Okay, finally some real results to talk about. Weekend action from NL March Invitational and Spring Thaw. Rankings are US Club Lacrosse FWIW. Results from Tourney Machine:
Hawks 16-0 NXT (68)
Hawks 15-2 Barnstormers (nr)
Hawks 11-4 Freedom (14)
Crabs 16-0 Barnstormers (nr)
Crabs 6-5 Freedom (14)
Crabs 16-1 NJ Express (89)
ML 6-11 Freedom (14)
ML 7-1 NJ Express (89)
ML 8-6 NXT (68)
NL 3-6 DCE (24)
NL 3-9 Red Hots (4)
NL 8-6 Clippers (56)
NL 4-5 FCA (not sure why but nr; if I'm guessing I put them 10-15)
NL 4-10 Leading Edge (3)
FCA 3-5 Leading Edge (3)
FCA 5-4 NL (19)
FCA 8-3 Clippers (56)
91 3-10 Red Hots (4)
91 8-2 NJ Riot (59)
91 3-8 Nationals LC (nr)
Clippers 6-8 NL (19)
Clippers 4-9 Leading Edge (3)
Clippers 3-8 FCA (nr)
DCE 6-3 NL (19)
DCE 4-9 Leading Edge (3)
DCE 2-4 Red Hots (4)
DCE 12-6 Nationals LC (nr)
Observations
--Level of competition was higher at NL March Invitational. Hard to gauge Crabs/ML/Hawks versus some of the teams they played other than Philadelphia Freedom.
--Clippers went 0-3 but overachieved, kept it close versus some good teams.
--NL needs to fix things quickly, 1-4 at their own tournament, still having trouble scoring.
--Expected bigger margin of victory from FCA.
--DCE looking like a top 4 Hoco team at the expense of NL and ML. Early Hoco playoff predictions are (1) Hawks, (2) FCA, (3)/(4) DCE/Crabs.
Usual caveats that the weather was terrible and that teams are still experimenting with schemes and personnel.
FCA getting way too much credit. Barely handled NL, who is a shell of the team they used to be. Haven’t seen them score 5 goals in about a year.
DCE and Crabs should be ahead of them. DCE the big surprise upstart. The Nationals team was no pushover, they blew out Team 91 MD and DCE ram them off the field.
Hawks clearly the leader well out in front of the pack.
