Rally the Troops! - CAA Home Opener on Alumni Day!

Juicy Historical Introduction...
It seems there has always been drama when Drexel plays UNC Wilmington.

Leland "Frodo" Raum

In 2007:  Leland "I own a cat named Elvis" Raum helped Drexel to top off a 6th CAA win in a row by scoring one of his infamous "out of nowhere, FIFA style goals" with 5 minutes left in double overtime down in NC.  On a rare occasion he got himself a nice lil photo headline on the website showcasing his Hobbit hair cut....  he looked like Cory Mattews before he hit puberty, still does...  Anyway, the entire team was so surprised that Leland actually scored the goal (and that it wasn't Fabio or Thiago...) that we lost the next two CAA games.
 - Archived Game Recap.  

Yours Truly

In 2008:  The stage was eerily similar to the one set for this Saturday.  Drexel was hot off their best season in the CAA ever in 2007 and was playing UNC Wilmington in the CAA opener on Alumni Day.  That game Drexel broke a 5 game scoring drought to take the lead in the game three separate times.  Things were looking good...but wait... enter yours truly (see me making fun of Leland's hair is funnier now..), who managed to give UNC Wilmington not just 1 pk late to tie the game but another 1 in overtime allowing UNC to snatch the win.  Talk about "POOP SQUAD Player Of The Game!", it was so bad everyone forget that Baf had missed a pk that would have seen Drexel go up 4-2 with 20 minutes left in the game.  I think I made the "Come-on Man!" segment of Monday Night Countdown that week... Spots Information even put my picture on the headline for the game as if to say - "Hey just in case you forgot, it was this retard who blew the game on Alumni Day..."
 - Archived Game Recap.

God I hate UNC.  

In 2009:  The game down in NC was cancelled due to weather and the boys had to return home with nothing but a few free Olive Garden meals & some missed class time.  They returned to NC later in the season to replay the match, only to get their asses handed to them 5-0.  UNC Wilmington went on to win the CAA Championship that year...
 - Archived Game Recap.
    
So we make it to 2010!

This is gonna be a big one!  Drexel returns to Vidas Field this Saturday, October 2nd for the first CAA home game of the 2010 season.  The Dragons will put their unbeaten home record on the line as they take on one of the toughest teams recently in the CAA.  UNC Wilmington is the returning CAA Champion & has been nationally ranked higher than 24th all year (until losing 0-1 to Coastal Carolina on Tuesday...).

Not only is Drexel playing one of its toughest opponents of the year, but the 1st CAA home game of 2010 is on Alumni Day!  Kick-off is at 3:00pm.  So grab your friends, family, classmates, co-workers, even a random stranger or two & bring um to Vidas Field!  This game will not disappoint!  

Details for the Alumni Day festivities.

Check out the Facebook Event! 

Check out the official game preview on drexeldragons.com.  Sports Info finally smartened up and used a photo of Danny Vigs on the article.  It's gonna be like those Axe Effect commercials at the game tomorrow... at least I hope so.  

Let's GO DU!

P.S.  This weekend's weather is supposed to be 70 & sunny!

Water Boy...

Drexel ends the long streak of away games with another loss.  It is the 3rd loss in a row for Drexel dropping them to 4-3-1 on the season (0-1-0 in the CAA).  While its true this game doesn't mean anything in terms of the CAA or getting to the NCAA it certainly doesn't help the moral of the team to lose in overtime during the week between the first two CAA games of the season.  The good news is that I managed to avoid kicking my cats after this loss (PETA is watching my house...), but I did still feel like Rob Schneider in The Water Boy - when they told the crowd Bobby Bouche couldn't play football anymore "AAH NO! WE SUCK AGAIN!"

Drexel started the game off well when captain Anthony Bafile put away a rocket shot from Andrew Goldberg that smashed off the crossbar.  However, the late game results belonged to Bucknell.  With the help of a solid Timmy Washam Drexel made it to the 88th minute, but Bucknell equalized and sent the game into overtime then put the game away in the 100th minute.  Drexel loses 2-1.

