Men's Soccer Sweeps NECC Weekly Awards
BENNINGTON, Vt.- The Southern Vermont College Men’s Soccer team not only sits atop of the New England Collegiate Conference standings, after Sunday’s win; two of its players were honored by the conference as player and rookie of the week. Senior forward Nick Haggerty was honored as Player of the Week for the second time in as many weeks by the NECC. Also, earning honors for Southern Vermont was freshman midfielder Erik Argueta.
Haggerty scored twice in the Men’s Soccer 3-2 win over Mitchell College Sunday afternoon. Haggerty scored the first goal of the match twenty five minutes in, when he finished off a Chris Hansen pass. The goal was Haggerty’s 100th point in his illustrious SVC career. Haggerty is only the second Southern Vermont Men’s soccer player to ever achieve the feat.
“It’s a deserved milestone for Nick to reach after what has been and continues to be a fantastic career. The fact it happened against a conference opponent speaks volumes of the type of player he is. He scores in big situations and at big moments. He is a threat to any defense we play against,” said SVC Head Coach Tim Penrod.
Haggerty scored the game winner in the 56th minute when Hansen played a ball to Pierre Massena who laid a ball off to Haggerty who scored his team leading eighth of the season.
“We had good movement off the ball, which created a lot of our scoring opportunities,” said Haggerty. Chris played a great ball to me on the first goal, and on the second he started the play by sending a good ball to Pierre.”
Erik Argueta earned NECC Rookie of the Week, as he scored the only other SVC goal in Sunday’s match. Argueta was fouled in the box at the 30:49 mark in the first half, when SVC was awarded a penalty kick. Argueta stepped up and finished the PK home for a 2-0 SVC lead.
“He definitely earned the honor of being named rookie of the week,” said the captain Haggerty. “He was a major reason for our success yesterday.”
Penrod echoed his captain’s word by saying, “Erik’s performances all year have been outstanding. He doesn’t play like a freshman, he is very good on the ball, he sets teammates up for success, and he was in a good position yesterday and then stepped up and finished the PK. Without him on the field yesterday we wouldn’t have been as successful as we were.”
Southern Vermont is 2-0 in the NECC and 5-3 overall. The Mountaineers will travel to SUNY Cobleskill tomorrow for a 4:00PM start. Saturday SVC will face off with Daniel Webster in a re-match of last year’s NECC championship game, at 2:00PM.
