Thanks to everyone for participating in New England Open Regionals. My predictions weren't great (read: I was wrong), so sorry about that. However, I'm convinced that by making Harvard and Dartmouth underdogs I actually helped them beat out Tufts and Williams.
The weather was partly crappy with a definite chance of showers throughout the weekend. Not much wind (which was nice), great layout conditions, and fields that held together well in wet conditions made for a better weekend than we anticipated.
First Round Saturday
Games in this round all went to seed. UVM was up 11-8(?) on UMass, only to have Zoo charge back and win 15-11. Wesleyan beat out MIT in a close one. UMaine-Farmington gave Brown a much harder game than anticipated. URI put up some points against Dartmouth. Brown-B didn't have to run naked.
Second Round Saturday
In the backdoor, MIT lost to Brown-B 17-15 (anyone catch this game?). UVM lost to Bowdoin in a close one. URI beats out Amherst, proves to me that they deserved a higher seed.
In the frontdoor, all games go to seed. Harvard quietly dispatches Wesleyan, Tufts obliterates UMass (and obliterated my prediction that UMass could win the game, but more on UMass later), Brown outlasts Williams, and Dartmouth keeps on rolling.
Third Round Saturday
In the backdoor, the 5-8 seeds (BC, Williams, UMass, and Wesleyan) hold their ground convincingly in some close games. In the 13th place bracket, UVM beats MIT 17-15, and Maine outlasts Amherst. Is this parity, poor seeding, or an opening up of the rotation for MIT and Amherst?
In the frontdoor, two exciting and close games. Tufts gets up on Harvard and stays up on Harvard 15-12. These teams are 1-1 thus far through the college series events, with Harvard +1 on point diff. Dartmouth gets into the groove against Brown and wins 15-10.
Fourth Round Saturday
In the backdoor, Williams comes back from a 5 or 6 point deficit (13-7 or so?) to take BC down. UMass keeps Wesleyan at bay 15-8.
In consolation, URI jumps to T9 from 15 by beating Brandeis 15-12. Bowdoin beats up Brown-B 15-7.
First Round Sunday
In the backdoor semis, Harvard outlasts Williams 15-10. UMass blows by Brown 15-10 in a testy game by two testy teams. Chill out guys, it's just the backdoor semis.
Second Round Sunday
In the backdoor finals, Harvard takes out UMass 15-11. A few disc spikes here and some foul calls there make this an interesting game, but UMass proves their worth as the 1 seed from WNE.
In the frontdoor finals, Dartmouth plays a solid game around Tufts. The Pain Train plays hard-nosed D, and even though they're not nearly as height-sufficient as Tufts, they put the throws just out of reach of the E-men. Dartmouth uses crisp lead passes to swing the disc over and over again, reminiscent of the first time I played against Amherst High School back in the day where they switched fields with ease. Play of the game is Socks on Dartmouth tipping a pass just out of reach of Tufts and into the arms of a charging Dartmouth player for a Callahan. This seemed to be the point of the game where Dartmouth just wasn't going to look back. Strangely enough, this was the second game in two years for Dartmouth where they got a Callahan in a game-to-go. This time, however, their opponents weren't able to shake it off and get back on the horse. At 14-11, Dartmouth sees a wide open receiver going opposite field, and one nicely-put forehand into the receivers hands just over the charging E-man defender sends Dartmouth to Nationals.
Third Round Sunday
Both Harvard and Tufts came into the game a bit tired. Neither team seemed near 100%, but I guess that was to be expected as Harvard had just dealt with pesky UMass and Tufts was given the runaround by Dartmouth. For the first 14 points, only the (slightly) downwind end zone was needed to score. Points, questionable foul calls, and some hard marks were traded for the entire first half until Harvard scored in the opposite end zone to take half 8-7. After that Tufts didn't seem to have the fire to win the game. Harvard seemed to have more legs under them, more crisp passing, and just a bit more edginess than Tufts, and took the second half 7-4 and the game 15-11.
Some thanks are in order:
Volunteers: you made my and Kendra's weekend run much more smoothly than we could've imagined. Thank you.
Observers: you guys are fantastic. Thanks for coming in from around the region (and from other regions) to observe.
BUDA: thank you so much for use of the trailer. I don't happen to have 16 10-gallon water jugs lying around my house (or my car) to use for tournaments.
Mass Youth Soccer: they've got a fantastic complex, fantastic fields, and fantastic assistants. Thanks for everything (including the golf carts), even though you probably won't see this post.
To the people who reported scores: did you do it all remotely? I sure as heck didn't report scores point by point even though I would've loved to. Thanks a bunch.
And some final thoughts:
-Dartmouth's always got a fantastic cheering section.
-One observer said Williams looked most like a club team. I agree, and I add Dartmouth to that list as well.
-UMass is a different team than they used to be. While they seem to have the largest range of performances from winning WNE to losing 15-3 to Tufts this weekend, they definitely had a fire that was tough to match. Additionally, it seems like they've put the past (a 1986 Nationals Championship) behind them, which I think is a good thing for the program. A few more wins against top teams and a few less spikes of the disc will get UMass to some games-to-go.
-In just one year, Tufts turned up their ultimate and their spirit. I heard from many of their opponents that they were fantastic to play against, and having watched them play for two tournaments in a row I believe it.
-South New England showed up for Regionals this year.
Final standings (* denotes Nationals qualifier):
1. Dartmouth*
2. Harvard*
3. Tufts
4. UMass
T5. Brown
T5. Williams
T7. BC
T7. Wesleyan
T9. Bowdoin
T9. URI
T11. Brandeis
T11. Brown-B
13. UMaine-Farmington
14. UVM
15. Amherst
16. MIT
Good luck to Pain Train and Red Line. Make New England and locomotive owners proud.
Brian Abend
NE Open RC