Check out the official game recap and box score on drexeldragons.com.

Bison Hunting

Drexel travels out to central PA today to face Bucknell for the last non-conference game of the season.  Other than being nice to grab a win after the opening CAA loss to William & Mary, and building some confidence for the upcoming challenge of facing recent CAA powerhouse UNC Wilmington at home this weekend on Alumni Day... the actual result of tonight's game doesn't really mean much at all.  

Bucknell has a nice little video preview of the match on their athletics site.  (My favorite part is the commercial for Olive Garden's "Never Ending Pasta Bowl" before the video...it brings back some good memories of my glorious co-championship of the 1st annual "Pasta Bowl Championships", tying with Derrec Mongan at 7 bowls before Lew had us kicked out of the restaurant and finding out that Baf was cheating the whole time and piling pasta onto his lap... good times)

If anyone doesn't feel like paying for the LIVE VIDEO feed on Bucknell's site (I know I'm too broke to...) then there is still just the regular LIVE STATS option.

Official write up available on drexeldragons.com.

Too Little Too Late

Drexel drops its first CAA game of the 2010 season on the road to William & Mary, 2-1.  A very late second half goal by freshman midfield maestro Ken Tribbet wasn't enough to tie the game up for the Dragons.  The William & Mary Tribe seemed to have moved on from the trauma of having their new mascot design based off of "The Greased Up Deaf Guy" from Family Guy and are having a pretty decent season so far.

Seriously though, William & Mary has been nationally ranked as high as #27 (by TopDrawer Soccer) and #28 (by College Soccer News) this year so we knew it was going to be a tough game for Drexel who was picked to finish 10th in the CAA pre-season poll.  While most of the game stats were even throughout the match, unfortunately W&M had the edge on the only ones that count... goals.  It wasn't until the 88th minute that Tribbet scored a consolation goal for Drexel.  Obviously I wasn't able to see the game so it is hard to comment much on the play but I have watched Ken Tribbet quite a few times this year... THIS KID CAN BALLLL.  Congrats to Ken for making yet another impact in an important game this year.

Visit drexeldragons.com of for the official game recap and box score.

Also check out William & Mary's athletics site for a post game-recap that can help provide some detail.

CAA here we come!

Before we get started:  I forgot to mention that Freshman Tal Bubil  & Nate (either Page or Baker depending on whether you read the CAA site or Drexel's) were named to the All-Tournament Team of the Embassy Suites Kick-off Classic down in Florida last weekend.  Either way, all three are great players, so congrats gentlemen!  

Colonial Athletics Association play is under way this weekend!  That means that Drexel is back to 0-0-0.  For most teams in the CAA this is the reality, no matter how well you do out of conference, if you're not on top by the end of the playoffs your not gonna see that "N" at the beginning our your tournament name when you finish the season. 

We'll start with a little history!:  In the past 10 years 7 different teams have won the conference championship each year, so this thing can and WILL get real competitive.  Over the past 3 seasons The Dragons have had quite a bumpy ride in CAA play.  In 2007 (my favorite year) Drexel won the conference in the regular season with a phenomenal defensive unit that had our goalkeeper (now Graduate Assistant Coach Cory Robertson) ranked 6th in goals against average nationwide at the end of the season.  Our defense was frighteningly good, but we had an unlucky loss to Towson in the semi-finals of the CAA tournament and missed out on the NCAA.  In 2008 (my spine still hurts) we returned with basically the same starting team (minus 2007 MVP, my fellow centerback Mark Stevensen).  That year we manager to shoot ourselves in the foot repeatedly throughout the course of the CAA, somehow squeezing ourselves out of the playoffs in the last 3 games of the season when all we needed was one tie.  Having half of our starters wiped out or nearly incapacitated by career ending injuries didn't help either.  In 2009 the boys started in a tough position.  They had lost 2 captains from 2008, 1 captain to injury right away in 2009, half the starting team and all the senior leadership when the class of 2008 (that's The Ineligibles) graduated.  That being said, neither Tiger Woods or even Bill Clinton would contemplate denying that 1-9-1 in the conference was absolutely disgraceful.  Exit Philadelphia legend Lew Meehl to retirement, along with assistants Woody Hartman and Rick Tompkins.  

