Men's Soccer | 11/10/2021 1:55:43 PM
The Empire 8 Conference announced its 2021 Men’s Soccer All-Conference awards on Wednesday, Nov. 10. The awards are voted on by the league's head coaches.
Junior midfielder Sory Konate of Utica College was named the 2021 Player of the Year. Konate tallied 12 of his 14 points in eight league games for the Pioneers this season. He led a Utica team that earned the No. 3 seed in the 2021 Empire 8 Championship Tournament.
Riley Rease of St. John Fisher College was named Empire 8 Rookie of the Year. Rease, a forward, appeared in 16 games for the Cardinals in 2021 and tallied 22 points on 10 goals and a pair of assists. Rease, who was named Empire 8 Player of the Week on Sept. 27, averaged a league-best 2.00 points per game and tied for the lead with six goals in conference play.
Freshman Logan Menna of Nazareth College was named the Goalkeeper of the Year. Menna led all Empire 8 goalkeepers with a 0.57 goals against average and an .883 save percentage to go along with seven solo shutouts and two shared clean sheets. He had a .915 save percentage in league play. Menna was a three-time E8 Defensive Player of the Week.
Tantalo was named the Doug May Coach of the Year after leading the Golden Flyers to an unbeaten regular season in league play and the 2021 Empire 8 Championship. It was the Golden Flyers’ second Empire 8 title in the last three seasons. Nazareth enters the 2021 NCAA Tournament with a 13-1-3 overall record and is riding a 14-game unbeaten streak (12-0-2). Tantalo played for May at former Empire 8 institution RIT in the mid 1990s and later served as an assistant coach under him at Nazareth in the early 2000s. It is Tantalo’s third Coach of the Year honor in the last five seasons.
The coaching award is named after May, who coached RIT from 1980 to 1996 and Nazareth from 1997 to 2003 before passing away in April 2004.
Nazareth had a league-high five first team members, while a trio of Houghton College student-athletes were honored. Utica and St. John Fisher each had two first team selections. Overall, seven Nazareth student-athletes earned All-E8 honors, while St. John Fisher had six and Utica, five. Konate, Justin Bonetto of St. John Fisher, Julius Klohr of Houghton and Cooper LaValley of Nazareth, garnered their second consecutive All-E8 first team pick.
One member of each team was named that institution's representative on the 2021 E8 Men's Soccer Sportsman of the Year Team. The Empire 8 Conference emphasizes that "Competing with Honor and Integrity" is an essential component of a student-athlete's experience in conjunction with an institution's educational mission. These honorees have distinguished themselves and consistently exhibit the critical traits as outstanding sportsmen.
2021 Empire 8 Men’s Soccer All-Conference Selections
Player of the Year: Sory Konate, Jr., M, Utica
Goalkeeper of the Year: Logan Menna, Fr., GK, Nazareth
Rookie of the Year: Riley Rease, Fr., F, St. John Fisher
Doug May Coach of the Year: Matt Tantalo, Nazareth
Empire 8 First Team
Drew Decker, Fr., F, Nazareth
Julius Klohr, Gr., F, Houghton
Cooper LaValley, So., F, Nazareth
Riley Rease, Fr., F, St. John Fisher
Andy Loomis, So., M, Houghton
Jake Pawlika, Fr., M, Nazareth
Justin Bonetto, Sr., M, St. John Fisher
Sory Konate, Jr., M, Utica
Brice Bogna, Sr., D, Houghton
Andrew Vogler, Jr., D, Nazareth
Colin McCarthy, Sr., D, Utica
Logan Menna, Fr., GK, Nazareth
Empire 8 Second Team
Lutho Mlunguza, Jr., F, Elmira
Jeaneste Pierre, Sr., F, Russell Sage
Ramazani Juma, Sr., F, Utica
Jimmy Noel, Sr., M, Hartwick
Christian Vaalstuen, Sr., M, Russell Sage
Cody Baker-Green, So., M, Utica
Oscar Palacios, So., D, Houghton
Ryan Brown, So., D, St. John Fisher
Jacob Sherline, Fr., D, Utica
Jadon Schlierf, So., GK, St. John Fisher
Empire 8 Third Team
Gavin Wise, Sr., F, Elmira
Joey Bertone, Jr., F, Hartwick
Jackson Bishop, So., F, St. John Fisher
Moustapha Camara, Jr., M, Elmira
Jim Mahony, So., M, Hartwick
Matt Gentile, So., M, St. John Fisher
Jason Breznak, Jr., M, Russell Sage
Junior Coulibaly, Sr., D, Elmira
Benjamin McKeown, Gr., D, Keuka
Owen Brignati, Fr., D, Nazareth
Alexander Gent, Fr., D, Nazareth
Foti Xidias, So., GK Utica
Empire 8 Sportsman of the Year
Clancy Dunn, So., D, Alfred
Junior Coulibaly, Sr., D, Elmira
Diego Espinola, Sr., M, Hartwick
Levi Webb, So., D, Houghton
Ibrahim Daraja, Sr., D, Keuka
Colin Brickwood, Sr., F, Nazareth
Mike Considine, Gr., M/D, Russell Sage
Antonio Buonomo, Sr., D, St. John Fisher
Jahren James, Sr., D, Utica
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
www.empire8.com.
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