OKLAHOMA CITY – Coming off its second straight Sooner Athletic Conference regular season title, the No. 2 MACU men's soccer team dominated the All-SAC honors released on Tuesday.
Senior defender Mason Gonzalez was selected as the league's Player of the Year, Danny Frid was tabbed the Coach of the Year for a second time, Jeremi Abonnel earned his second straight Goalkeeper of the Year, Ricardo Sepulveda garnered Defensive Player of the Year and Diego Real was named the Freshman of the Year while overall, eight Evangels were selected to the 14-player First Team.
A player who made incredible contributions on both ends of the field, Gonzalez finished third on the team in goal scoring with six goals and dished out an assist for 13 points while half of his goals scored were game-winners. The defensive winger and forward was the only player in the SAC to receive both an offensive and defensive player of the week award.
Gonzalez scored a pair of goals in a 3-0 win over a very strong Baker (Kan.) program on Sept. 10, but his most crucial performance came against Southwestern Christian on Oct. 25. Already with a goal, Gonzalez came up with one of the biggest scores of his career in the 81st minute when he headed in the game-winner off a short corner to lead MACU to a 3-2 victory and lock up the program's second SAC regular season title.
Once again leading the Evangels to one of their best seasons in program history, Frid selected by his peers as the league's Coach of the Year in just his second year at the helm. MACU once again went undefeated in Sooner Athletic Conference play, going 7-0-2 while wrapping up the regular season with a 14-1-2 overall record.
Being selected as the league's Freshman of the Year, Real's ball-handling and passing skills wowed the SAC competition. Real entered postseason play with the team's lead and the league's second-most assists with nine while adding a goal to his docket. Real currently ranks fourth on MACU's NAIA Era single-season assists list, sitting just three behind Cesar Ramirez (2021) for the program's all-time record.
Following up three-time SAC Defensive Player of the Year in Dejue Johnson, Sepulveda was an incoming center-back that locked up the MACU defense. During the 2022 season, the Evangels defense had only conceded seven goals in 17 regular season games, which included a stretch of eight games where the Evangels did not concede a single goal. Sepulveda has been a consistent presence in MACU's back field as he has logged the most minutes (1482) of any of the team's position players.
Tabbed as the conference's Goalkeeper of the Year for the second consecutive year, Abonnel put up incredible numbers as the team's primary stopper, tallying a league-low 0.46 goals allowed average and has made 40 saves for an .833 save percentage. Abonnel has also notched 11 shutouts, being only the second MACU keeper to log double-digit shutouts in a season and is currently just two back of the program record.
On-top of Gonzalez, Real, Sepulveda and Abonnel being selected to the All-SAC First Team, MACU's top strikers Rodrigo Albuquerque and Ricardo Sepulveda, midfielder Rodrigo Ferreira and defender Kareem Williams were all tabbed to the First Team as well.
Albuquerque has put together a highly decorated four-year career with the Evangels. The 2021 SAC Player of the Year has turned in a fourth-straight campaign with double-digit goals, netting a team-high 11 goals to go with four assists for a team-best 26 points. Albuquerque owns nearly every offensive record in MACU's record book, which includes scoring 58 goals over his four seasons with the team.
In just his second year with the squad, Ricardo Ferreira has shown that he is on-pace to become one of the best goal-scorers in the history of the program. After scoring seven goals a season ago, Ferreira has netted 10 goals during the 2022 season and has also dished out three assists for the second-most points on the team with 23. Ferreira is the team's leader in game-winning goals this season with the fifth-most game-winners in a single-season with four on the year.
A lockdown player both offensively and defensively, Rodrigo Ferreira has been a consistent and stable presence in the MACU midfield. In his second year with the team, Ferreira has tallied a pair of assists and netted a goal in a 3-0 win over Central Christian on Oct. 1.
Rounding out the honorees, Williams has been an incredibly athletic presence for the Evangels out of the center-back and wing positions. Playing the second-most minutes on the team with 1447, Williams has also tallied a pair of goals on the season with scores against McPherson and Southwestern Assemblies of God.
Mid-America Christian is currently in the midst of Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament play and after picking up a 4-1 quarterfinal win against Wayland Baptist, the top-seeded Evangels will be facing off against No. 4 seed John Brown tonight at 5 p.m. at the Dill Soccer Field in the SAC Semifinal.
