Marist men’s soccer freshman Allen Gavilanes (North Plainfield, NJ/St Benedict’s Prep) was named the 2017 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men’s soccer Offensive Player of the Year as well as the MAAC Rookie of the Year as voted by the league’s 11 head coaches and announced during the conference’s post season awards show held recently.
The accolades mark the first two major awards of Gavilanes’ career, mark the first time since 2003 that the same player was named MAAC Offensive Player of the Year and MAAC Rookie of the Year in the same season (Omar Alfonso, Loyola (MD), 2003) and is the second consecutive Offensive Player of the Year Award for the Red Foxes (Cameron Harr, 2016).
In addition to winning the two major awards, he was also a unanimous selection to the All-MAAC First Team and All-MAAC Rookie Team, the only unanimous selection on the First Team and one of only two unanimous selections on the All-Rookie Team.
Along with Gavilanes’ awards, 10 Red Foxes were also named to the MAAC All-Academic Team, the most of any school in the conference. To be eligible for the MAAC All-Academic team, a student-athlete must have completed two semesters at their institution and hold a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a 4.0 scale.
