on Nov 20, 2023 15:47:48 GMT -5
Great job by the WSOC! But ANY goal in OT should be walk off. Why bother with the remaining 4 minutes, let alone an ADDITIONAL 10 minutes in 2OT??? Makes no sense at all. And while we're at it...get rid of the offsides rule. I see no purpose in it, many times its too close to call. So why have it? It may even generate more scoring and more excitement. At least experiment with it for a year and see what results from it. Just my 2 cents... The new overtime rules are fine. The walk-off stuff was always exhilarating... but it wasn't real soccer. Ex-La Salle striker Kelli McGroarty scored the game winner over Penn State in a 1-0 Big Ten Tournament upset. The same Penn State team jockeyed with Atlantic-10 autobid winner Saint Louis yesterday, and SLU lost 4-3 in overtime. |
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Post by explorerman on Jan 25, 2024 9:12:34 GMT -5
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