NCAC 2024

[hatinghayden]

Did anyone else notice the score of the Wooster game yesterday? While I am sure Wooster is still good, I wonder whether they are as polished and ready to go on a run in conference play as I had expected.

[NeOhLaxFan]

Did anyone else notice the score of the Wooster game yesterday? While I am sure Wooster is still good, I wonder whether they are as polished and ready to go on a run in conference play as I had expected.

Well you did expect Hiram upsetting Oberlin

[grelch]

Just flicked on the Denison Kenyon game for a minute. Denison up by 6in the 3rd. When did Denison move out of their football stadium for their home field?

[FannOLax]

Just flicked on the Denison Kenyon game for a minute. Denison up by 6in the 3rd. When did Denison move out of their football stadium for their home field?

This year.

[grelch]

Watched a little of the Denison game and none of the OWU game. Scores at least suggest ‘normal service resumed’.

[oldtimelax]

Looks like the keys to the Kenyon loss came in turnovers, failed clears, and lost face-offs -- especially in the first half. Score was 11-4 at halftime, and The Big Red glided to a 20-10 victory. What's with the new Scarlet & Gray uniforms on Denison....don't they know those colors are owned by one team only in the State of Ohio? THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY!

[FannOLax]

... What's with the new Scarlet & Gray uniforms on Denison....don't they know those colors are owned by one team only in the State of Ohio? THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY!

Very valid point. With the possible exception of baseball road grays, no Denison athletic team has ever previously mixed gray into the Big Red's color scheme. Bad idea. It just doesn't look like Denison.

[hatinghayden]

Late to the party, but wow, Kenyon got a train ran on them. OWU must be licking their lips right now! Locks Denison at 1 barring an upset. #Hiramin4

[NeOhLaxFan]

Late to the party, but wow, Kenyon got a train ran on them. OWU must be licking their lips right now! Locks Denison at 1 barring an upset. #Hiramin4

Not sure about your delusions of grandeur with Hiram at four. They haven’t won a conference game in years. Denison does look solid at one as of now but things could change as conference play heats up

[oldtimelax]

York (2-6) at Denison (4-4) on Friday, 3/29 (4PM) might be one of the more interesting out-of-conference games left this season....

Both these teams are perennial Top 20 teams that played very ambitious out-of-conference schedules this year, and came away with mostly losses that did nothing to embellish their reputations, and in fact, caused them to fall from the rankings.

York has just two wins, over #14 Washington & Lee (16-15) and Franklin & Marshall (15-6). It's six losses have been to five of the very top teams and all have been very close....#2 RPI (7-8), #1 Salisbury (11-17), #4 RIT (10-11), #3 St. Lawrence (8-9, OT), #8 Dickinson (8-11), and to a tough, but unranked Grove City team (9-11).

Denison has four wins over non-ranked teams -- Albion, Baldwin-Wallace, John Carroll and Kenyon. Their games against ranked teams were mostly blow-outs, losses to #4 RIT (8-22), #15 Lynchburg (4-13), #13 Gettysburg (7-13), and a close one with #14 W&L (11-13).

On paper, York looks to be the stronger team and had a 16-8 victory over Denison in last year's match-up in York, Pa. They might also be more desperate for the win. York still has #13 Gettysburg to play after Denison --before starting in-conference play in the MAC. They certainly don't want to enter play at 2-8, where Stevenson is the only team that poses a threat. A conference championship gets them in the NCAA tournament, where they have a chance to avenge some of the early season losses -- and live up to their reputation as one of the very best teams in D3.

The Big Red are at home this time, and did have a big 20-10 win over NCAC rival Kenyon last week that certainly helped boost their confidence. Denison has mostly their NCAC schedule left which amounts to seven easy wins, before facing OWU, which is probably the only threat for another championship and an NCAA bid.

I see York winning this one, 16-10.

[FannOLax]

York (2-6) at Denison (4-4) on Friday, 3/29 (4PM) might be one of the more interesting out-of-conference games left this season....

Both these teams are perennial Top 20 teams that played very ambitious out-of-conference schedules this year, and came away with mostly losses that did nothing to embellish their reputations, and in fact, caused them to fall from the rankings.

York has just two wins, over #14 Washington & Lee (16-15) and Franklin & Marshall (15-6). It's six losses have been to five of the very top teams and all have been very close....#2 RPI (7-8), #1 Salisbury (11-17), #4 RIT (10-11), #3 St. Lawrence (8-9, OT), #8 Dickinson (8-11), and to a tough, but unranked Grove City team (9-11).

Denison has four wins over non-ranked teams -- Albion, Baldwin-Wallace, John Carroll and Kenyon. Their games against ranked teams were mostly blow-outs, losses to #4 RIT (8-22), #15 Lynchburg (4-13), #13 Gettysburg (7-13), and a close one with #14 W&L (11-13).

On paper, York looks to be the stronger team and had a 16-8 victory over Denison in last year's match-up in York, Pa. They might also be more desperate for the win. York still has #13 Gettysburg to play after Denison --before starting in-conference play in the MAC. They certainly don't want to enter play at 2-8, where Stevenson is the only team that poses a threat. A conference championship gets them in the NCAA tournament, where they have a chance to avenge some of the early season losses -- and live up to their reputation as one of the very best teams in D3.

The Big Red are at home this time, and did have a big 20-10 win over NCAC rival Kenyon last week that certainly helped boost their confidence. Denison has mostly their NCAC schedule left which amounts to seven easy wins, before facing OWU, which is probably the only threat for another championship and an NCAA bid.

I see York winning this one, 16-10.