Enter a fresh new look in Doug "The Red Dragon" Hess and assistant Brian Green.  So far the 2010 Dragons have been off to a decent start (4-1-1) and are looking way more offensively dangerous than Drexel has looked in a good few years.  However, its been anything but smooth sailing past the first few games for Drexel.  Racking up more yellow cards & red cards than shots on goal in some games can't be a good sign...

NEWS:  Drexel will kick-off their CAA run down in Williamsburg Virginia tomorrow night at 7:00pm to face William & Mary (Directions for those dedicated parents making the trip down).  Check out William & Mary's website for LIVE STATS on the game.  William & Mary lost their CAA opener to Old Dominion this week 0-1 (Box Score), Drexel will be looking to deal them a tough second loss in the conference.  Aside from travelling to Bucknell next week, Drexel has nothing but CAA games left from here on out.  Best of luck boys, LET'S GO DU!

    

Now for predictions!:  I have to start with crediting Brandon Fischer for cynically predicting the outcome of the 2009 CAA season, stating (often repeatedly) - "They're poop, they won't win 2 game this year! Pooooooop Squaaaaad!"  Well done Fisch, credit is due there, but this is 2010 so hopefully things turn out differently.  Being a little bit too busy lately to give any kind of educated prediction of my own for 2010, I am going to say instead that we'll  finish 5-4-2 and miss the playoffs sitting at 6th on the table by the end of it all.  Of course I hope that the boys rise to the occasion and prove me wrong.  I know first hand how difficult the CAA is, I just hope our boys figure out quickly how tough it really is.  They certainly have it in them, but can they pull it together for the long haul in what is always a brutal CAA conference run?

Check out the official write up on drexeldragons.com
Check out the rest of the upcoming CAA match-ups on caasports.com

Any Given Saturday

So here we go, at 5:00pm today Drexel will take on No.24 South Florida in their final match of the Embassy Suits Kick-Off Classic down at Florida Gulf Coast University.  Drexel is coming off a near epic comeback win over Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday night.  In the 106th minute Drexel was heartbreaking forced to settle for the tie when FGCU's goalkeeper saved a Nathan Page penalty kick that would have seen the Dragons jump to 5-0-0 on the season.  Instead we sit at a respectable 4-0-1 and are set to face No.24 South Florida in both team's second game of the tournament.  No.24 South Florida is resting in a much more comfortable position than Drexel, having grabbed a 2-1 win over No.9 Ohio State (now No.5) in their game on Thursday night (and they didn't have to play two full overtime periods in brutally sticky gulf coast humidity and heat).  A little piece of good news for Drexel fans, No.24 South Florida is 3-1-1 on the season, their only loss was the first game of the season to Florida Gulf Coast...

The boys certainly have their work cut out for them, but ladies and gentlemen that's why we play the games!  Make sure you follow the Dragons on LIVE STATS later this evening.  Lock your cats in another room, have the neighbor take the dog for a walk, put away your good china, and if you have a history of alcohol and child abuse... please please please let aunt Janice take the kids to a movie tonight.  This is gonna be a good one!

Here is the insider scoop on the starting line-up for tonight:  

Pentti

Vigs          Kenny Tribbet          Dido          Skylar

Brandon Zeller

Manny                                    Baf

                     Nathan "Gerrard" Page an Page Nathan Page

Malcom text to get mannys name out to the left side of the page

Nate Baker

Tal Bubil will not be playing center back tonight because of Yom Kippur so Kenny Tribbet will slide back to fill that spot.  Manny will get the starting nod in midfield with Kenny's spot being vacated after his move to center back.  All the others are relatively typical starters but keep in mind that Doug will likely utilize quite a few substitutions to help with what has to be a tired team after the double overtime game Thursday night.

BEST OF LUCK BOYS!  GO GET UM!

