LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – In exclusive voting by the league's head soccer coaches, Luis Green of Texas Lutheran University was selected 2019 SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year, the second consecutive season he has earned the honor, while University of St. Thomas' Carlos Marquez was tabbed as SCAC Defensive Player-of-the-Year. Complete Release
In that same balloting, Colorado College's Griffin Meyer earned Newcomer-of-the-Year honors while his head coach, Scott Palguta, was named SCAC Coach-of-the-Year.
A sophomore forward from Monterrey, Mexico, Luis Green picked up where he left off a season ago, leading the conference in scoring with 18 goals (tying his DIII era program record set last season), 85 shots and 39 points. His 36 goals the last two seasons are the most by a SCAC player over a two-year span since Chris Quinn of Trinity had 39 combined in 2003 and 2004. With the postseason remaining, Green is on pace to become the first student-athlete to lead the league in scoring in back-to-back seasons since Johnny Lawson of Trinity accomplished the feat in 2013 and 2014. A two-time SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week during the season, Green had five game-winning goals (also tops in the conference) and posted three hat-tricks, including one in a non-conference, 3-2, win over Colorado College on Sept. 20 and another in a Nov. 1, 6-1, conference victory at Centenary. Green's selection as SCAC Offensive Player-of-the-Year marks the first time a player has won the award in each of his first two seasons in the league. Neil Brunetz of Rhodes College won conference Player-of-the-Year honors as a freshman and a sophomore in 1992 and 1993 – before the award was separated into Offensive and Defensive POTY.
Green received nine votes in the balloting for Offensive Player-of-the-Year honors while first-year midfielder Griffin Meyer of Colorado College received the remaining first-place vote.
Carlos Marquez, a senior defender from El Paso, Texas, has been a two-year captain for the Celts and spearheaded a group that led the SCAC during the regular season in both goals allowed (16) and goals against average (0.99) in the program's inaugural year in the conference. St. Thomas also finished tied with Colorado College with seven shutouts during the regular season and the Celts' four shutouts in conference play ranks second. An all-around threat, Marquez was also the team's leader in goals scored with six (tied for eighth in the SCAC) from his central defender position with half of those resulting in game-winners (tied for fifth in the SCAC). Marquez is obviously the first major award from first-year league member St. Thomas and his selection marks the first time a student-athlete from a team in its inaugural season in the SCAC has received either Offensive or Defensive POTY recognition.
Marquez received four votes first-place votes in the Defensive Player-of-the-Year selection process, narrowly out-balloting sophomore defender Jacob Galan of Trinity, who received three votes. Senior defender Lalo Lopez-Rivera of Texas Lutheran received two first-place votes and sophomore goalkeeper Keleher Felton of Colorado College picked up the remaining first-place vote.
Griffin Meyer, a first-year midfielder from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, led all first-year players with 10 goals (tied for second in the SCAC) and points with 22 (fourth in the SCAC) in leading the Tigers to the program's first-ever SCAC regular season title. Meyer is the first CC player to record double-digit goals in a season since Brandon Ogilvie in 2014 and the first freshman to accomplish the feat since Matt Fechter in 2009. He had four game-winners during the season (tied for second in the SCAC), including the difference maker against Trinity on Oct. 27 when he earned SCAC Offensive POTW honors. He is the fifth player in program history to earn SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year honors, and the first since Joel Frykholm earned a share of the award following the 2016 season.
Meyer received six votes in the Newcomer-of-the-Year voting while first-year midfielder Michael Pham of Trinity and first-year Marco Roman of Texas Lutheran each received two first-place votes.
In his fifth season at the helm at Colorado College, Palguta led the Tigers to the program's first-ever SCAC regular season title and a current No. 22 ranking in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll. CC will be the top seed at this weekend's conference tournament after compiling an 8-1 conference mark (13-5 overall). Palguta currently sports a 67-21-10 career coaching mark, placing him second all-time among SCAC men's soccer coaches (with five or more years) in winning percentage (.735). He is already eighth all-time in conference wins with 51 and his .806 conference winning percentage (51-10-6) ranks second all-time. The SCAC Coach-of-the-Year honor is the first for Palguta.
To view the entire 2019 All-SCAC Men's Soccer Team, click here.
