MIAA Boys State Tournament

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Sutton's regular season record was 15-1-2. They played 18 matches - half of those were against Division 1 and 2 squads with their only loss coming against CMass District Champ North High (as well as a win against Bromfield - another traditional Div. 3 power who they defeated a second time in the District Semis). Why anyone would assume the East would win is beyond me. What you have to understand about Sutton is this:

1. Good coach.

2. They lose very few athletes to football - Sutton doesn't have football and only a few peel off to play for Oxford HS (though some do run Cross Country which is also traditionally strong).

3. A lot of club players - Fuller Hamlets' home fields are two miles from Sutton HS and Liverpool is situated in neightboring Oxford.

4. Large pool of players - they fielded 40 players on the Varsity and JV combined after cutting 10 or so. The JV squad featured 22 players of which 17 or 18 are club players and of those 6 or 7 play Div 1 MAPLE - U-15 FC United, U-14 Liverpool and U-13 Fuller Hamlets.

Honestly, while the school enrollment is Div 3, the pool size and talent they have to work with is much more akin to a good sized Div 2 program. Incidentally, they lose only 3 seniors and will fill those spots from a large, strong pool of current Freshmen (there were 13 on the JV squad this year - none of them played on the Varsity regularly).

- Odie

Good summary. Sutton is a great sports school. They won the DVC this year, and I'm sure will rub it in with Div2 Nipmuc, who routinely has kidded them for choking in the past. The Sammies now have a state title, while Nipmuc has fallen short many times recently.

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I wouldn't be too cocky just yet...I'll put my money on C-C.

And on the girls side (where it matters for soccer!) EMass won D1 & D3.

Let's talk about cocky. I get CC's great coach, program, EMass Champs, and them being favored tonight. I don't get the championship swagger bit. Only 2 of 17 players who held the state trophy are back this year. A little premature for the swagger IMHO. Sutton has 8 starters back next year. They can swagger if they want.

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I'm a CMass person who was rooting for North. Giving the goalie a red card might effect Ludlow in the next game but not yours. North lost.

You can't make decisions as an official about the next game, only about the game you are officiating. If the GK deserved a red, he should have gotten it. With 2 minutes left and no starting GK in net, a good North team may have tied it and who knows where things would have gone from there.

I congratulate Ludlow on their Championship win, but I hate seeing a game determined by poor officiating and that seems to be the case in the semi finals.

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I wonder if EMass D3 teams seem to win more because the enrollment of the D3 schools in EMass seems to be much bigger than the enrollment of the D3 schools in CMass and WMass. Where a D1 team (like Ludlow) can still pull from a large student pool, when you have less than 200 boys (or girls), it's much harder to field a great team. http://www.miaa.net/gen/miaa_generat...erboys0912.pdf

Can you provide a link for the girls side? I don't know how to find it myself.

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To poster #79 -- the above link has 3 columns -- one for boys, one for girls and total.

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To poster #79 -- the above link has 3 columns -- one for boys, one for girls and total.

But the heading says boys. I didn't check to see if all the teams on the girls side are included.

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You can't make decisions as an official about the next game, only about the game you are officiating. If the GK deserved a red, he should have gotten it. With 2 minutes left and no starting GK in net, a good North team may have tied it and who knows where things would have gone from there.

I congratulate Ludlow on their Championship win, but I hate seeing a game determined by poor officiating and that seems to be the case in the semi finals.

MIAA Rule 77.2.7 A player receiving a red card will be suspended for the next two games....
Hence the big deal on rescinding the cards. A least one article said the whistle blew seconds after the goalie incident. Was there 2 minutes left or was the clock just sitting on 2 like it always does?

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MIAA Rule 77.2.7 A player receiving a red card will be suspended for the next two games....
Hence the big deal on rescinding the cards. A least one article said the whistle blew seconds after the goalie incident. Was there 2 minutes left or was the clock just sitting on 2 like it always does?

From Mass Live:

It was obvious to the casual observer that the center referee wanted Ludlow to win the game and did everything in his power to make that happen. Including “rescinding” two Ludlow red cards (fighting) after consulting with the Ludlow coach and Ludlow AD on the sidelines after the game. What is that all about? Since when have you ever seen a referee rescind a red card (for fighting) on the sidelines after a game? The correct answer is never. There is an MIAA appeals process for these matters and they all circumvented that process. If you spend any time watching youth & HS soccer games, you know and come expect these outcomes for Ludlow soccer. So much for the rule book. Sad, very sad

Sorry Ludlow. While I'm glad you won, it really sux if red cards were given for the fight, as they should, and then taken back. Not a good message for adults to be giving adolesents.

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I wouldn't be too cocky just yet...I'll put my money on C-C.

And on the girls side (where it matters for soccer!) EMass won D1 & D3.

Hope you didn't put too much money down.... :)

GD 2 CC 0

Not only did GD win, but the first half was all GD.

Congrats to both for making it to the finals. The clearly better team won, but both were so skilled and fun to watch. Great soccer and a great, clean game.

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Hope you didn't put too much money down.... :)

GD 2 CC 0

Not only did GD win, but the first half was all GD.

Congrats to both for making it to the finals. The clearly better team won, but both were so skilled and fun to watch. Great soccer and a great, clean game.

Just got home. Not sure when I've seen so many total shots in a game. The score should have been 6-4. Exciting to watch.

