Patriot League 2020

[kramerica.inc]

And the plebes looked amazing in the fall.

[twb2020]

WOW! A lot of chatter in the Patriot League forum, I love it!!

First off, MR Brown will never fall off the wagon telling us how good Loyola will be. Their biggest fan by far!

Without Spencer, no one player in the Patriot League can carry an offense. The three titles for Loyola came with Spencer / Stover and a good defense. Last year they lost because their defense was not as good as in previous years, just too young.

Army, on the other hand, had a great defense and goalie, and it was their year to win. Their offense was good, not great, and they were beneficiary of that defense shouting down the other teams.

The team with the best defense will win the league title. So if you think a team can win, then take a look at there defense.

So I hate to say it, but that may have Loyola winning it again. I feel that they return the strongest defense corps. But that also has to coincide with a great goalie. We shall see!!

[youthathletics]

So I hate to say it, but that may have Loyola winning it again. I feel that they return the strongest defense corps. But that also has to coincide with a great goalie. We shall see!!

If that is the case. Navy is certainly in the mix.....they have some very strong, game experienced juniors and seniors, and have senior Kern in net with a great 1/2 of Rees. It will certainly be interesting to see where Orsen leads them after years of Wellner. Orsen, has the tendencay to be a bit more aggressive and extend his guys out there...but first must gain confidence that fits, I believe it does IF the guys stay focused on principle and not chase stick. I also believe the addition of Ross makes that much better....this upperclassman defense will be seeing offensive plays and movement(off/on-ball) unlike anything they have experienced in years' past.

They may take it on the chin a bit early on, which may be why the schedule is loaded with 5 scrimmages before wins and losses count.

[kramerica.inc]

Army to be among the Patriot League's top teams this year:
https://www.uslaxmagazine.com/college/m ... 0-army-men

[TheBigIguana]

Patriot League preseason polls and awards are out. Coaches have Loyola at the top on a tiebreaker over Army.

Lindley OPOY. I'd be surprised if he wins the award at the end but he is the best remaining player from last year. Unless his game is a good deal different, he probably won't get the numbers to win it without a big year from Olmstead.

McNulty DPOY. I think that's a fair choice.

Boston with no preseason all-PL players despite being picked 4th feels like it goes straight on the bulletin board. Lehigh picking up the most selections is interesting as well.

[NovaHound]

https://patriotleague.org/news/2020/1/1 ... lades.aspx

You'd think with all of the first team players selected from Lehigh they'd be the favorites to win it outright. That confused me, although I'm easily confused. I do think the Patriot is more balanced and competitive this year but not sure it will get two teams into the tournament. I hope they do.

[TheBigIguana]

https://patriotleague.org/news/2020/1/1 ... lades.aspx

You'd think with all of the first team players selected from Lehigh they'd be the favorites to win it outright. That confused me, although I'm easily confused. I do think the Patriot is more balanced and competitive this year but not sure it will get two teams into the tournament. I hope they do.

We will know if they have a shot at two tournament teams by the end of February. If no one gets big non conference wins it is a one bid league.

[Voyuer]

Now we know why BU had no pre-season all PL picks. They looked awful..yes as bad as Colgate. I felt bad for Mc Sorley in cage as the D looked confused often and the O very tepid. Both they and 'Gate have a lot of work to do, but it is early and they are both young teams. Bucknell looked decent but the quality of opponent was lacking. I did not see the HC game.

[oldbartman]

Lafayette could be the sleeper team this season. Yes PSU beat them. But no where near as bad as UNC over Colgate or UMD over High Point. I epected PSU to drop in at least 3 more on the Leopards. Hoe this is the season they right the ship.

[TheBigIguana]

Not a great start to the year for the PL this weekend. At least HC managed to win the game even if it was not a particularly impressive score given the opponent.

[Peter Brown]

Not a great start to the year for the PL this weekend. At least HC managed to win the game even if it was not a particularly impressive score given the opponent.

Relax, Iguana.

Lafayette is our worst team. BU got emasculated by Gray leaving; give them a few games to find their mojo again. Gate probably hadn’t been outside all year, plus new coach. Bucknell took care of biz against a good team.

Loyola will win the Natty this year anyway.

[laxpere]

Not a great start to the year for the PL this weekend. At least HC managed to win the game even if it was not a particularly impressive score given the opponent.

Holy Cross won a squeaker, but not a great start for the PL is right. I think that the PL is likely to be a one bid league.
Colgate did lose some talent (top scorer and experienced goalies), but UNC just steam rolled them and made them look bad.
BU looked okay in the first half but lost in the second half and Providence played with confidence. Surprised about the D and goalie.
Lafayette was trounced soundly despite the score. It looks like Penn State throttled back big time and played deep into the bench since they were up 15-4 going into the fourth and the final score was only 16-9. But how does Lafayette score nine, including five in the fourth, against Penn State's starter who had a 47% save percentage? Not a good look for the consensus number one team.
Bucknell looked two dimensional on O against a "good" team that unfortunately has had weak records over the past several seasons.

