OKLAHOMA CITY - The Sooner Athletic Conference has announced the 2018 All-Conference awards for men's soccer, and for the second year in a row, the Evangels earned one of the superlative awards.
Rai Ramus was named the SAC Newcomer of the Year as his scoring efforts led the Evangels to their second straight 10-win season, and three of his teammates earned spots on either the first or second team lists.
Ramus, a 6-0 junior forward from London, England, led the Evangels in scoring for the season, racking up eight goals and seven asists for a total of 23 points. He scored a pair of goals in a game twice during the season, and he had assists on the game winning goals for MACU in both 2-0 win over Oklahoma City University in the SAC quarterfinal, and in the 2-1 win over #13 Wayland Baptist University in the SAC semifinal.
Joining Ramus among the honorees were three from the core of the Evangels' defense. Junior defender Djibril Fofana was MACU's lone representative on the All-SAC First Team. He appeared in 13 matches, and in those 13 contests, MACU went 9-3-1 and surrendered only 14 goals and posted five clean sheets. Fofana also added two goals on the season, and he scored one of the penalties in the shootout that helped MACU claim the SAC tournament title.
Simon Wieschemann and Liam Ward each earned a spot on the Second Team All-SAC list. Wieschemann, a 6-1 sophomore from Frankfurt, Germany, has anchored the Evangels' back line in every match of his MACU career. He has started all 18 matches for the Evangels this season - after he started all 23 as a freshman in 2017 - and he added an assist on the game winning goal in the Evangels' SAC quarterfinal win at Oklahoma City. Ward, a 6-0 sophomore from Aldershot, England, posted an 8-5 record in goal this season for MACU with a 1.39 Goals Against Average and five shutouts. Ward also entered the goal for the shootout in the SAC championship match with no warmup after spending the match on the sidelines, and he made the key save on the second penalty kick taken by the University of Science & Arts.
