Men’s soccer earns multiple conference recognitions

The team secured the conference championship on Sunday giving them a bid to the NCAA tournament. Photo from The Panther Archives.

The men’s soccer team is into the postseason, but the squad ended the regular season with multiple conference recognitions. 

Aidan Wall, a senior business administration major, was named as the Offensive Athlete of the Year.

Three of his teammates joined Wall in being named to the All-SCIAC First team: Tobi Howe, a business administration and economics major, and Chandler Siemonsa, a health sciences major, both seniors, and sophomore electrical engineering major Jackson Busby. 

Head coach Eddie Carrillo and his assistants Romeo Aguinaldo and Jose Vasquez were also awarded Coaching Staff of the Year by the conference. 

Carrillo spoke with The Panther about the team’s success, his game plan and what it meant to also be the top seed in the conference tournament.

“We've chatted about it for a long time,” Carrillo said in reference to being named the first seed in the conference tournament. “We've only been in the conference for 10 years. So I think it's a big deal for us to be home.”

Given that the team is the top seed, it gives the Panthers the advantage of playing on their home field, Carrillo said. 

“The opponents you know, their fields are different from our fields,” Carrillo said. “So it's to our advantage to be home and play on our big field. It makes a big difference for us. The boys earned a right to be at home. They can play in front of their friends and family.” 

Carrillo credits the team success to having depth and the team working well together.

“We got a lot of good players,” Carrillo said. “(We have) a lot of good players and a lot of depth. They work well together. They truly are a family.”

Some of those top players are Howe and Wall. Carrillo spoke to both of their commitments. 

“Both those guys came back for their fifth year,” Carrillo said. “They didn't take off and they made a huge commitment to just still be part of the program. They both had very good years last year. The pressure is on them and for them to have success, even though there's a lot of pressure on them, is great.”

Carrillo also spoke specifically about each player and their attributes. 

“Aidan scores goals, and he's a very good player and very smart player,” Carrillo said. “Tobi's had the best year he's ever had. He's just doing so many things well this year. I'm very proud of both of them.”

In terms of the game plan, Carrillo hopes that the team keeps doing what works and stays healthy. 

“The game plan is to just keep doing what we've been doing all year,” Carrillo said. “You know we've been healthy, it's hard to beat our lineup and our depth. Play good defense and then we got a lot of guys to score goals and take advantage of opportunities. We're fairly healthy right now and we're in good shape.”

Their game plan paid off as the Panthers secured the conference championship on Sunday giving them a bid to the NCAA tournament.