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From Mass Live:

It was obvious to the casual observer that the center referee wanted Ludlow to win the game and did everything in his power to make that happen. Including “rescinding” two Ludlow red cards (fighting) after consulting with the Ludlow coach and Ludlow AD on the sidelines after the game. What is that all about? Since when have you ever seen a referee rescind a red card (for fighting) on the sidelines after a game? The correct answer is never. There is an MIAA appeals process for these matters and they all circumvented that process. If you spend any time watching youth & HS soccer games, you know and come expect these outcomes for Ludlow soccer. So much for the rule book. Sad, very sad

Sorry Ludlow. While I'm glad you won, it really sux if red cards were given for the fight, as they should, and then taken back. Not a good message for adults to be giving adolesents.

Obviously a post from a Ludlow hater or Masco/WN fan. Having been at the game it was obvious that the refs gave the majority of the calls to WN so Im not sure how that helps Ludlow win. They called the game with a minute left due to the fact that they lost control of it and wanted to avoid a bad scene which ended up happening anyway. All the Ludlow haters on this board are classic. So sorry we won again and have been a MA State power for so long. Must be hard for all the greater Boston teams with a much larger talent pool to lose each year to a bunch of "hicks" from W. Mass. Ludlow won again, get over it. You people sound like all those NFL fans who still think the Patriots are cheaters and get all the calls.

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Obviously a post from a Ludlow hater or Masco/WN fan. Having been at the game it was obvious that the refs gave the majority of the calls to WN so Im not sure how that helps Ludlow win. They called the game with a minute left due to the fact that they lost control of it and wanted to avoid a bad scene which ended up happening anyway. All the Ludlow haters on this board are classic. So sorry we won again and have been a MA State power for so long. Must be hard for all the greater Boston teams with a much larger talent pool to lose each year to a bunch of "hicks" from W. Mass. Ludlow won again, get over it. You people sound like all those NFL fans who still think the Patriots are cheaters and get all the calls.

I am not a fan of any of these teams. More so, I am from the Western part of the state and have played against Ludlow a number of teams with some success....being a tie here and there. However, the Red Card rule has a number of caveats to it. You only need to go to the MIAA website to see them. The first few seem to be of particular relevance. There do not seem to be any exceptions regarding tournament play. Therefore, a rule is a rule.

77.2.4 Any player who receives a yellow card shall be replaced and shall not re-enter the contest until the next opportunity for substitution occurs.
77.2.5 A player committing a second yellow card infraction in the same contest receives a red card. There are no exceptions.
77.2.6 Any player who receives a red card is ejected from the contest and shall be suspended from further participation for the next two contests; if a player receives a second red card within the same season, the player is suspended from further participation in that contest and the next two contests.
77.2.7 The receipt of two red cards for fighting or for flagrant unsportsmanlike behavior in the same season will result in a one-year suspension (from the date of the second offense) in all Fall sports.
77.2.8 Any team whose players/coaches receive collectively a total of more than four red cards during the regular season shall not qualify for the MIAA tournament. (see page 96 for appeal process).
77.2.9 After a combination of five red cards, subsequent violations will result in a team forfeiture of the next MIAA contest. These penalties will carry over to the next season should the violation occur in the final contest of the season.


If, in fact, a player received a red card, that player should have missed the next two contests. This is regardless of the reason for the red card. If players from Ludlow received red cards during the semifinal match, then those player (s) should have missed the final match.

The only friendly thing that officials do for 'red cards' occurs when it is in the face of a second yellow card. While that particular player must leave the game (and miss the next two games), the team does not necessarily have to play a man down. This was the case during the Needham/GNBV South sectional final.

Sorry....Ludlow.....but based on the state rules, you don't have any solid ground to stand on.

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To poster #79 & #81 -- from the MIAA home page, select "Alignments" under the Quick Links heading - right hand side of the page. Then under the heading "Fall Sports" - top left. Hope that helps.

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Maybe after a thorough investigation Ludlow can be stripped of the state title and then Brookline can be properly crowned.

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I am not a fan of any of these teams. More so, I am from the Western part of the state and have played against Ludlow a number of teams with some success....being a tie here and there. However, the Red Card rule has a number of caveats to it. You only need to go to the MIAA website to see them. The first few seem to be of particular relevance. There do not seem to be any exceptions regarding tournament play. Therefore, a rule is a rule.

77.2.4 Any player who receives a yellow card shall be replaced and shall not re-enter the contest until the next opportunity for substitution occurs.
77.2.5 A player committing a second yellow card infraction in the same contest receives a red card. There are no exceptions.
77.2.6 Any player who receives a red card is ejected from the contest and shall be suspended from further participation for the next two contests; if a player receives a second red card within the same season, the player is suspended from further participation in that contest and the next two contests.
77.2.7 The receipt of two red cards for fighting or for flagrant unsportsmanlike behavior in the same season will result in a one-year suspension (from the date of the second offense) in all Fall sports.
77.2.8 Any team whose players/coaches receive collectively a total of more than four red cards during the regular season shall not qualify for the MIAA tournament. (see page 96 for appeal process).
77.2.9 After a combination of five red cards, subsequent violations will result in a team forfeiture of the next MIAA contest. These penalties will carry over to the next season should the violation occur in the final contest of the season.


If, in fact, a player received a red card, that player should have missed the next two contests. This is regardless of the reason for the red card. If players from Ludlow received red cards during the semifinal match, then those player (s) should have missed the final match.

The only friendly thing that officials do for 'red cards' occurs when it is in the face of a second yellow card. While that particular player must leave the game (and miss the next two games), the team does not necessarily have to play a man down. This was the case during the Needham/GNBV South sectional final.

Sorry....Ludlow.....but based on the state rules, you don't have any solid ground to stand on.

LOL, I have had some success at tie here and there.... Yep thats something to boast about. So for the most part Ludlow gave you or your team the beatdown. Jealous hater, go whine to MIAA if you have a beef with their decision and stop blaming LHS, the coaches and players.