  

Overtime Heart Breaker

Wow.  I feel like I owe my computer an apology for the amount of cursing and verbal abuse that I threw at it tonight.  Following a double overtime game on live stats certainly doesn't bring out the best in us...  Thanks to great live stats provided by Florida Gulf Coast Athletics and more importantly Asst. Coach Cory Robertson providing some post-game clarification, here is the best summary I can come up with.

Final score of the game after 110minutes of play was 1-1.  Florida Gulf Coast took the lead in the 57th minute on a penalty kick.  Baf tied the game in the 79th minute with a fantastic free kick from ten yards outside the eighteen and in front of the Drexel bench.  Nate Page had his potentiality game winning penalty kick saved in the 106th minute to leave the game tied 1-1 at the end of double overtime (about the time when I punted both my cats across the room...).

Freshman goalkeeper Pentti Pussinen delivered a phenomenal performance, making crucial saves in the second half and overtime.  Doug picked up his second yellow card in two matches.  This time for his pet peeve, the referee not stopping the clock in the closing minutes of a half (A FGCU player kicked the ball away after Drexel had been awarded a free kick).  Some questions were raised about the referee by Asst. Coach Cory Robertson, especially on both yellow card penalty kicks (Drexel's Matt DiDomenico 57th min, & FGCU's Matt Oshaughnessy in the 106th).  Both were in his opinion - "Weak, and influenced by the crowd more than the game."  Brandon Zeller also picked up a yellow card in the 64th minute.  Although Drexel was slightly outplayed, particularly in the first half, the Dragons managed to regain momentum and settle for a tie after a superb free kick by Anthony Bafile.  Unfortunately we narrowly missed out on another dramatic late game winner when Page's pk was saved .

Drexel now 4-0-1 on the season will rest up and prepare to play No.24 South Florida this Saturday (who just defeated No.9 Ohio State state in their first game of the tournament).  Make sure to put your cats in the other room before watching the LIVE STATS of the Drexel -vs- USF game this Saturday @ 5:00pm, its gonna be a thriller.


MAN OF THE MATCH:  Anthony Bafile - for an absolute sniper shot on a free kick  (rattling the upper 90 back corner) to tie the game 1-1 in the 79th minute.  Baf's electric goal shifted the momentum of the match and sent the first game of Drexel's Florida trip into overtime.  There is a reason my man is a now 3 year captain of the team.  Solid, dedicated, reliable and a hell of a player.  

Check out the official game recap and box score on drexeldragons.com.

Embassy Suites Kick-Off Classic!

The Dragons depart Philadelphia today for Florida Gulf Coast University to play in the Embassy Suites Kick-Off Classic.  Drexel will take on host team Florida Gulf Coast & No.26 South Florida. No.7 Ohio State will also make the trip down to play both Florida teams.

These two games will be a real test for the boys who are currently sitting at 4-0 on the season.  Coming back from Florida 6-0-0 and ready to hit CAA conference play would be a real treat.  For those of us not making the trip down... you can follow the games via the live stats links on FGCU's website (below).   Team trainer Scotty Ellis will also be keeping us updated via The Ineligibles account on Twitter.  


Let's Go DU!


Drexel Game Schedule

DREXEL -vs- Florida Gulf Coast University

Thursday, Sept. 16th @ 7:00pm

LIVE STATS

DREXEL -vs- No.26 University of South Florida

Saturday, Sept. 18th @ 5:00pm

LIVE STATS

Visit fgcuathletics.com for the full writeup and team information at "Tournament Central" as well as available live stats for all 4 matches.  

Monday Night Football!

Who gives a hoot about Monday Night Football on TV when you have Monday Night Football at Vidas!  This game had it all - Goals, a dramatic winner by Ken Tribbet and an almost more impressive top class equalizer by Nate "that's why they call me Gerrard" Page.  Late-game heroics, Drexel coming back in the second half from 1-0 down to win 2-1 with just seconds left on the clock.  History (gonna plug my own glory days here), Ken Tribbet's goal was a near replica of Drexel's win over Georgia State in 2008.  Injury, see "Poop Squad" Player of the Game below.  Yellow Card Drama, with who other than Manny Cazares and "The Red Dragon" each picking one up.  Manny grabbed his 3rd caution in 4 games (at some point kid, it's your fault not the referees) and Doug seems to be keeping Woody Hartman's tradition alive of being the most hated coach by every referee on the east coast.

