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Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 9:06 am**

pucksandbones wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 12:17 am I'm not sure I would even be so optimistic about those two teams, I think top 10 is overrated for both...seems like Stevens outplayed Dickinson who got bailed out by their goalie. Also Ursinus wins haven't been too impressive. One goal win vs Stevenson and a 5 goal win vs Mary Washington doesn't exactly scream top 10 to me

What is impressive? I like a W over Stevenson, esp when they take down York at York. (Note: they beat York by 1 so maybe not too impressive, but it was a W, right?)

Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 9:35 am**

I had missed the win vs York, that bumps it up a bit. Stevenson is a good team, but for the past few years they have not been as dominant as they were a few years back. The win vs York is nice. Still don't think either team is top 10...maybe 15 for Ursinus and 18-20 for Dickinson at best at the end of the season.

Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:14 am**

D3Centlax wrote: ↑Sun Feb 23, 2020 10:37 pm CC board is quiet. Curious about others view of the overall conference performance after 2 weeks.
Here's my view:
Hard to make the case for Centennial being a NESCAC-like powerhouse conference right now, outside of bright spots Dickinson and Ursinus in the top 10 of upcoming D3 rankings.
Evidence:
F&M and Gettysburg with embarrassing, blow-out losses to Lynchburg and Salisbury, respectively, in past 2 weeks. F&M's porous D and goaltending give up 20+ goals, while on offense, supposed stars non-existent; G'burg down 8-1 at half vs Gulls, and 11-3 late in the game.
Similarly, jury is still out on Muhlenberg until they win some big CC games, Swat with 2 loses already. Haverford with concerning 16-4 loss to a subpar Eastern team. Same concern for Washington, with a 23-3 loss to a good W&L team who had been 0-2; McDaniel also in free fall for a few years.

Any room for more optimism ?

I am not really sure what to think at the moment. I believe the CC begins formal practice a week or two after some of the other southern conferences, so not sure if that impacted any of the early play. Certainly, Ursinus and Dickinson look the best of the lot so far. I am not ready to discount F&M and Gburg off of early season stumbles. F&M is extremely talented, but the lack of poise and focus certainly showed in the Lynchburg loss. That being said, the Dips did run toe to toe with Cabrini the week prior in a starters v starters scrimmage (if you put any stock in that).

I think we'll have a much better idea what these teams are in three-four weeks. If there is a pool C bid coming from this conference, one of these teams needs to string together some nice OOC wins. Thats a big if, however, and I can really only see one bid given last years tourney disaster where all teams blew second half leads.

Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:45 am**

CTlaxer12 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:14 am
D3Centlax wrote: ↑Sun Feb 23, 2020 10:37 pm CC board is quiet. Curious about others view of the overall conference performance after 2 weeks.
Here's my view:
Hard to make the case for Centennial being a NESCAC-like powerhouse conference right now, outside of bright spots Dickinson and Ursinus in the top 10 of upcoming D3 rankings.
Evidence:
F&M and Gettysburg with embarrassing, blow-out losses to Lynchburg and Salisbury, respectively, in past 2 weeks. F&M's porous D and goaltending give up 20+ goals, while on offense, supposed stars non-existent; G'burg down 8-1 at half vs Gulls, and 11-3 late in the game.
Similarly, jury is still out on Muhlenberg until they win some big CC games, Swat with 2 loses already. Haverford with concerning 16-4 loss to a subpar Eastern team. Same concern for Washington, with a 23-3 loss to a good W&L team who had been 0-2; McDaniel also in free fall for a few years.

Any room for more optimism ?
I am not really sure what to think at the moment. I believe the CC begins formal practice a week or two after some of the other southern conferences, so not sure if that impacted any of the early play. Certainly, Ursinus and Dickinson look the best of the lot so far. I am not ready to discount F&M and Gburg off of early season stumbles. F&M is extremely talented, but the lack of poise and focus certainly showed in the Lynchburg loss. That being said, the Dips did run toe to toe with Cabrini the week prior in a starters v starters scrimmage (if you put any stock in that).