I'd also guess that York beats Denidoo, but both teams have shown themselves capable of losing. Considering how the NCAC teams have done in their OOC games against teams with lacrosse pedigree, this is looking like a one-bid conference.

Then again, maybe they've altered the tourney format enough that those wins over John Carroll might be worth something? I wouldn't count on it.

[WhiteCarrera]

Right now, I’m not sure this would be a one-bid conference if it weren’t automatic!

[WhiteCarrera]

Nothing like a Wednesday jaunt to Del Valley! Any idea why DePauw would do that?

[D3LaxFan2]

Nothing like a Wednesday jaunt to Del Valley! Any idea why DePauw would do that?

Spring Break, maybe?

[WhiteCarrera]

Yes, I think you're right. Some friends are in Florida with their son and DPU baseball this week. I can imagine how excited the lax guys are:

"Hey, where'd you guys play on Spring Break?"

Denison - "Lexington and Lynchburg, Virginia. Tough games, but a great trip"
Hiram - "North Carolina is cool. We won one and lost one!"
Ohio Wesleyan - "It was a quick trip, but I'd never been to Newport News before. I thought it was a newspaper."
Wabash - "Virginia Beach is awesome!"
Wooster - "Virginia Beach is awesome, but everyone made fun of our kilts."

DePauw - "Eh, uh ... We went to Doylestown?"

[FannOLax]

Nothing like a Wednesday jaunt to Del Valley! Any idea why DePauw would do that?

Because they found an Eastern school they could beat 11-5, obviously!

[WhiteCarrera]

You down with YCP (Yeah you know me),
you down with YCP (Yeah you know me)?
You down with YCP (Yeah you know me),
who's down with YCP (Every last homie)?

[Nosey Ned]

Now that the gauntlet has been run I’m ready to share a few thoughts on this year’s Big Red. I didn’t want to overreact to that RIT beat down - and beat down it was - so I told myself to take long walks and seek solitude in my yurt! Before lashing out with frustration and labeling things from afar, I told myself to just shut up and let the entire OOC play out and see where we are after it. I almost made it - we have Tranny on Wed. However I’m happy to report I’ve come back from my isolation and my main take away now after the last 2 games is the Big Red are not the same team we were 6 weeks ago - far from it. That’s not to say we don’t have warts because we do. I’ll get to those in a minute but we very clearly are now getting fantastic goalie play and the defense has proved to be very aggressive and stout. I like what I’m seeing on that side of the ball. I’m also very impressed with the goalies ability to play in the clearing game - his 30 yard outlet passes are on the mark. He has saved our butt on numerous occasions and even allowed us to get some transition goals. Well done young man! He’s very good at that and we need him in that part of our game. Also, I think we are getting very solid play again at the dot. No worries there, in fact we have already faced who is widely perceived to be the best FO guy in the conference in Nelson of Kenyon and we won that battle 20 to 18. Also #6 has come to play this year, he’s the straw that stirs the drink on the offensive side of the ball. We miss #28 and I hope he’s back from injury before too long.
Now for the warts - clearing (or the lack there of), an anemic man up and though it has improved recently, poor shooting. Denison teams used to pride themselves on hitting well over 30% and this team is at ~25% on the season and sub 20% some of the earlier games this year. Hopefully all of this was a factor of facing the hardest OOC we seen in many many years. These are also all things a coaching staff can improve on - and they better.
I was afraid scheduling RIT the first game of the season would prove to be a mistake. And IMHO, it was. That complete beat down did harm to both the team and the program - we saw a team immediately after that that had its confidence shaken and a national reputation that was bruised and eventually fell out of the top 20, in I don’t know how many years. But that’s the least of Denison’s concerns- that’s only important to us old guys here on a silly, meaningless forum. The truth is everything is still in front of the Big Red and winning the NCAC will put them back in play. I said before the season I’d be happy if we took 2 of the 5 big OOC games we had - we went 0fer but we were there at the end vs W&L and York, within striking distance of Gburg until 3 late 4Q goals made that look worse than it was. We’ve already thoroughly outplayed Kenyon, the team we’ve met in each of the last 3 NCAC finals - so my take is the rumors of Denison’s demise in the NCAC are greatly exaggerated! I’m not taking OWU or even a potential rematch with Kenyon for granted but the Big Red are still top dog in the NCAC until someone beats them in the playoffs.

GO BIG RED

PS - hey Old, I want to be on record, I am not a fan of this years uniform in general and that goes for all 3 color combos worn to date. The throw back oversized style/fit and football like stripes doesn’t do it for me. Big thumbs down. And still not used to red helmets!

[WhiteCarrera]

Ned, we’ve missed you. All fun aside, your comments all seem pretty reasonable. Welcome back.

[Quill]

Turnovers are part of BR offensive struggle. 3 players averaging 2 or more TO per game

https://www.lax.com/stats?division=3&ye ... ference=19


1 Noah Pilgram. Hiram 46. 5.1
2 Quinn Fitzgerald Wabash 32. 3.6
3 Ryan Blasberg Oberlin 30. 3.0
4. Brett Johnson. Hiram 25 2.8
5 Jack Flynn. Depauw. 27. 2.7
6 Henry White. Depauw 26. 2.6
7. Christian Dybedock Wabash 21 2.3
8. Will Sorg. Wabash. 21. 2.3
9. Luke Fisher. Denison. 20. 2.2
10. Wade Beckstrom. Ohio Wesleyan. 16. 2.0
11. Nate Kay. Denison 18. 2.0
12. Gideon Sullivan. Allegheny. 16. 2.0
13 Nathan Brown. Wittenberg. 12 2.0
14 Tommy Quinson. Denison. 18. 2.0