Before you get too excited... Drexel basically "poop squaded" the bed the entire first half being completely out possessed by NJIT.  Offensively, we seemed to magically forget that there is an offsides rule in soccer for the entire second half as well as blow the lion's share of easy chances in front of goal.  Defensively, Tal Bubil had another solid game and Justin Johnson did well as a late game substitution at right back.  All in all it made for an exciting comeback win at home, and the Dragons stay 4-0 on the season.  I like the display of resilience from a very young Drexel team.    

 - For the expertly crafted official game recap and box score visit drexeldragons.com.

 - Also for John and Mary Tribbet, your gonna want to head over to SideLine Photos and pick up a few prints of your son's game winning goal. 

MAN OF THE MATCH:  Who other than freshman Kenny Tribbet.  This kid is a player, NCAA Compliance look away while I go out an buy him an Escalade.  

"POOP SQUAD" PLAYER OF THE GAME:  Was a tough choice between 5th year ringer Tony Bafile for giving NJIT a PK in the first half.  Baf tried to post up and dunk on the NJIT striker in our box, forgetting that you can't use your hands in soccer... & Assistant Coach Cory Robertson for spraining his ankle in the frenzied victory celebration after the game winning goal.  If Cory hasn't burned it yet, hopefully we will be able to get a hold of that video clip to post up on the site soon.  Both Baf & Cory did redeemed themselves as Baf assisted on the game winner and Cory injured and all, sucked it up and hobbled over to Cav's for the post-game reception.  After due consideration - I leave the "Poop Squad" Player of the Game up to a vote...

Soccer 6 Co-Champs

You would think a 3-1 win over Temple to clinch a share of the Soccer 6 title would have everyone super excited.  After all Malcolm Lebourne got the dragons off to a good start with a goal assisted by Nate Baker in the 19th minute.  Although the goal was a good one, the celebration (a weak attempt at some kind of "heart attack, but brought back to life") left a lot to be desired.  Sticking to a high five for next time is probably a good idea...

Decent start aside, the rest of the game did not go as smoothly as it could have.  In the first half our midfield looked nervous and unsure of the playing surface.  The usually solid Ken Tribbet & Anthony Bafile combo had a few ugly giveaways, as well as the back four not being able to decide when to clear the ball and when to play out of the back.  Temple took advantage of the sloppy play in the back and grabbed an equalizer in the 34th minute.  In the second half Drexel was pounded on goal.  Were it not for Tim Washam coming up with some huge saves (and Temple's entire collection of front players having the putting skills of Happy Gilmore) the game might have went differently.  Coach Hess himself said - "We needed to come in here and make a statement that we were the Soccer 6 Champs, I don't know if we did that." 

Luckily for Drexel, Goldberg grabbed the game winner yet again and Nathan "Gerrard" Page tucked away a third goal late to put the game away.  Even though the Temple win wasn't as convincing as the first two wins of the season, we managed to pull out a win while significantly under performing and there is always good news in that.  

MAN OF THE MATCH:  Taylor Brophy.  You have to be doing something right when one of your roommates (Goldberg) scores the game winner and the other (Washam) makes more saves in one game than Chris Seitz has in his entire career.

"POOP SQUAD" PLAYER OF THE GAME:  Goes to freshman center back Nolan Hemmer from Temple for his epic Charlie Brown whiff that lead to Goldberg's game winning goal.  Don't worry kid you still have 4 years to become the next J.T. Noone...    

Check out the official game recap and box score at drexeldragons.com.

The boys are back to Vidas Field on Monday night at 7:00pm -vs- NJIT.  

