2021 Great Midwest Men's Soccer All-Conference Team (PDF)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Prior to the start of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Championship semifinal round from the campus of Ohio Dominican University, the 2020-21 all-conference team was announced on Wednesday evening.
A total of 33 student-athletes were voted by the league’s coaches to either the first, second or third team, and individual awards were also decided on the ballot for spring season accomplishments.
The conference championship semis will feature No. 1 Ohio Valley, No. 2 Cedarville, No. 3 Tiffin and No. 5 Ohio Dominican at Panther Stadium on Thursday.
Ohio Valley, ranked third in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, accepted the 2020-21 regular season championship trophy following their team practice upon arrival earlier in the day. The Fighting Scots are the tournament’s top seed and have reeled off an undefeated spring without a tie in any of their outcomes.
OVU’s program received a pair of highly-regarded individual awards, including Great Midwest Offensive Player of the Year for Juan Hoyos and Great Midwest Coach of the Year for Jordan Valentine.
Hoyos, a senior forward, has been an instrumental force during the Fighting Scots’ rise to national prominence, which included a Sweet 16 run through Super Region 3 to close out the 2019 fall campaign. This spring, Hoyos led the conference in total points with 22 and he was the league leader in goals scored with 10. Two of those shots were game winners and he had a total of 15 shots on goal while averaging 2.44 points per game going into tomorrow’s matchup with Ohio Dominican.
Valentine, who also coaches the women’s program, led the men’s roster to a 9-0-0 regular season with an 8-0-0 run through the conference schedule. It is a tough conference standings to navigate given four programs from 2019 from the Great Midwest were NCAA Championship qualifiers.
Great Midwest Freshman of the Year honors went to Walsh rookie forward Patrick O’Halloran. The talented striker was fourth in the conference in points with 16 and helped the Cavaliers to the conference tournament bracket. O’Halloran was also a second team all-conference selection by the league’s coaches, a very impressive feat in his first season given the depth at the position. He tallied seven goals and a pair of assists.
Great Midwest Defensive Player of the Year honors went to Lake Erie sophomore Ben Wiemann, a 6-4 200 lb. force who transferred in from UMass. He was part of a defense that recorded three shutouts and he started nine of the team’s 10 games this spring season. He was joined on the conference first team with dynamic playmaker Ayden Von Essen at the forward position and senior keeper Tom John.
The Elite 23 Award winner went to Kentucky Wesleyan’s senior Zach Akin, a History major with Secondary Education Certification. He has a 3.95 cumulative GPA and helped the Panthers into the conference tournament as the No. 7 seed. KWC's resurgence into the playoffs was affirmed with a pair of first team all-conference selections including forward Julian Gonzalez and keeper Lucas Daunhauer as both were conference players of the week at some point this season.
Cedarville had three standouts on the first team with seasoned veterans Sammy Kilimann, Pedro Alvares and Jonny Stephens, all voted high by the coaches at their respective positions.
The conference tournament semifinals will take place at noon ET and 2:30 p.m. ET on Thursday afternoon. The championship game will be played on Saturday with a projected noon ET start time from Panther Stadium.