WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Brothers Emmanuel Agyemang (East Hartford) and Patrick Agyemang (East Hartford) have been named Little East Conference men's soccer Defensive and Offensive Player-of-the-Year, respectively, and are among six Eastern Connecticut State University all-conference selections in the season-ending awards program, released today.
Last year's LEC Rookie-of-the-Year, Patrick repeated as first-team all-conference forward and Emmanuel, a first-year junior transfer, was named to the first team on defense. They were joined by second-team midfielders Justin Jensen (Wethersfield), Will Toomey (Willington) and Andrés Mayuri (West Hartford) and second-team defender Brendan D'Arcy (West Hartford) from Eastern. Jensen is a senior, D'Arcy a junior, Toomey a sophomore and Mayuri a freshman.
Since the LEC Player-of-the-Year was divided into offensive and defensive categories in 2002, Eastern is the only program to have both of those major award-winners in the same year, following Defensive Player-of-the-Year Bradley Fletcher and Offensive Player-of-the-Year Matt Furman in 2012.
Eastern has now had 16 Player-of-the-Year selections since 1991, ten of them defensive, four of them offensive and two of them overall Player-of-the-Year picks.
Along with Patrick, Jensen repeated as a first-team All-LEC selection and D'Arcy and Toomey were voted to the second team for the second straight season.
Patrick is ranked among the national leaders with a conference-leading 21 goals and 49 points. His goal total is the fifth-highest in a season in program history – highest since 1987, and his point total equaled the sixth-highest in program history. In eight LEC games, Patrick totaled 11 goals and two assists, with four of his season total of six game-winning goals occurring in the conference. During the year, Patrick recorded three hat tricks and two two-goal games.
A first-year transfer from Springfield College, Emmanuel anchored the top defensive team in the conference. Emmanuel started all 20 matches and led the team with an average of 83.1 minutes played. He also scored six goals (one six penalty kick attempts) and added an assist. Behind Emmanuel, the Warriors shared the LEC lead by allowing only seven goals and posting four shutouts in eight LEC regular-season matches. By allowing only 14 goals in 20 matches, Eastern was ranked second in the conference and the Warriors also shared the LEC lead with 11 overall shutouts.
Eastern's ability to control the midfield this year was reflected in its three all-conference midfield selections, who combined for 23 of the team's 67 assists (which rank in a tie for third nationally).
Jensen was one of four field players to start every match, averaging 51.4 minutes and sharing the team lead with Mayuri with eight assists (third-best in the LEC). Jensen scored all three of his goals and contributed two assists in conference matches, his game-winner coming in a 1-0 win at Western Connecticut Oct. 16.
Mayuri started 14 of the 19 matches in which he appeared, averaging 66.7 minutes, and leading all freshmen in the LEC in assists and points (24). In eight LEC matches, he had a team-high five assists to go along with three goals. Three of his eight goals this year were game-winners.
Toomey started all 18 matches in which he appeared – missing two with injury – and averaging 78.6 minutes. Toomey shared third place on the team with seven assists and totaled 15 points. In seven LEC games, he averaged 84.9 minutes.
D'Arcy, who missed five matches with two significant injuries, started 14 of the 15 matches in which he appeared, averaging 75.5 minutes. Like Emmanuel, he played a leading role in the team featuring one of the top defenses in the conference.
During the season, Emmanuel was singled out as Defensive Player-of-the-Week three times, and Patrick as Offensive Player-of-the-Week twice. Mayuri was named Rookie-of-the-Week once -- on the opening week of the year -- and D'Arcy was selected as top defensive player in Week No. 2.
Eastern (17-3-0, 7-1-0 LEC) won its second straight outright regular-season LEC title this year and has won or shared eight regular-season championships in 13 years under head coach Greg DeVito. The Warriors advanced to the playoff title game for the sixth time, with the five-time champions losing, 1-0, to Keene State College.
The 12-player first team, 14-player second team and four major award-winners were voted upon by the conference's nine head coaches. Eastern, Western Connecticut and University of Massachusetts Boston all had six all-conference selections.
Earning the remaining two major awards were Franz Muhaj of Western Connecticut as Rookie-of-the-Year, and Rhode Island College as Coaching Staff-of-the-Year.