Goldberg, CAA Player of the Week

A nice little addition to last post, Goldberg is CAA "Co-Player of the Week" for 2 goals against Nova and the closer in a 5-0 rout of Canisius, atta boy.  

Official DU write up on drexeldragons.com.  

Official CAA write up on caasports.com.  

Now if we can only get someone with a more "media-friendly" face to score a few goals we will stop scaring off so many female fans... When's Dan "The Situation" Vignola gonna get on the box score?

In other news:  

 - Drexel will play South Florida (@ Florida Gulf Coast) 
on Sept. 18th at 5:00pm so catch 
South Florida -vs- Virginia Tech, this Friday night 
on Fox Soccer Channel at 8:00pm 
to see what we'll be up against.  

 - The Ineligibles will be tailgating over at Temple
this Saturday Sept. 11th.  Click for info/details.

 - The Ineligibles will be tailgating at Vidas Field
next Monday Sept. 13th.  Click for info/details.  

Knucklepuck Goldberg!

Drexel keeps on rollin with a 2-0 whoopin of Nova today. While the actual possession might have been a bit more even, it seemed like it was 90/10 in Drexel's favor. Complete domination, and no wonder with clowns like the "Downs Syndrome Twins" Kyle (#5) and Kyle (#7), "The 5ft Wonder" Peter Schmid-it and "The Human Turnover" Anthony Griffith on the Villanova squad. Drexel on the other hand had another good showing throughout most of the team. Aside from Goldberg stealing the show with two quality goals, Drexel's defense delivered a more reassuring performance on their second go around on Vidas Field. Left back Skylar Olson, and 21year old freshman center back Tal Bubil each had standout performances. Freshman goalkeeper Pentti Pussinen got the starting nod and managed to grab a shut out without having to do too much work. Hopefully the boys can wrap up a Philadelphia Soccer Six title with a win at Temple at 2:00pm next Saturday, September 11th.

MAN OF THE MATCH - Andrew Goldberg with 2 sexy goals.

"POOP SQUAD" PLAYER OF THE GAME - Chris Christian from Villanova, for injuring himself and possibly ending his own season while fouling Nate Page in just the 18th minute. Well done.

Check out drexeldragons.com for the official game recap and box score.

Hell of a start!

Drexel's 2nd half rout of Canisius was a confidence booster, if nothing else.  For the official write up check out drexeldragons.com on the left side of the web page.  As far as I'm concerned though 5-0 second half scoring flood sounds like a great way to start off the season.  True Canisius was't the most threatening collection of defenders ever... the scariest thing about the back four might have been their timing on tackles.  Luckily none of our boys were seriously injured by some infuriatingly reckless challenges.  Especially these two young bulls (below).  If these two are the future of Drexel Soccer, I'm excited!  Don't get me wrong most of the team's offensive players played well.  Malcolm Lebourne, Nate Page, old timer Tony Bafile, Nate Baker, Andrew Goldberg, and  fan favorite Max Crockett were all seriously responsible for giving the Canisius defenders the worst screaming at (maybe even beating...) after the game I have heard in a very very long time (thin walls in the visitors locker-room...).  Not much to comment on defensively for the Dragons, minus a hefty handful of horribly defended corners on our part in the first half.  Hopefully we give a better showing against Villanova this weekend, we're going to need it.      

Brandon Zeller #13

Manny Cazarez #10

Let's see how "The Red Dragon" (Doug's self proclaimed nickname..) and his boys do this Saturday (September 4th, @ 3:00pm) VS Villanova .  Come join the Ineligibles at our pre-game tailgate starting at 12:00noon to grab some free food and appropriate beverages supplied as always by Cavanaugh's Restaurant & Sports Bar!  

Stolle's Ugly Mug

Who picked the two ugliest players on the team to do a promo for the season opener?  Anyone considering coming to this match has now been scared off.

However, the season opener is upon us. Obviously no tailgate for this game because most of The Ineligibles have to work today but everyone should follow the game by clicking on the Live Stats link to your right.  Yes, its true, we finally have Live Stats.  We are officially the last Division 1 university to get them as even Delaware beat us to it.