College Soccer Week 2 Rewind & Awards

The second week of the Division 1 college soccer season was a wild one – and I’m not just talking about Maryland newcomer Gordon Wild (see below).

Abu Danladi, arguably the biggest prospect in college soccer right now, returned from injury on Monday and scored a pair of goals 11 seconds apart in a dominant 6-1 win for No. 9 UCLA over top-ranked Akron. Jackson Yueill, who is looking more and more like he should be Minnesota United’s first pick in the 2017 SuperDraft, assisted on all four goals in the second half, three of which were scored in just a 32-second span.

Other shocking results, which are more or less a constant in the early weeks of the always unpredictable college season, weren’t hard to find.

Villanova scored a marquee upset victory over No. 11 Boston College on Sunday for their first win of the season, San Diego State handed Akron their first loss of the season on Friday and two of last year’s best teams, Georgetown and national champion Stanford, somehow remained without a win through the long holiday weekend.

In other action, Omaha showed that it is more than just a college baseball town, drawing 4,766 fans to Morrison Stadium on Monday night to witness a hard-fought 1-1 draw between Omaha and Creighton in the first regular season match between the two schools as Division 1 opponents. The crowd was the 11th-largest in Creighton program history.

Locally, Temple made it a perfect 4-0 record to start the season in their new home on North Broad Street with wins over Pitt and Northeastern. They needed to overcome an early deficit after conceding their first goal of the season on Friday, but had little trouble topping Northeastern on Sunday. The Owls are now 11-1-2 in August and September games over the past two seasons.

Penn opened their season with back-to-back draws to American and Seton Hall, something the program has never done in its 106-year history while Villanova had a respectable split of their Boston road trip with the win over Boston College after a Friday loss to Harvard.

Penn and Drexel showed that struggling to play against 10 men isn’t just a Philadelphia Union problem as the Quakers failed to capitalize on a seventh minute red card shown to Seton Hall and Drexel blew a 1-0 lead on Iona after they had a player sent off on Saturday.

With week two in the books, let’s move now to the awards.

Players of the Week

Philadelphia Union Academy Player of the Week: Connor Maloney, Sr., Penn State
Maloney scored a pair of goals over the weekend, including a game-winner in a 1-0 victory over James Madison on Friday and the first goal in a 2-1 overtime win over Oakland on Monday. He now has three goals for the season and 22 for his career.

Regional Player of the Week: Carlos Moros Gracia, Sr., Temple
Gracia was an absolute beast for Temple over the weekend on both ends of the field. Down 1-0 to Pitt, he kick-started the offense with a goal and created a couple other chances when he got forward on set pieces while also stalling several Pitt counter attacks. He followed that up with an assist on Sunday in the Owl’s third shutout of the season.

National Player of the Week: Luka Prpa, Fr., Marquette
The midfielder from Wind Lake, Wisconsin had a week to remember with four goals and four assists from a pair of victories for a Marquette team that didn’t have very high hopes heading into the season. Through four games, he has an eye-opening five goals and five assists to lead the 3-1 Golden Eagles.

Goal of the Week

It’s hard to pass on Brian White’s golazo or Brandon Aubrey’s free kick winner, but I can’t stop watching this sequence of Chris Odoi-Atsem setting up Gordon Wild for the cheeky back heel goal from Monday night.

Regional/Philadelphia Union Academy Team of the Week

Goalkeeper: Will Steiner, R-Jr., Villanova
When your coach uses the word ridiculous to describe a pair of game-changing saves, you’ve had a good game. Steiner stepped up big to secure the upset over No. 11 Boston College on Sunday.

Defender: Carlos Moros Gracia, Sr., Temple (see above)

Defender: Nikkye DePoint, Fr., Villanova
DePoint scored a late goal to spark a rally attempt in a loss to Harvard on Friday and anchored the defense in the win over Boston College.

Defender: Billy McConnell, Sr., Indiana**
McConnell and the rest of the Hoosier defense held off defending champions Stanford for 67 minutes after Grant Lillard was sent off with a second yellow late in the first half to earn a scoreless draw. It sure wasn’t pretty to watch, but it was a gritty performance.

