North Greenville soccer teams honor seniors’ achievements and commitment
Posted by The Skyliner on November 4th, 2009Paul Conner
Sports Editor
Juan Carlos Aguilera is one of eight seniors graduating from North Greenville soccer. (Photo by Cory Guinn)
The North Greenville men’s and women’s soccer programs each honored four senior players Saturday on Senior Night. The men’s team said goodbye to Max Duarte, Seth Snyder, Juan Carlos Aguilera and Manuel Izquierdo who officially played their final home game at Pepsi Stadium yesterday against Emmanuel.
Duarte is North Greenville’s all-time assist leader with 23 assists and has also scored 15 goals in his career. The midfielder from Porto Alegre, Brazil, has directed the Crusader offense for the past four years, holding the ball and distributing it to the forwards.
“I think my role on this team has been to encourage guys and to lead by example,” Duarte said. “Being nice to the freshmen and making sure everyone is friendly is important. If we don’t have a good group, everyone can’t play their best. I think we have good team unity this year.”
Snyder is the all-time leading goal-scorer at North Greenville with 23 goals and has 11 assists. He has also captained the team for the last two years. Snyder spent much of the 2008 season hampered by injury; otherwise his goal total might have been even higher.
Aguilera, a Mexico City native, has 10 goals and seven assists in his three-year career as a Crusader. Izquierdo has notched five goals for North Greenville in his career.
“It’s going to be tough losing the seniors that we have,” North Greenville coach Chad Gfeller said. “They’ve been keys to how we attack the goal, and they’ve all been involved in our attack. I’m not looking forward to figuring out what we are going to do next year.”
“They’ve all been awesome leaders,” Gfeller said. “The reason that we’ve been pretty successful this year is because of our senior class and the leadership they have given our guys.”
The Lady Crusaders wished farewell to Jessica Binkley, Kaeleigh Meara, Beth Morgan and Danielle Duff.
Duff notched 20 goals and 11 assists in her four-year career from the forward position. Morgan, an Asheville, N.C., native, has scored nine goals and added six assists as an outside midfielder and a forward and has also served as the team’s chaplain. North Greenville coach Jesse McCormick noted Morgan as “a leader on and off the field.”
“It’s great to have a class like this that has come out and worked hard every game,” McCormick said. “They’ve all been her for four years, and we’re going to miss them. We wanted to take time to honor them and thank them for their hard work.”
Binkley, the starting goalkeeper for the last four years, has played 55 games and has recorded 20 shutouts and 289 saves in her career. Meara has scored six goals and has notched three assists from the midfield position.
Tags: Fall 2009, Vol. 109 - Issue 8