Horizon League announces men's soccer All-League teams and specialty award winners

Oct. 25, 2006

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Indianapolis, Ind. -- Senior forward Tonci Skroce of the University of Illinois at Chicago garnered the Horizon League's 2006 men's soccer Player of the Year honor in voting by the League's eight head coaches Wednesday (Oct. 25). Skroce's mentor, John Trask, received Coach of the Year recognition, while Wright State University freshman forward Braden Fleak claimed Newcomer of the Year accolades.

The rest of the individual specialty awards were spread among three different schools. University of Wisconsin-Green Bay senior forward Joshua Okoampa was named the Offensive Player of the Year, with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee senior defender Billy Meier winning Defensive Player of the Year recognition and UIC freshman Jovan Bubonja grabbing Goalkeeper of the Year honors.

Skroce paced the Flames to their first regular-season League title in six years, topping the team charts with seven goals, six assist and 20 points. He leads the League with five match-winning goals, matching his total from last season. Skroce has been instrumental in the Flames' run to the national top-25 polls, hitting the net to defeat perennial national power Saint Louis University in the season opener. The Flames enter this week's League Championship with a 12-2-3 overall record and No. 13 standing on last week's Soccer America charts.

UIC reached as high as No. 7 in the Soccer America rankings, with Trask directing the Flames to a 5-1-1 League ledger. The Flames' dozen victories are the most by a UIC team since 2000 when the school won its second consecutive League crown.

Fleak is tied for the League lead with 13 goals and ranks second with 29 points this season. That total also ranks second in the nation among freshmen, and he stands 18th among all Division I players with a rate of 1.71 points per match. Fleak's four match-winners trail only Skroce on the League charts in that category.

Okoampa's League-leading 32 points (13 goals and six assists) puts him fifth in the nation with an average of 2.00 points per contest. The senior leads the Phoenix attack which rates among the most prolific in all of Division I. UW-Green Bay has scored a League-high 31 goals in 2006 as the Phoenix compiled an 11-5-0 record (5-2-0 in the League) during the regular season.

Meier played a key role in UWM's late-season resurgence, helping the Panthers to a 4-2-1 League mark and the third seed in the League Championship. UWM is unbeaten in its last six matches, entering the loop summit at .500 (8-8-2) for the first time since early September. With the senior in the line-up, the Panthers have won four matches in a row, allowing only one goal in that span.

Bubonja ranks fourth in the nation with a microscopic 0.41 goals-against average as the backstop to the League's stingiest defense. The redshirt freshman allowed only seven goals in 1541 minutes during the regular season and has set a UIC one-year standard with his eight solo shutouts (plus two shared clean sheets). UIC has not yielded more than one goal in any match this year.

The five individual award winners comprise nearly half of the First-Team All-League team, with Okoampa landing on the circuit's top team for the third year in a row. UIC junior midfielder Pavle Dundjer also gained his third consecutive First-Team award following a seven-goal campaign that included both goals in the Flames' 2-0 victory over UW-Green Bay on Sunday (Oct. 22) in the regular-season showdown between the top two teams in the standings.

Two other players became repeat First-Team selections, with University of Detroit Mercy senior defender Jason Massoglia and Loyola University Chicago junior midfielder Keum Sung Kim also honored for the second year in a row. Massoglia has scored six goals and set up four other strikes while also serving as the veteran anchor on the Titan defense. His team-high 16 points are tied for fourth place on the League scoring charts. Kim, the League's Newcomer of the Year in 2005, currently shares second place in the League with six assists.

The rest of the First-Team All-League unit includes Butler University senior forward John DeVae, along with Loyola junior defender Iradj Farahmand and UIC senior defender Derek Kosek. DeVae has scored six goals and 13 points, with nearly all of that production coming in seven League matches. He had the lone goal in BU's 1-0 victory over UIC, the Flames' lone loop loss this fall. Farahmand moved up from his Second-Team showing in 2005 after bolstering the Rambler defense which registered eight shutouts on the way to a 9-7-1 overall record and the fourth seed in the League Championship.

UIC had four First-Team selections, with two other Flame starters---senior forward Eric Cervantes and junior midfielder Cesar Zambrano---earning Second-Team status. UW-Milwaukee led the way with three players on the second unit, with senior forward Steve Sperl joining junior defender Steve Bode and senior backliner Craig Mallace on that list. UW-Green Bay teammates Tosaint Ricketts and Dan O'Brien also drew Second-Team acclaim, along with the Loyola tandem of senior forward Matt Marek and senior goalkeeper Sean Bond, Detroit senior midfielder Vahid Assadpour and Cleveland State University freshman forward George Kephart.