I think we'll have a much better idea what these teams are in three-four weeks. If there is a pool C bid coming from this conference, one of these teams needs to string together some nice OOC wins. Thats a big if, however, and I can really only see one bid given last years tourney disaster where all teams blew second half leads.

F&M is very talented, but like last yr they seem to really struggle in the cage and I am not seeing a fix just yet. It is very early, but that is a tough position to patch up.

Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 12:13 pm**

Looking at the schedules, I think by end of games Saturday, there will be a good barometer to judge the Centennial Conference Nationally. From what I saw looking at the schedules I do not see a solid Top 10 resume yet.

Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 7:52 pm**

Here's the top 20 from 3/6 last year, presented to attempt to make point that until we get to late March or early April top 20 D3 Lax polls are a bit of a fool's errand. Top 3 in February? sure. Top 20 is kind of silly.

1. Salisbury (5 - 0)
2. Wesleyan (1 - 0)
3. RIT (3 - 0)
4. Tufts (2 - 0)
5. Amherst (2 - 0)
6. York (4 - 0)
7. Cabrini (4 - 0)
8. Gettysburg (3 - 1)
9. Stevens (3 - 0)
10. Dickinson (3 - 1)
11. Ursinus (4 - 0)
12. Denison (2 - 1)
13. Ithaca (2 - 0)
14. Franklin and Marshall (3 - 1)
15. Christopher Newport (3 - 2)
16. Washington and Lee (2 - 3)
17. RPI (3 - 0)
18. Bates (2 - 1)
19. Lynchburg (1 - 3)
20. Cortland (0 - 2)

Williams wasn't even on the radar.

Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 9:06 pm**

Other than missing Williams and St John Fisher. That top twenty looks pretty good compared to the
Fanlax final rankings.

Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:47 pm**

Any predictions on the Ursinus v. CNU game?

Posted: **Mon Feb 24, 2020 11:37 pm**

Goldenboy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2020 10:47 pm Any predictions on the Ursinus v. CNU game?

Posted: **Wed Feb 26, 2020 3:57 pm**

Ursinus face-off unit and defense looked very shaky in the first against Eastern. Only two saves and getting shredded not sliding to alley dodgers. Offense looked pretty crisp though--should have had one more easily, but botched the finish on the doorstep. Their aggressive ride is giving Eastern some trouble, but still down 6-4.

Posted: **Wed Feb 26, 2020 4:19 pm**

I am guessing we will see what Ursinus' GK depth looks like in the second half. Has been tracking well on some near misses, but is just not seeing the ball on Eastern's outside time and room shots. 18% so far, with a couple of minutes left in the half.

Posted: **Wed Feb 26, 2020 5:05 pm**

Watching the broadcast and this is rough. The commentator clearly does not know very much about lacrosse and his bias is a bit too much. Don't know how Eastern is even in this game, they can't clear or play offense.

Posted: **Wed Feb 26, 2020 5:28 pm**

Meanwhile, Dickinson and Etown are both playing some very pretty lacrosse and trading goals. No commentary, but from the background audio it seems Etown's stats folks are trying to record every pass...

I'm quite sure they are not getting paid enough for that.

Posted: **Wed Feb 26, 2020 5:40 pm**

Yeah, watching and not sure why he is dictating every pass by the player #? Maybe coach P wants to breakdown total touches or if the guy is just an overachiever

E’Town playing well. Goalie play especially good.
Dickinson .. not good. Unforced errors and leaving lots of holes in the seams on Defense.
Etown up 13-8 with 9:00 to go in 4th

Posted: **Sat Feb 29, 2020 2:40 pm**

Nice win for F&M. The Dips outclassed an overwhelmed W&L team.

They looked like the team that received pre season hype. Very strong midfield play, the team is a threat to score from anywhere when they are on.

Best goalie play I’ve seen in a long time from F&M, both freshmen keepers were very good and made some nice stops. I didn’t watch a goal and think to myself, how’d that one get by.