Please participate in the PL Final Poll. viewtopic.php?f=290&t=1671
You can also add your two cents to the record of the top five USILA ranked teams prior to PL play.
Care to guess early season records? USILA preseason poll had Loyola at 14, Army at 15 and Lehigh at 20. Navy and Bucknell received votes.
Loyola plays UVA/JHU/Rutgers/Towson 1-3 or 2-2?
Probably very unlikely to happen but is there an outside shot at 0-4 without the three Ss (Spencer/Stover/Scanlan)?
Army plays Mass/NJIT/Rutgers/Marist/Cuse 2-3 or 3-2?
Lehigh plays UT/UVA/VMI/NJIT 3-1 or 4-0?
Navy plays Manhattan/Furman/Rich/MD 2-2 or 3-1?
Bucknell plays Furman/Bryant/SHU/OSU/Binghamton 3-2 or 4-1? 1-0 so far.

[RumorMill]

Lafayette was trounced soundly despite the score. It looks like Penn State throttled back big time and played deep into the bench since they were up 15-4 going into the fourth and the final score was only 16-9. But how does Lafayette score nine, including five in the fourth, against Penn State's starter who had a 47% save percentage? Not a good look for the consensus number one team.

From what I watched on tv, agree. Penn State was never worried and had they left their starters in most likely would have been a 10+ goal differential. With that said, 3 of O'Keefe's goals were EMO (4-4 EMO as a team), can't be man down against Penn State, especially with O'Keefe on the field. Then you had Arceri go 19-21 at the faceoff X. Ament looked like he could score whenever he wanted to. Regarding the 4th, I don't know if it's disappointing how Penn State's reserves performed, or good how Lafayette took advantage of it. Looked like Tambroni played reserves the whole 4th quarter and Lafayette made the most of it, so good for them. I would still expect more from Penn State, as I heard/read Lafayette started 6 Freshman. Kudos to Tambroni though letting them get some game-time and not worried about running up the score. I will predict Lafayette has at least one big upset in the PL this season... maybe vs Loyola

[TheBigIguana]

Lafayette was trounced soundly despite the score. It looks like Penn State throttled back big time and played deep into the bench since they were up 15-4 going into the fourth and the final score was only 16-9. But how does Lafayette score nine, including five in the fourth, against Penn State's starter who had a 47% save percentage? Not a good look for the consensus number one team.

From what I watched on tv, agree. Penn State was never worried and had they left their starters in most likely would have been a 10+ goal differential. With that said, 3 of O'Keefe's goals were EMO (4-4 EMO as a team), can't be man down against Penn State, especially with O'Keefe on the field. Then you had Arceri go 19-21 at the faceoff X. Ament looked like he could score whenever he wanted to. Regarding the 4th, I don't know if it's disappointing how Penn State's reserves performed, or good how Lafayette took advantage of it. Looked like Tambroni played reserves the whole 4th quarter and Lafayette made the most of it, so good for them. I would still expect more from Penn State, as I heard/read Lafayette started 6 Freshman. Kudos to Tambroni though letting them get some game-time and not worried about running up the score. I will predict Lafayette has at least one big upset in the PL this season... maybe vs Loyola

Loyola having to play its starters in the 4th quarter vs Lafayette would be an upset. Myers seems to be a popular guy who a lot of people think can turn Lafayette around, and I certainly hope he does because it isn't good for anyone to have a team struggle every year, but I also want to see a bit of progress before I say that it's happening.

[sinman6]

Lots of freshmen talent for the Leopards - Jessen, McGee, and McCauley in particular. But lots of freshmen mistakes on both sides of the ball. Very little rhythm to the offense, and bad off ball play on D, but we played against PSU and with more games, those areas will improve.

I was more concerned with the general play between the lines. Face-offs were awful, but that was to be expected. What was more concerning was the lack of caused turnovers. Sajer created havoc last year at LSM, but he's now close. Not sure that's the right move.

[laxpere]

Myers seems to be a popular guy who a lot of people think can turn Lafayette around, and I certainly hope he does because it isn't good for anyone to have a team struggle every year...

...Lots of freshmen talent for the Leopards - Jessen, McGee, and McCauley in particular.

...Looked like Tambroni played reserves the whole 4th quarter and Lafayette made the most of it, so good for them. I would still expect more from Penn State, as I heard/read Lafayette started 6 Freshman. Kudos to Tambroni though letting them get some game-time and not worried about running up the score.

They seem on the way to overcoming the high attrition in the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes. The roster is full of 2018 and 2019 recruits and the next two recruiting classes should replenish the ranks.
Really wish more coaches would have the same approach as Tambroni that developing/broadening the bench early in the season is far more important than the margin of victory when the outcome clearly isn't in doubt. Ask Alabama's Sabin about injury risk too.

[old salt]

#15 Army's killing #18 UMass. 9-0 at the half on PLN.
New goalie (soph) & FOGO (fr) are playing great. No drop off.
Incredible depth all over the field.
I'm changing my vote for #1 in the PL to Army.

[10stone5]

Yes, I’m impressed, that’s a good team, good players on the other side, no slouch.

[kramerica.inc]

Army looks good.
And Umass looks turrible.
Small, slow and undisciplined.

[kramerica.inc]

Loyola loses to UVA 12-9