Fleak headlines an All-Newcomer Team which also features three Cleveland State representatives in Kephart plus freshman midfielders Marco DiFranco and Josh Williams. UIC claimed three All-Newcomer selections, as well, with Bubonja joined by frosh midfielder Baggio Husidic and sophomore defender Mike Giffin. The Loyola tandem of freshman forward Michael Ferguson and freshman midfielder Alex Jones also landed on the All-Newcomer squad, along with UW-Green Bay teammates O'Brien and freshman midfielder David Znaty.

The League Championship begins Saturday (Oct. 28) with quarterfinal action at campus sites. The highest remaining seed earns the right to host the remainder of the tournament, with semifinals scheduled for Friday, Nov. 3, and the League's automatic entry into the NCAA Tournament on the line in the (Sunday, Nov. 5) League title tilt.

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2006 Horizon League Men's Soccer Award Winners

All-League First Team:
Name, School -- Yr. -- Pos. -- Hometown
John DeVae, Butler-# -- Sr.-- F-- Elmhurst, Ill.
Braden Fleak, Wright State-- Fr.-- F-- Sanbury, Ohio
Joshua Okoampa, UW-Green Bay-* %-- Sr.-- F-- Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Tonci Skroce, UIC-*-- Sr. -- F-- Zadar, Croatia
Pavle Dundjer, UIC-* %-- Jr.- M-- Becmen, Belgrade
Keum Sung Kim, Loyola -*-- Jr.-- M-- Arlington Heights, Ill.
Iradj Farahmand, Loyola-#-- Jr.-- D-- Northbrook, Ill.
Derek Kosek, UIC-- Sr.-- D-- Batavia, Ill.
Jason Massoglia, Detroit-*-- Sr.-- D-- Troy, Mich.
Billy Meier, UW-Milwaukee-#-- Sr.-- D-- Racine, Wis.
Jovan Bubonja, UIC-- Fr.-- GK-- Belgrade, Serbia

All-League Second Team:
Name, School -- Yr. -- Pos. -- Hometown
Eric Cervantes, UIC-- Sr.-- F-- Hoffman Estates, Ill.
George Kephart, Cleveland State-- Fr.-- F-- Parma, Ohio
Matt Marek, Loyola-- Sr.-- F-- Fox River Grove, Ill.
Tosaint Ricketts, UW-Green Bay-- So.-- F-- Edmonton, Alberta
Steve Sperl, UW-Milwaukee-- Sr.-- F-- Wauwatosa, Wis.
Vahid Assadpour, Detroit-- Sr.-- MRichmond Hill, Ontario
Dan O'Brien, UW-Green Bay-- Jr.-- MShoreview, Minn.
Cesar Zambrano, UIC-*-- Jr.-- M-- Chicago, Ill.
Steve Bode, UW-Milwaukee-*-- Jr.-- DMilwaukee, Wis.
Craig Mallace, UW-Milwaukee-#-- Sr.-- DTorpichen, Scotland
Sean Bond, Loyola-- Sr.-- GK-- Dallas, Texas

All-Newcomer Team:
Name, School -- Yr. -- Pos. -- Hometown
Michael Ferguson, Loyola-- Fr.-- F-- Overland Park, Kan.
Braden Fleak, Wright State-- Fr.-- F-- Sanbury, Ohio
George Kephart, Cleveland State-- Fr.-- F-- Parma, Ohio
Marco DiFranco, Cleveland State-- Fr.-- M-- Chesterland, Ohio
Baggio Husidic, UIC-- Fr.-- M-- Libertyville, Ill.
Alex Jones, Loyola-- Fr.-- M-- Downers Grove, Ill.
Dan O'Brien, UW-Green Bay-- Jr.-- M-- Shoreview, Minn.
Josh Williams, Cleveland State-- Fr.-- M-- Copley, Ohio
David Znaty, UW-Green Bay-- Fr.-- M-- Hadera, Israel
Mike Giffin, UIC-- So.-- D-- St. Charles, Ill.
Jovan Bubonja, UIC-- Fr.-- GK-- Belgrade, Serbia

Player of the Year:Tonci Skroce, UIC
Offensive Player of the Year:Joshua Okoampa, UW-Green Bay
Defensive Player of the Year:Billy Meier, UW-Milwaukee
Goalkeeper of the Year:Jovan Bubonja, UIC
Newcomer of the Year:Braden Fleak, Wright State
Coach of the Year:John Trask, UIC

* -- First-Team All-League in 2005
# -- Second-Team All-League in 2005
% -- First-Team All-League in 2004

Comprised of nine public and private institutions of higher learning, the Horizon League is an NCAA Division I athletics conference that sponsors 19 intercollegiate championship sports and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. The League and its member institutions aspire to teach young people, through athletic competition, the value of learning, service to others and personal responsibility.