Midfielder: Robert Miller III, Fr., Bowling Green*
Miller scored his first collegiate goal and added an assist in a 3-0 win over Marshall on Friday. The former Union Academy and PA Classics attacker has a goal and three assists on the year.

Midfielder: Aaron Herr, Sr., Michigan State**
Herr had a pair of assists in Michigan State’s 2-1 win over Columbia on Monday.

Brian White: Brian White, Jr., Duke**
White’s golazo was the difference in a hard-fought match against UCLA in Westwood on Friday. The junior from Flemington, N.J. has a pair of goals and an assist on the season.

Forward: Connor Maloney, Sr., Penn State (see above)**

Forward: Sebastian Elney, So., Maryland*
Elney opened his scoring account for the season with a goal in a 5-0 win over Hartford last Monday. While it doesn’t show up in the box score, his holdup play and skill on and off the ball have been vital to an offense clicking right now on all cylinders.

Forward: Jorge Gomez Sanchez, Sr., Temple
Gomez Sanchez stayed hot, scoring the late winner on Friday to beat Pitt and adding a free kick goal and assist on Sunday. He has four goals and a pair of assists on the season.

Forward: Kenny Lassiter, R-Jr., Syracuse**
Lassiter scored his second of the year and was a general pest all night to the Colgate defense in a 3-0 win on Thursday night. The Narbeth native who was on the Union’s 2012 Generation adidas Cup squad received a standing ovation when he subbed out late in the game.

* Philadelphia Union Academy alum 2013-2016
** Played in Union Academy as a member of a youth club affiliate

National Team of the Week

Goalkeeper: Robert Moewes, Grad, Duke
Had an eight-save performance against a UCLA offense we learned Monday is extremely potent. He did get some help though from a bad PK miss by Brian Iloski.

Defender: Miles Robinson, So., Syracuse
Robinson showed his ability on both ends of the field, registering a brace and assisting on the overtime winner to beat St. John’s and helping his team pitch a shutout against Colgate earlier in the week.

Defender: Brandon Aubrey, Sr., Notre Dame
Scored his third of the season and second game-winner off a free kick to beat Stanford in overtime on Friday and then anchored a defense that shut out Cal on Sunday.

Defender: Callum Montgomery, So., Charlotte
Montgomery did it all for the 49ers in lopsided wins over Hofstra and Rutgers, helping the back line secure two clean sheets while finding the back of the net three times.

Defender: Carlos Moros Gracia, Sr., Temple (see above)

Midfielder: Luke Prpa, Fr., Marquette
He just can’t stop creating goals. Four goals and four assists in two games this week.

Midfielder: Jackson Yueill, So., UCLA
Four assists in one half is quite a feat, even for someone as gifted as the Minnesota native, who pulled it off in a stunning 6-1 defeat of No. 1 Akron on Monday.

Midfielder: Lewis Suddick, Fr., Butler
It’s never easy to find and keep your rhythm after sitting through a weather delay but rookie Lewis Suddick did it twice, completing a hat trick after two hours of lightning delays to go along with an assist in a 4-2 win over IUPUI on Tuesday.

Forward: Brian Wright, Sr., Vermont
Vermont improved to 4-0 after another pair of shutouts over the weekend thanks to Wright and fellow senior Bernard Yeboah. The Canadian had two goals and four assists in the two games, assisting on Yeboah goals three times. He’s now registered a goal and an assist in four straight games and has four goals and six assists on the year.

Forward: Cameron Harr, So., Marist
The Red Bulls Academy alum scored the first Marist hat trick since 2011 in a 3-1 win over Hartwick Tuesday and followed it up with a brace against Army in a 2-1 win for a five-goal week.

Forward: Gordon Wild, So., Maryland
Wild has had no problem adjusting to life in the Big 10 program, registering his second brace of the season on Monday night after scoring the game winner to beat Georgetown on Friday. He leads the Terps with five goals and an assist in four games.