Also, though the stats did not prove it out, admirable job from the freshmen F/O specialist, created a lot of 50/50 balls with one of the better face off guys in the country.

Very few “gimmes” left on the schedule for the Dips, they’ll need to be on their game every week to survive.

Ursinus looking good as well against CNU. See how that one finishes.

Posted: **Mon Mar 02, 2020 12:04 am**

Solid win for F&M this weekend. Dickinson and WAC continue to crush the eye-test of the CC. Ursinus held off for a nice win over CNU.

Porzelt for Ursinus had a nice bounce back game and the FO looked much improved as well. They got scoring from the midfield again, but McClure and Atillasoy continue to shine together. Defense was solid until a bad stretch late in the fourth.

Gettysburg also picked up a good win against Stevenson. Held a solid offense to only 5 goals.

It’s early but how do we feel about an Ursinus vs Gettysburg rematch?

Posted: **Mon Mar 02, 2020 11:14 am**

CC w/l - 3/2/19, 3/2/20

Ursinus 4-0, 4-0
Gettysburg 3-1, 3-1
F&M 2-1, 2-1
Dickinson 2-2, 3-1
Muhlenberg 3-0, 3-0
Swat 3-0 1-2
Haverford 0-4, 0-4
WAC 0-3, 2-1
McD 1-3, 1-3

Methinks we are in a very familiar place.

Posted: **Mon Mar 02, 2020 12:36 pm**

cigslax11 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 12:04 am Solid win for F&M this weekend. Dickinson and WAC continue to crush the eye-test of the CC. Ursinus held off for a nice win over CNU.

Porzelt for Ursinus had a nice bounce back game and the FO looked much improved as well. They got scoring from the midfield again, but McClure and Atillasoy continue to shine together. Defense was solid until a bad stretch late in the fourth.

Gettysburg also picked up a good win against Stevenson. Held a solid offense to only 5 goals.

It’s early but how do we feel about an Ursinus vs Gettysburg rematch?

Could definitely envision an Ursinus v. Gburg rematch. Could also see either of those teams facing F&M in the final. Less likely, but still a possibility I could Dickinson facing off against any of those teams previously mentioned. I do not really see much beyond those 4 teams in the conference barring some major upset along the way.

Posted: **Tue Mar 03, 2020 1:42 pm**

CTlaxer12 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 12:36 pm
cigslax11 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 02, 2020 12:04 am Solid win for F&M this weekend. Dickinson and WAC continue to crush the eye-test of the CC. Ursinus held off for a nice win over CNU.

Porzelt for Ursinus had a nice bounce back game and the FO looked much improved as well. They got scoring from the midfield again, but McClure and Atillasoy continue to shine together. Defense was solid until a bad stretch late in the fourth.

Gettysburg also picked up a good win against Stevenson. Held a solid offense to only 5 goals.

It’s early but how do we feel about an Ursinus vs Gettysburg rematch?
Could definitely envision an Ursinus v. Gburg rematch. Could also see either of those teams facing F&M in the final. Less likely, but still a possibility I could Dickinson facing off against any of those teams previously mentioned. I do not really see much beyond those 4 teams in the conference barring some major upset along the way.

Your response brings up a good debate. I know it’s still early but with the way Dickinson’s roster is competing right now, do we think it’s possible they slip out of the CC playoff? This leads into whether there’s another program outside of the other 3 seeds that can knock them off. In my mind the only two teams with a shot of taking that 4th spot from them would be Swat or maybe the Mules. Swat usually is competitive with the top four but the Mules season usually starts to unravel once conference play starts. It’ll be an interesting thought come April.

Posted: **Tue Mar 03, 2020 4:08 pm**

Why should I buy stock in F & M, the win against a struggling W&L doesn't give them the edge over Ursinus or Gettysburg schedule yet. Dickinson played the National Champion Cabrini got there butts handed to them. but that's a good learning lesson, what's has F & M done so far? ( side note Cabrini supposedly has some nice D1 transfers)

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