Couturier and Jones Highlight Men’s Soccer Honor Roll
SAVANNAH, Ga. – The Sun Conference announced the 2014 Men’s Soccer All-Conference awards and superlatives on Thursday evening at the 2014 Sun Conference Men’s Soccer Tournament Banquet hosted by SCAD Savannah. The semifinals and finals of the tournament are set to take place Friday and Saturday at the SCAD Athletics Complex in Hardeeville, S.C. and will feature top-seeded SCAD Savannah, second-seeded Florida Memorial, third-seeded Thomas and fifth-seeded Embry-Riddle. The All-Conference teams featured 25 student-athletes from nine of the league’s 11 teams and an 11-member Honorable Mention squad with six schools represented.
Sun Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors went to Embry-Riddle’s Veit Couturier, a 6-3 senior forward from Loerrach, Germany. Couturier, a four-time All-Sun Conference performer, led the conference with 14 goals and 32 points on the year. The senior added four assists and paced the conference with 80 shots and had two game-winning goals. Couturier also earned Sun Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors on Oct. 13 for the third time in his career.
Shane Jones, a senior defender for Southeastern, was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. The 6-5 native of Hudson, Fla. earned first team All-Conference honors for the second straight season in 2014, helping the Fire to three shutouts and a 1.28 goals against average. Jones also contributed on the offensive end of the pitch, scoring two goals for SEU. Jones was the league’s Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 1 and was last season’s Champion of Character award winner for the conference.
For the first time a Freshman of the Year award was given in men’s soccer with Matias Solari of Florida Memorial claiming the inaugural prize. The freshman from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. started in 12 games with three goals and four assists, all three scored being game-winners for the Lions.
The 2014 selection for the league’s Champion of Character award went to Pedro Codo of Johnson & Wales for his embodiment of the five core character values the NAIA embraces. Codo, who also earned second team All-Conference accolades, is a junior from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“Pedro is our team captain and leads our team through his extraordinary example,” Johnson & Wales Head Coach Phil Zayas said. “Pedro teaches in a church in Orlando and drives four hours to and from Orlando every single weekend to teach in his church. Pedro has started a ministry on the campus here at Johnson & Wales and is a young man of 100% character.”
Co-Coaches of the Year accolades went to Thomas’ Ricky Zambrano and SCAD Savannah’s Tom Melville. Zambrano guided the Night Hawks to the No. 1 ranking for several weeks during the season, producing several key victories over top-ranked NAIA squads, including knocking off then-No. 1 and defending national champion Martin Methodist, 3-1 on Sept. 12. Thomas went 12-2-3 in the regular season, with a 7-2-1 mark in TSC play.
Melville’s SCAD Savannah squad captured its first Sun Conference regular season championship since 2010 with a near-perfect 9-0-1 mark in league action. The Bees finished the regular season at 10-2-3 and are riding a 14-game unbeaten streak dating back to Sept. 6. The Bees, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, have allowed just 10 goals all season long with a 0.63 goals against average and eight shutouts on the season.
Florida Memorial led the league with five players on the All-Conference roster while both Thomas and Northwood had three first team selections. Additionally, 47 student-athletes were named to the Academic All-Conference team, highlighted by SCAD senior Sergi Collado who is majoring in Architecture and carries a 4.0 GPA.
Offensive Player of the Year
Veit Couturier, Embry-Riddle
Defensive Player of the Year
Shane Jones, Southeastern
Freshman of the Year
Matias Solari, Florida Memorial
Champion of Character
Pedro Codo, Johnson & Wales
Co-Coaches of the Year
Ricky Zambrano, Thomas
Tom Melville, SCAD Savannah
First Team All-Conference
GK – Mark Dawson, Northwood
GK – David Danahy, Southeastern
D – Shane Jones, Southeastern
D – Alan McCann, Northwood
D – Donal Branagan, Thomas
D – Stephen McGinn, Webber International
MF – Mark Hanlon, Northwood
MF – Naim El-Harrati, SCAD Savannah
MF – Lyle Gifford, Thomas
MF – Jose Vidal-Bazterrica, Florida Memorial
F – Veit Couturier, Embry-Riddle
F – Severin Abt, Thomas
F – Jordan Trinci-Lyne, SCAD Savannah
F – Bruno Da Silva, Warner
Second Team All-Conferecne
GK – Fernando Zeledon, SCAD Savannah
D – Martin Scapparone, Florida Memorial
D – Tom Rouine, SCAD Savannah
D – Magnus Magnusson, Embry-Riddle
D – Craig Mooney, Northwood
MF – Pablo Garcia, Florida Memorial
MF – Pedro Ivo Dias, Southeastern
MF – Diego Hurtado, Thomas
MF – Henrique Rezek, Florida Memorial
F – Pedro Codo, Johnson & Wales
F – Marco Perretta, Florida Memorial
Honorable Mention All-Conference
GK – Alex Condell, Thomas
D – Andrew Berg, Thomas
D – Gerritson Craane, Southeastern
D – Tobias Gerber, Embry-Riddle
D – Francesc Casas, SCAD Savannah
MF – Patrick Ramdial, Thomas
MF – Torin Melville, SCAD Savannah
MF – Leonardo Cid, Webber International
MF – Christian Costilla, Northwood
F – Daniel Gylfason, Embry-Riddle
F – Jonathon McGrath, Thomas
Academic All-Conference
Marcus LoFranco, Ave Maria
Marcus O'Donnell, Ave Maria
Nils Carlson, Embry-Riddle
Tobias Gerber, Embry-Riddle
Brian Porter, Embry-Riddle
Gabriel Umansky, Florida Memorial
Juan Cruz Pegoraro, Florida Memorial
Henrique Rezek, Florida Memorial
Lucas Boltshauser, Florida Memorial
Santiago Crosetti, Florida Memorial
Gerardo Schoeller, Florida Memorial
Carlos M. Ledesma, Florida Memorial
Hernan Luis Liporace, Florida Memorial
Jose Vidal Bazterrica, Florida Memorial
Martin Scapparone, Florida Memorial
Lucas Vigliaccio, Florida Memorial
Marco Perreta, Florida Memorial
Agustin Fernandez-Saralegui, Florida Memorial
Gustavo Gordillo, Florida Memorial
Jacob Achinah, Johnson and Wales
Steve Njike, Johnson and Wales
Liam Gourlay, Northwood
Calum Denham, Northwood
Gurvinder Cainth, Northwood
Ali Bassir, SCAD Savannah
Torin Melville, SCAD Savannah
Seth Fite, SCAD Savannah
Alex Jamroz, SCAD Savannah
Joshua Brown, SCAD Savannah
Sergi Collado, SCAD Savannah
Gustavo Da Silva, Southeastern
Trent Kiger, Southeastern
Tyler Hoitsma, Southeastern
Christian Bores, Southeastern
Tony Mamodaly, St. Thomas
Deljan Bregasi, St. Thomas
Severin Abt, Thomas
Andrew Berg, Thomas
Luis Berrios, Thomas
Eric Persson, Thomas
Jake Slocomb, Thomas
Alex Condell, Thomas
Juan Figueroa, Thomas
Richard Slaney, Thomas
Patrick Ramdial, Thomas
Thomas Etorena, Webber International
David Steeb, Webber International